Radio Broadcast Tuesday 11/01/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P20 (11-01-22)

If You Have the Son, You Have Eternal Life

~ “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:12

~ Eternal life begins the very moment you accept Jesus for what he did for you personally. When you realize that Jesus forgave you of all of your sins on the cross, and he is no longer counting your sins against you jump for joy. Now there is no more 1 John 1:9 for forgiveness. You solidify that in your own mind, instead of being tossed to and fro by every wave of doctrine. And you are either in the fellowship saved, or out of the fellowship lost. Don’t let someone convince you, you are bouncing in and out of fellowship. It’s a lie to teach that.

~ “Quite frankly, Bob, I hate to say that, but when I looked back on it, it was a stupid doctrine that I held on to have this thing of bouncing in and out of fellowship and constantly asking God to forgive me. And the reason it is is because he already has, and it is is idiotic is every day my going home and asking Amy to marry me. He said, I already did. Well, yeah, but it makes me feel good to ask you, you know, that type of thing. So it’d be I’m not walking by faith doing that. In other word, I don’t remember the service. I don’t know. I’m not sure. Well, of course, you’re sure. Well, what does God do when it’s talking about finding yourself approved? It means let the Lord teach you what has happened to you. I quite frankly, Bob think that’s why the Scripture talks about that. If you have the Holy Spirit of God living in you, the Spirit of God verifies the fact that you have eternal life, it says that. You will, you’re not gonna be sitting around questioning whether you have eternal life or not. Spirit of God says, I verify that if you let me. What is that? It’s showing you approval, it’s showing, it’s verifying as what he said is true.”

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 0:40
When we send out a new believers package to someone who has who has received the Lord, it’s to enable them to look at the word of God. And all of a sudden, I can remember as a brand new Christian reading, that if you have the Son, you have life and realizing, hey, that’s, that’s to me. Sure. That’s to me, he, he’s, he’s given me life. You know, I knew I’d accepted the Christ but didn’t know what all that was about. And all of a sudden all of these scriptures started being being revealed. Wait a minute, that’s to you, Bob. You have eternal life. So what is that it’s finding yourself verified. It’s all being now solidified in your own heart. So it’s talking about study the Word of God so that you can find yourself approved it means to find yourself verified the fact that what has happened to you is real. That’s a wonderful thing to know not sitting there. And I’m so that I can be approved by God, I’m already approved by God, what he wants to do is to show me to verify in my heart, what he’s done for me. That’s what happened when I finally came to let go to let go of this. Quite frankly, Bob, I hate to say that, but when I looked back on it, it was a stupid doctrine that I held on to have this thing of bouncing in and out of fellowship and constantly asking God to forgive me. And the reason it is is because he already has, and it is is idiotic is every day my going home and asking Amy to marry me. He said, I already did. Well, yeah, but it makes me feel good to ask you, you know, that type of thing. So it’d be I’m not walking by faith doing that. In other word, I don’t remember the service. I don’t know. I’m not sure. Well, of course, you’re sure. Well, what does God do when it’s talking about finding yourself approved? It means let the Lord teach you what has happened to you. I quite frankly, Bob think that’s why the Scripture talks about that. If you have the Holy Spirit of God living in you, the Spirit of God verifies the fact that you have eternal life, it says that. You will, you’re not gonna be sitting around questioning whether you have eternal life or not. Spirit of God says, I verify that if you let me. What is that? It’s showing you approval, it’s showing, it’s verifying as what he said is true.

