Radio Broadcast Tuesday 09/27/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P05 (09-27-22)

Enter Into The Sabbath Rest Today ~ Enter Into The New Covenant

~ God never intended for you to live in the desert or as a slave in Egypt for that matter. Jesus made a New Covenant with you. Enter into that new covenant today. Only you know if you are resting from your works or not. Only you know if you are resting in His forgiveness or not. Only you can answer the question of what do you do when you sin? Do you try and get more forgiveness by God or are you thanking Him for the forgiveness that you already have? God wants you to enter into the Sabbath rest today. Rest from you trying to keep yourself righteous before God. Rest in Him and what He did on the cross for You! REST!

Listen in to today’s lesson with more in-depth teaching, from the Bible study booklet, A Closer Look at Law & Grace, available for purchase from our online Bob George Ministries ecommerce store.

Jesus asked how does God love and accept us? And how does he expect us to live the Christian life? To answer those questions, this insightful study explores a vital issue at the heart of the Christian experience, the biblical relationship between law and grace, understanding their role in our relationship to God will bring joy, freedom and spontaneity to your Christian life. Now, let’s take A Closer Look at Law & Grace.

Bob George 0:38
And, folks, as we have mentioned so many times before, as far as the Christian life falling together for you, it is impossible for that to occur without your having an understanding of law and grace, there is no way for you to understand the Christian life and what it is to walk in the newness of life under the grace of God if you do not understand the contrast to that, of what it was to walk under the law. And then as the average Christian today is walking in both of those areas, in other words, one foot in the law and one foot in grace. And as we discussed last week, the Bible calls that double mindedness, that a double minded man is unstable in all ways. And a double minded man is one that again, has one foot in the law, and one foot in grace, and he’s trying to walk down the street straddle legged, and it does not work, folks. And so we must come to the understanding sooner or later as to what the purpose of the law was, so that you and I might have that unbelievable privilege of walking into that Sabbath rest that God has called us to. He never intended for a believer to remain in the desert. I do not believe that any person goes from lostness into the Promised Land, I think you go into the desert. And it’s in that desert, that you have to learn that that self sufficiency that you had before you were saved, you will also try to engage in after you’re saved. Until you see the futility of that the same way that you saw the futility of self effort in regard to being saved. You will also come to a point of seeing the futility of self effort after you’re saved.

So as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord by faith totally apart from works totally apart from self effort. It says so walk in him, totally apart from self effort, and totally apart from your works. You rest, you enter into ultimately you’re headed toward entering into what the Bible refers to as a Sabbath rest. It is not a day of the week. It is a total state of being, you enter into a rest whereby you are resting from your works, just like God rested from His works. Now folks, as I discussed these subjects, you don’t need someone to tell you or someone to counsel with you as to whether or not you are resting from your works. You know, whether you’re resting or whether you’re still at it. Only, you know, I can’t help you with that. You know whether or not you are still trying to keep yourself forgiven, or whether you are resting in the fact that you are forgiven, you know that you will know that by your own heart, you will know that by your own actions, you will know that by your response when you do sin to God, you will know that you will know whether you’re immediately trying to get yourself cleansed again, whether you’re trying to get yourself forgiven again, whether you’re sitting there beating yourself to death or whether you are resting in the fact that you have entered into a new covenant. You have agreed with God concerning his proposition to you, His new covenant with you, Bob, your sins and lawless acts, I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven. There’s no longer any sacrifice for sins. Do you believe that? You say Lord, yes, I do. And that’s my covenant with you. That’s my agreement with you. I gave that with an oath. I provided the ability to do that by sending my Son to die on a cross to take away the sins of the world not to cover them. The blood of bulls and goats could never truly take away the sins of a man. Only a man’s blood could take away the sins of a man and so God became A man and he dwelt among us as the only begotten Son of the Father full of grace and truth. And he walked on this earth for 33, some years that’s fulfilling the law by walking in perfect love, and then went to a cross to die on your behalf to uphold the law, and take upon himself the wages of sin, which is death. So that he could now raise from the dead, I usher in a brand new covenant that having been accomplished, now qualified him to usher in a new covenant. And in that new covenant, he said, Your sins and lawless acts, I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins. In other words, this new agreement, this new covenant that I want to make with you, and I’m speaking to you who was who are listening to me today on the air, I’m speaking to you, as if God was speaking to you don’t, don’t confuse what I’m saying there. God isn’t speaking to you, I’m with my, he may be using my voice. But I don’t, I’m not God. I’m just telling you what God said to you. And what God has said to you is this. I died on a cross took upon your sins, was raised from the dead so that I could make a new agreement with you. And that agreement is there’s no more sacrifice for sins, why isn’t there? because I’ve already sacrificed for your sins once and for all. And by that one offering and Hebrews 10:14, that one offering, I made forever perfect in my sight, you whom I also made holy, I’ve done it all. That’s my agreement with you.

Now, folks with any agreement with any covenant, and we’re not really used to covenants, today, we’re, we’re more used to business deals, or contracts. But a covenant is even greater than that, a covenant was something that normally was thought of as something that only went into effect as a result of an exchange of blood. And that’s why they were called Blood covenants, where people literally cut themselves and would exchange their own blood. That’d be very dangerous to do today. But it was called a blood covenant. Now a covenant was an offer, and an acceptance. The same is true today in a contract, there’s an offer, and there’s an acceptance. In most contracts, consideration needs to take place and consideration means an exchange of dollars for that contract. In other words, I’m going to make a contract to sell you a car, but I want a down payment. The mortgage company, I’m going to make a contract with you to loan you the money to buy your house, but a down payment is consideration. In other words, you are giving me $1,500, saying, I’m going to make this contract good. In other words, I’m borrowing the money from you with full intent of paying it back. And here’s consideration for that fact that I’m going to pay it back. That’s why you pay down payments, it’s consideration. Now, when the covenant was made, it was made with an oath. And it was made with an oath in such a way whereby there was nothing for the recipient of that contract to give. In other words, there was no consideration. It was all done by God. And he says, All I want you to do is to enter in and believe what I’ve said. But there’s an acceptance. And folks, you can roam in the desert for 40 years, or for the rest of your life and never enter into the promised land as a child of God. Why? Well as it says, Because of your unbelief.

There’s something there’s something in this covenant relationship that I think sometimes is so missed and Christianity that we, we have bought the cross. I mean, we really believe that Jesus died for our sins, but then we don’t believe He died for all of them. And there are many, many people what that what that means is that the that the day that I received Christ or the day I accepted His forgiveness, that he took away all of my sins from that day forth, but from now on, they’re up to me. And so with that kind of a theology, the best thing that ever happened to you is accept the Lord and then die. And and one of these four kids and receive the Lord at age five, they’re having to keep track of them for a long period of time if they lived, if they lived to be to a ripe old age. So the advantage is never accept the Lord too young. And then if you do, why, then die as soon as possible afterwards and then you’ll keep all your sins taken care of quite well. Well, Bob, that type of a mindset is, is because people do not understand the finality of the cross and certainly have never, in their own understanding, ever gone to the New Covenant to realize a new proposition, a new covenant relationship has been established between God and man.

Because of the cross, taking away the sins of the world, he not only died for our sins, but the sins of the whole world. Because of that being done by who did it, God himself taking upon himself, our humanity, Jesus Christ, those sins were able to be taken away forever. Having accomplished that fact for the whole world, he now is offering a new covenant, a new relationship that was given with an oath. And they only our part of it is to accept it. Walk into it, I’ve offered you the land, walk into it. I’ve offered you salvation, Believe on it. There’s no work connected with that. Unlike the old covenant, whereby these are the laws that you want it under this covenant. Now obey them. And if you do, there’ll be a byproduct to it, you will be blessed. Now that’s the law. And thank God, we’re not under that Old Covenant anymore because nobody can accomplish it. Righteousness, it says, If righteousness could be gained through obedience to the law, then Christ died for nothing. None are righteous, no, not one. And so the righteous requirements of the law would be that from the time you’re born to the time you die, if you violated the least of these my commandments, you violated all of them. Now, what does the world do? Well, we put numerical values on those sins and adultery gets you 20 points and stealing, get you 19. And then things like coveting and those kinds of things that nobody can see, they only get you two or three. And then we come up with, well, if I’ve done more good works, and I have bad works, why then it’ll overcome those things, folks, you’ve just ignored totally what God says the wages of sin is death. And if the least of these my commandments, you violated all of them, not that one, all of them. Because you may as well violate all of them with the wages of sin is death, then a little one cause death as much as a big one. So you may as well violated all of them. If the result is the same, it’s like jumping over a huge crevice of some kind, it doesn’t make any difference whether you miss it by two inches, the other side of the image, miss it by 20 feet, you’re gonna hit bottom, it just doesn’t make any difference. So you may as well have missed it by 20 feet as two inches, because you’re going to hit bottom one way or the other. And so folks, that’s the that’s the demands of the law. And that’s God’s law, and those are his demands concerning it. So he ushered in this New Covenant, he said, whereby your sins and lawless acts I’ll remember no more where these have been forgiven. There’s no longer any sacrifice for sins. And it says enter into that rest. Now, Bob, before the break, we were talking about that fact for me to enter into that rest. I know that I’m in that rest. I also knew when I wasn’t resting now, I didn’t realize what was my problem, because nobody had ever mentioned the new covenant to me before. But how exciting it is when you understand what the new covenant is.