So, Bob, I can remember when I let go of all of that obsession with confession, mentality, confession for forgiveness, not not not agreeing with God, when you mess up, and he’s renewing your mind. That’s, that’s, that’s a man, you’re doing that all times a Christian. But confessing for the purpose of getting forgiven when you already are doesn’t make an ounce of sense. And I can remember when I finally put that to bed and said, that’s the end of that. You’re never going to hear me and insult you again. And try to hang on across again and crucify you again, and make a mockery of your cross. And to make a mockery of the New Covenant that set me apart. As Hebrews 10 and 6 say. You’re not going to hear me do that anymore. Lord, I want to walk by faith from this day forth. And I’m going to walk by faith and what’s truth. And so what is true is it’s finished. So I walked by that. And Bob the Word of God verifies that it’s studying the Word of God to find yourself approved. And I found myself that I was approved. Because what it meant was I it was verified internally inside of me that this is true. I don’t have to argue with it don’t have to concern with about him anymore. I know in the depths of my soul, that that is true. If it isn’t true, then Jesus isn’t true, because Jesus is the one who said it’s finished. And if he said, it’s finished, and it’s finished. So that’s what it’s talking about in the Word of God. And it goes ahead to find yourself approved in the Word of God. And then it talks about so that you can rightly divide the word and then you got people who sit down with that and say, well, that means that we’re dispensationalist, that we’ve divided it all up into the dispensation, and you got other people that say, Well, that means you’re doing inductive Bible study.

What it means it’s a, it’s a, it’s a word that comes from straightening a bone, like orthopedic when you get that a straightening of a bone, and the Greek word is the root of that is like ortho. And it means to straighten something. So when he’s talking about the fact of, of not only of finding yourself approved by the word, by your study of the Word of God, to verify that these things are true, and to rightly divide the Word of Truth, what the rightly divide means is straighten it out. It means to come to grips with the truth of it, and straighten that road out and walk down a straight and narrow path in regard to what truth and error is. In other words, this is my standard of truth. The Bible is my standard of truth. Nothing else is my standard of truth. So I’m going to match everything up against the Bible. I’m not going to be walking in a crooked line, going over and wavering and picking up a little psychological thought and bringing it back on my path. Pick up a little scientific thought and bring it back on my path. Pick up a little humanistic viewpoint and bring it back on my path. Try to become ecumenical and bring it back on my path that says many will be called but few will enter in. I’m going to say this is the path that God has put me on, and it’s a path of truth out of the Word of God period. And if anything doesn’t match up with the word of God is going to be discounted. If it does match up with the word of God, we’re gonna latch on to it, and hang on to it tenaciously, and run the race, hopefully until it’s finished. Now, that’s what it means to rightly divide the word of truth. That doesn’t mean to become a hyper dispensationalist. It means to straighten out your life, to get your life in line with the truth of the Word of God, and quit being tossed to and fro by every wave of doctrine that comes down the pike, and picking up this philosophy and picking up this psychology and picking up this scientific evidence and picking up this. And literally discounting those things. And staying true to the pathway that God has put us on. God did not call us to be people as an example, who are involved and to be out trying to change nations and governments. He called us to proclaim the gospel that can change people. God did not come to save America, he came to save people.

Let’s go now to our key verse in chapter five, Matthew 5:17, and 18, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets, I have not come to abolish them, in other words, to abolish the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them. In other words, the prophets wrote about Jesus, the law pointed us to Jesus, I didn’t come to abolish either one of those, I came to fulfill it. In other words, I came to show what they were there for, was true. And I fulfilled that. So many times people will look at that passage once again. And think that that means you see, the law is still in effect for us. No, no, he said, I came to fulfill them, I came to prove that what the prophets wrote about me was true, I came to prove that what God said the law was for, and that was to point out your sinfulness. So that you would turn to me is true, I have come I have fulfilled the law. And so Christ did come and do exactly what he said, and that was fulfill the law.

In Luke 24:44, he said to them, This is what I told you, when I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled, that is written about Me, in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. So once again, what did Jesus tell the disciples when he was still with them? He said, everything that was written about Me, in the Law of Moses, and in the prophets, what he said, I didn’t come to abolish but to fulfill, every one of those things must be fulfilled, that was written about me. So in the Law of Moses, in the prophets, all of those things that were written about Jesus had to be fulfilled in Jesus, otherwise, they would be what? false prophets. So he fulfilled everything. He fulfilled everything in the Law of Moses, He fulfilled everything in the prophets. He fulfilled everything.