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Bob George 13:54
How exciting it is that you realize that God has said, Look, I’ve now accomplished all of this for you at the cross. And now as a resurrected God as resurrected, I’m offering you now this brand new covenant. I’ve already done all this your sins, lawless acts, I don’t even remember anymore. They’ve already been taken care of. They’ve already been remembered. And there’s already been a verdict. It’s guilty and a punishment is death. And I took it all for you. There’s no more sacrifice for sins. It’s all been done. And then says, enter into that. Enter into that Sabbath rest. It’s the same thing we were talking about last week, that it’s the same verse, type of verse of scripture that God got the best news in the world for you God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself you unto Himself, not counting your sins against them. That’s the offer. And then what’s the acceptance? I beseech you on Christ’s behalf for his sake, be reconciled to God. There’s the acceptance there. The offer and the acceptance. So under the Old Covenant, there was also an offer and acceptance, here’s the offer. Here’s your command. If you keep them you’re going to prosper. And the response of the Hebrew was of Israel, we will do it. Well do it. You just watch us. And we will. We will do it now sincere, absolutely sincere, able to accomplish it. Not a bit, not a bit. No more than today in the Christian world can we live up to the righteous requirements of the law. And if you’re trying, it’s because you have never entered into the New Covenant, you may not have ever entered into the desert, you may still be in Egypt under the law. And folks, you know that you are listening to me right now know whether you are saved or whether you’re not saved, have you entered in by faith even into the desert, where you’re tired of the bondage and the slavery that you were under under the law where your life was so miserable, that you could not handle it anymore, and heard the voice of God walk through, walk through the Red Sea, that’s the picture, have it, go walk through, I’ve already opened up the waters for you Christ through His death, burial and resurrection has opened up the way for you and me to walk into salvation. And when your sight when and once you have entered into that desert of salvation, the water goes back behind you. So you can’t get over to the other side, thank God. And he had no opening that up anymore, because he’s already made his enemies his footstool. He’s already accomplished, what he wanted to accomplish with the enemies. So that’s already been done as well. So the waters closed behind you. So it isn’t the case, that wandering in the desert, that I’m going to go back to Egypt, you can’t go back to Egypt, you’ll sit there sometimes longing, thinking to yourself, I was happier back then than I am now. Because in many respects, you are happier as a slave than you were wandering around the desert chowing down on manna every day. And we have a tendency to also to forget don’t we how miserable that was. But you see, folks he never intended on keeping you in the desert. He said there’s there is a Sabbath rest. There’s a promised land there is a place called Cana where you’re going to be able to drink from wells that you didn’t dig And eat, eat from trees that you didn’t plant. It’s called the promised land. It’s called a Sabbath rest. And that appeal is apt to you enter in resting from your works just as he did from from his. Now again, I’m getting back to this folks, you know, whether you’re resting or whether you’re not resting,

if you are still trying, and you know for sure you’re saved. So you know you’re in the desert, but you feel like you’re in the desert. And like I said, Isn’t it amazing what we do with deserts we make Las Vegas is Tinseltown’s, you go out and like get Palm Springs hotter than blazes. But when I put nice places on it and tell everybody how nice it is. And we’ve done all kinds of things to make tinsel town in the desert. And that, quite frankly, is what Christianity is. And as a rule today, it’s just a bunch of neat looking spiritual casinos built in a desert, with a pecking order of leadership and people keeping people under bondage living in a desert. And God never intended you to live in a desert folks intended you to walk into the promised land, he intends you to walk enter into a rest, not bondage. You are in bondage in with Pharaoh. You’re now in bondage with your own people. Pharaoh was your enemy. These people should be your friends. And they too now have us in bondage. And so he says enter in, enter into this new life. Are you still working? To keep yourself forgiven? If you are you’ve never entered into the rest. You may be in the desert, or you may still be lost. I don’t know. But for one thing I do know you haven’t entered into the Sabbath rest yet. Mean you’re not saved? No doesn’t mean that just means you’re miserable as being saved. Are you still working at trying to be accepting to be accepted by God by what you do or what you don’t do? If you are you’re not resting from your works as he did from his. Are you still trying to gain brownie points in the eyes of God? In other words, I know people who are leaders have huge ministries that are absolutely have huge ministries in the desert. They’ve just I mean they’ve just prospered in that desert. But I know factually, they’ve never entered in to the Sabbath rest because they’re desperately working for rewards. And that’s why I’m working. So I’ll get rewards so that someday when I die, I’ll be a ruler over these all these saints someday. There’s no rest of that. No rest at all. People still trying to keep themselves forgiven through their first John one nine dedication to short accounts with God, confession booth, days of atonement. They’re all the same, just just different formats, all the same heart is all the same, I need to go get forgiven. It doesn’t matter where I need to go get forgiven at a Day of Atonement. I don’t or whether I go need to go get forgiven at a confession booth. Or whether I need to go get forgiven at an altar call. Or whether I could just stay at home don’t need to go to the altar. That’s some real freedom. I can do it right here. God just first John one nine right here. It doesn’t make any difference, folks, all of those are the same. I’m still working to get myself forgiven. Instead of entering into a new covenant where you are forgiven your sins and lawless acts, I will remember no more. And were these are forgiven. There’s no longer any sacrifice for sins. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness, there’s no more shedding of blood, there’s no more sacrifice. So either keep trying in the desert, or enter in to this Sabbath rest, and rest from your works just as I rested from mine.