You remember, Bob, it was always interesting to me, of the men on the road to Emmaus. And I think about that many, many times about after Jesus, death. And as these men were heading back, you know, to their home, they were dejected, and walking along, and all of a sudden there was Jesus. And it says that he gave him a Bible lesson. He went from Genesis through the entirety of the Old Testament, and gave them a Bible lesson, I thought to myself, boy, what a seminar. They didn’t even have to charge for two out in the desert. We’re gonna be in a desert forest. But we’re gonna have a tape recorder. But I thought to myself, you know, those man, you talk about some guys that were privileged it was being taught by Jesus, everything that the prophets taught, pointing to himself, he then was able to relate that to himself, and what a lesson. So he said to them, This is what I told you, while I was still with you, everything must be fulfilled, and written about me, including my death on the cross.

Now Christ lived, as we mentioned, the sinless life. In Hebrews 4:15. He talks we don’t have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but we have one who was tempted in every way, just as we are yet was without sin. Now, once again, Bob, we have a lot of people who take those kind of passages and try to bring God down to our level of our fallen nature. You see, God did not become like us in as much as a person without, he was without sin. None of us from Adam knows what it is to be without indwelling sin living in us. Nobody knows that. Christ did not, did not enter into that until his death. He did not enter into that at all. And so when it’s talking about being tempted, He isn’t talking about the fact that Jesus was sitting there being tempted. Now, that sounds like a contradiction.

But let me let me explain that on a on a very puny human level, because it is it is puny, but I think it’ll get the point across. If somebody put me in a room with drugs, as an example, and tried to tempt me to take drugs, quite frankly, I wouldn’t be tempted. Now there would be a temptation there. And somebody could say that I was tempted in every way. But in my in myself, I would not be tempted on that. I have no interest at all in taking drugs. I’ve never taken drugs, I’ve never done that. So it would be hard to tempt me to do that. It’s not that I couldn’t also be fall into it. That’s where the illustration falls down. It’s not that I couldn’t, but I’m just saying it’s not a temptation to me. Now, there are other things that you have done, that I wouldn’t be in want to be in a room with. And there’s other types of sins that I would stay away from because I know in my soul, I could be tempted to give into that. So with Jesus talking about being tempted in every way, just as we are yet without sin, it doesn’t mean that he was sitting there struggling with those things such as a temptation, certain temptations that could come to me that I would have to struggle to walk away from.

Click to Donate to Bob George Ministries

Classic Christianity Radio thanks you for your support of our online and radio ministry. Bob, George Ministries offers nine in-depth Bible study guides, please visit shop.BobGeorge.net to find the Bible study books, along with many helpful materials to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ. Let’s continue now, with our Classic Christianity Radio program.

Bob George 13:59
In other words, the bringing a bring in this room full of drugs would be considered a temptation, but you’re not tempted. Because it’s just not that you’ve never done it. And it’s not a big deal to you something else could be a great temptation. So when it’s talking about Jesus is one who was tempted in every way just as we are yet without sin. What he’s talking about is he was exposed to every temptation that we have here. There wasn’t any that that he missed. There wasn’t anything that is in the world that wasn’t exposed to him that we would call a temptation. And yet, he was without sin. There wasn’t any that he wasn’t sitting there struggling with those with those issues. He was exposed to them. But he wasn’t struggling with them. But the mere fact is, because of him being God and knowing full well, the heart of man, and knowing the condition of fallen man. He was able to sympathize with that. In other words, if it was a anyone who could have walked around with a self righteous attitude toward men being tempted by these things, it would have been Jesus. Because he had, although he had been tempted, He didn’t get into any of it. He wasn’t struggling with it. That would be a real setup, wouldn’t it for self righteousness. But God, he was full of mercy and compassion. And understanding, that’s the miracle of God himself is how someone who has never really experienced those things can be so merciful. And yet he was and he still is. So he lived a sinless life, exposed everything. But Jesus lived a sinless life, and in that sinless life, fulfilled the law. Now, how did he fulfill the law? Well, by walking in perfect love, because love is the fulfillment of the law.

Now let’s take a couple of passages of Scripture that explain that John 15:9, as the father is love me, so have I loved you, and now remain in my love. So Jesus, not only walked in perfect love, by loving us perfectly, but he walked in perfect love by being the recipient of the Father’s love. In other words, we only look at perfect love as what goes out. But from God’s vantage point, he’s saying that it’s not that you love me, but that I loved you first. So Jesus walked in perfect love from his Father, never denying the love of the Father. And he walked it with an if you’d want to call it just an open pipe, as the recipient of the love of the Father, through his entire life here on this earth, taking upon himself, our humanity. And never one time ever varied from being the recipient of the love of God, and therefore, never varied in being the giver of that love to you and to me, As the Father has loved me, he said, so have I loved you. Now, although on another occasion, he says, Go love one another. But it he said, Now remain in my love. You see, it’s a Father, it’s like saying to Jesus, Jesus, remain in my love. And the byproduct of that is, you will be loving one another is. Now the reason that we do not see, and in our own experience, Bob, and as much as I could say, is, right at this particular time, as much, hopefully, as God wants me to understand, I am asking him constantly to reveal to me more and more of his depth of his love, which I don’t have to ask him because every time you mess up, you get a glimpse of that. So I mess up quite often. So I get a good glimpse of that. But what I’m getting at is even as much as I know about the love of God, how many times do I get my mind off of that? And exercise unloving attitudes toward other people, sometimes critical attitudes toward other people critical attitude, sometimes toward my wife, toward my children, toward my friends, toward me. And, and every time that starts occurring, immediately, you get your eyes on me, what’s wrong with me? Why am I doing that to someone else? Why am I feeling that way about some one else? Isn’t that true? Now, it’s like God says, Bob, you got your eyes in the wrong place. You got them in the wrong place. You’re trying to figure out why you are acting that way towards someone else, which in essence means that the love that you’re trying to generate is self generated.

Get your eyes off of why you’re acting that way towards someone else. And realize that you’re not remaining in my love. You’re not abiding in my love for you, you think you are. You could stand up and tell everybody that nothing separates you from the love of God. But you’re not appreciating that love. Because if you were appreciating to the magnitude, the love that I have for you, you couldn’t be that critical towards somebody else. So Bob, you got your eyes in the wrong place. Quit thinking about how you’re behaving and start abiding in how I’m behaving.