You know, folks, that rest still stands. And that is the offer that is still out to each and every one of us that that Sabbath rest still stands and it says, I just did I warn you don’t fail to enter into that thing. And in other words, why would you want to roam in the desert, for the rest of your life playing church in the desert, instead of enjoying the benefits of the life that is available to you in Christ Jesus, and folks that isn’t a life of prosperity and a life of never being sick and all that stuff? That’s desert stuff as well. We’re talking about entering into peace in your soul. I wouldn’t care if my leg was longer than the other is shorter than the other if if I have peace of my soul, what does it matter? This body is going to head to the grave sooner or later one way or the other. But when it does, I want to go with peace and my soul I want to go rejoicing in the Lord with what’s taking place internally, and that’s what Christ came to do was to save us spiritually. That’s an internal soullessly that’s internal. And again, what is desert do? Why it concentrates on the external. Now we give praise to God for all of that but we’re not experiencing any rest at all. As a matter of fact, in that type of desert external experience why you’re combining that with the reason that you’re a mess in the desert because your faith isn’t big enough, you know, like saying the reason your your hot course it’s only 120 out there in the desert region, your hot faith not big enough, you had big enough faith to be cool. And And again, what is a total preoccupation with flesh, that’s all it is. God isn’t preoccupied with flesh, he said enter in, I got something spiritual for you. Enter into this rest, folks. Now, I’ll hit that in a little bit more, but I want us to understand something. Friends, there’s two waterways that you and I are going to deal with. And this one was the Red Sea crossing and that represented salvation. You left Pharaoh, God opened up the waters, and you entered into the desert. You’re going to see in the third chapter of Joshua, and Joshua is the Hebrew name for Jesus. Whereby in Joshua, that also people came to the Jordan in order to enter into the promised land. And I’m not going to read all of that. But beginning in verse 14, when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage, all during harvest, it’s a flooded river. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the Ark reach the Jordan and their feet touch the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled in a heap, a great distance away at a call at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zehra Thanh while the water flowing down to the sea of Arab ah, the salt sea was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed crossing on dry ground. We talk a lot about the Red Sea. It’s just like evangelism, we talk a lot about being saved. But where in the world have you ever heard about going into the promised land? I want to tell you, Bob, I’ve been a Christian for 27 years. And it had absolutely escaped me the fact that that that the Jordan River was also dried up by God to enable the Israelites to walk over into the promised land. And that fact has escaped me. And so you say, Well, have you ever read it? Well, I assume I have. But obviously, this dumb head of mine didn’t absorb it. But there were two rivers there, there was the Jordan River that had to be crossed over and there was the Red Sea that had to be gone through and, and our emphasis is always on evangelism, getting people into the desert to do what? Well again, to build desert buildings, and practice desert religion. But there’s something that he says no, that’s not what I called you, for. I called you to cross over into Jordan. And just as Joshua led the Hebrews into the Promised Land, Jesus has to be the one leading you in into there. And the way he leads us is by again, the Holy Spirit of God convincing Bob I died for all of your sins. I’ve taken them away, enter in, there’s nothing you can do to make me love you more. And there’s nothing you can do to cause me to love you less. Enter in there is no more righteousness to be gained. Enter in Bob. There’s no more holiness. You can’t make yourself holier than I made you enter in. You can’t make yourself any more justified. I made you as justified you’re going to get enter in I’ve dried up the Jordan, enter in and rest.

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.