How did Christ fulfill the law? Well, first of all, just said he lived a sinless life now we’re talking about he walked in perfect love. And walking in perfect and love. Perfect love is walking with a total awareness of God’s unconditional love for you. And you can’t be the initiator to love God. It’s a response. We are responders, as created beings, we respond to God we don’t initiate to him. And so as God has loved me, Jesus said, so have I loved you, I love you as a result of my Father’s love for me, and of my remaining in his love. And so that love is passed on to you. So now he says, remain in my love for you, and that will get passed on to others. And when we are not loving others, folks, it’s because we are not responding to God’s love. We’re not contemplating, we are so shallow in our thinking. We forget about the mercy of God that has been extended to us in Christ Jesus, we forget about the depths of my depravity that God pulled me out of, and brought me into his wonderful light to give me a life called eternal life. I forget about the love and the forgiveness that is constantly extended to me in Christ Jesus, not because I asked, but because of his initiative to me, that is love that draws me to the heart of the Father. It’s the grace of God that teaches us to say no to these unrighteous thoughts and being angry and miserable toward our brothers and sisters, is evil thoughts. And and that’s the grace of God is the only thing can teach us to say no to that kind of unrighteous thinking. We have to realize folks that everything that we do that God is interested in, ties into love. It’s so important that it said nothing else matters, that the only thing that matters is faith, expressing itself through love. God isn’t interested in our church attendance record, our tithing records, he isn’t interested in all these flesh trips that we take with one another, all of the good deeds that we do in order to bring glory to ourselves. He’s interested in a relationship. Christ came to give us a relationship, to be able to love us and to be loved by us. It’s a relationship. It’s not what are you doing, but it’s come, let’s enjoy each other. Let’s be friends with each other. Let’s love one another. And when we are mistreating one another, it’s because we become terrifically unappreciative of the love the God has extended to us, we begin to think that we have earned what we have from him. And folks, we haven’t earned anything. It’s all a gift. It’s all of a gracious heart. I think of attitude sometimes that we express toward one another, and I expressed toward people and I’ve had people expressed toward me, of people who were at one times, friends that just dropped away over some issue that in most instances they really knew nothing about. And yet we just drop away, just never speak to you again. If you look at those type of things, and your heart aches, because you’re saying what is wrong there, you can sit there and sit there all day feeling sorry for yourself, because someone has mistreated you or turned their back on you or rejected you or betrayed you. But you see, that isn’t their problem. Their problem is not that they betrayed you, any more than your problem would be if you betrayed them. Their problem is that they’ve stopped abiding and remaining in the love of God. They’ve forgotten what God has done for them. And that’s a sadder condition than doing something bad to you and me. It’s a sad position to be in when someone has totally laid aside and forgotten about their own depravity. And how God came to save them in the midst of that, and love them in the midst of it, and care for them and extend mercy to them in the midst of that. And when I say to them, folks, I’m talking to my own heart as well. Because that’s what happens to me as well. I’m no different than anyone else. And you think, well, the longer you’re a Christian, the more mature you get. Folks, maturity is nothing anymore. It isn’t something that’s cumulative, or that you grow into. It’s every moment of the day, maturity, is abiding in Jesus. The mature person is the one who is abiding in Jesus, quite frankly, sometimes as a brand new Christian, I was more mature than I am today after 20 Some years because as a new Christian. I said dumb that I didn’t know anything except how to Abidan Jesus, and then you become smart. And after a while, you start depending upon your own intelligence, instead of upon Christ Jesus. And you think you’re mature because you can quote more verses than used to be able to. But you see, God isn’t impressed with that. Satan quoted verses, but he didn’t have any love.

And so folks, when we come down to what maturity is, it’s learning to walk by faith in the One who is faithful. It’s not how much I am doing for Jesus. That’s what we look as maturity, this man is more mature than I am. Because look at what he’s doing for Jesus that is not maturity. What maturity is, is there’s a man who’s walking by faith, trusting Lord Jesus Christ, with His love, and with his life. And he’s walking in love. That’s what maturity is.

Now, Romans 13:10 says, Love does no harm to its neighbor. And therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. So how did Christ fulfill the law, that he said, I didn’t come to abolish but to fulfill it? He fulfilled it through a sinless life. And that sinless life was produced as a result of walking and perfect love. And love is the fulfillment of the law. You see, to the Pharisees, they thought they were fulfilling the law. They were doing all of these things, and then hung Jesus on a cross, because love wasn’t a part of that equation. Love wasn’t involved in, in the law. It was just do this or do that. And so we live on a different plane today, folks, Greater love has no man than this, that he lays down his life for his sheep, for his friends. God demonstrated His love toward us. And while we were yet sinners, he came to die for us. So this love of God in the fulfillment of the law, he fulfilled the law totally through his life. And then he upheld the law, through His death, but even in his death in the upholding of the law. He was walking in love. You see, folks, nails did not hold Jesus to the cross, love, held Jesus to the cross. Because if Jesus would have saved himself, it would be like Jesus saying, friend, if I saved myself, I couldn’t save you. Because the only way I’m going to be able to save you is by not saving myself of what’s ahead of being and that is death by crucifixion. So I can’t save myself and save you at the same time. And I would rather save you than I would to save myself.

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.