Radio Broadcast Tuesday 12/13/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P37 (12-13-22)

Most Teach a Perverted Gospel Message, Which is No Gospel At All!

~ Anyone teaching that you need more forgiveness by God today is teaching a lie, and a perverted gospel message which is no gospel at all. Most tolerate this big lie, that Satan continues to spread through controlled opposition teaching. People are so quick to gloss over it. Yet completed forgiveness at the cross is foundational for the rest of God’s word. If a person isn’t teaching this truth of completed forgiveness at the cross, then you can be sure that the other things they are teaching are not based on a proper foundation of truth also. Furthermore, why would anyone give money to jailers to build stronger bars to keep a person under the curse of the law? Allow the Holy Spirit to teach you truth.

~ “Now, the covenant in Hebrews eight we studied this had there’d been nothing wrong with the first covenant, then no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with those who were at fault. And as people said, I found follow the people. And he said, The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I’ll make a New Covenant with the house of Israel with the house of Judah. Now, we talked about last week, how Paul was saying in Galatians, that I’m astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you. In other words, he said, I’m not astonished that you’re deserting the law. He said, I’m astonished that you’re deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. In other words, I am turning to returning to the law, maybe not in its fullness, just partial. In other words, I’ve turned to Christ totally for my salvation. But I still need more forgiveness. I’m turning to him totally for my forgiveness. But I still need more forgiveness. Why? Well, because there’s a law there, that still is convicting me. And I’m sorry, folks. But that just is not the gospel. That is a different gospel. That is the commingling of law and grace that Paul said, You are foolish, and someone has hypnotized you. Now, he said, that is no gospel at all. You have been thrown into confusion by people who are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But he makes a very strong statement. But even if we are an angel, from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preach to you. Let him be eternally condemned. That’s how Paul saw a perverted gospel being preached, let that person be eternally condemned. That’s pretty strong language.”

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 0:39
Before we pick up in chapter 11. And I believe that begins on page 72. If I’m looking correctly, if my eyes are focusing properly, we’ll begin there on page 72, in just a moment, but before we do just a bit of review, as we always do, as we’re beginning our weekly sessions, after almost a week, why many times, if anyone’s like me, I have forgotten some of what I heard last week, and then sometimes people didn’t hear anything last week. So the review was always good for us. But besides that, repetition is the mother of learning. And as far as I’m concerned, you cannot repeat this message too much. You know, many times I’ll hear people who will say, well, I already know that. already know that. And I think Brother, there’s a person that doesn’t know anything. That’s right, because there’s no there’s there’s no such thing as saying, I already know that with the Word of God, it’s always opportunities for new and deeper and broader insights into the Word of God. Well, you know, people have talked to Amy on different occasions and gore, she comes to every seminar and listens to the radio and said, Don’t you get tired of hearing this and said, Absolutely not. I learned something every time I hear that you could go back to one of our conferences, such as we have had this year, you could go back to those conferences over and over and over again. And every time you’re there, learn something new, right. And it’s not that you’re a slow learner or dense in the mind is the fact that that’s just what the Word of God is. It never gets old. And you could never explore the depths of it.

As we began to study, in our lesson together last week, we talked about the fact you cannot mix law and grace. And we’re going to be talking today again, about the grace of God and just exactly what that means. Again, in contrast to the law. There are people I was just reading a little booklet, people are always sending us little books to try to correct us in regard to our teaching on the fullness of God’s grace. And so you get people who are legalistic under the law, you’ve got a lot of type people that certainly are under the law, and they may be wonderful people, but under the law, you have a lot of people who just absolutely will not believe the Bible when it says that you are no longer under the law, Christ is the end of the law. And the rationale that they give on that, of course, is that well, when Jesus and when Paul talks about the fact we’re no longer under the law, you’re talking about the ceremonial laws, you’re certainly not talking about the big 10. We’re not talking about the 10 commandments, because boy God couldn’t say we’re no longer under those because what would we live by? And the answer to that is the Spirit of God. And the reason you cannot let go the law is because you have never come in contact with the Spirit of God. Because it had you come in contact with the Spirit of God, you would never, ever, ever be willing to substitute the best for something good again, nothing wrong with the law. It was good and holy. But it could not bring life it could not bring righteousness, it could not make you right in the sight of God, it could only condemn you in the sight of God. Now, once you have come to that forgiveness to that state of no condemnation, until you have you’ve got to hold on to the law, because if you don’t hold on to it, what do you have to hold on to? And the answer to that is nothing. You take your Hebrews today, the average Hebrew Jew or American Jew, and they say that it’s about 80% agnostic or atheistic. And you say, what are they holding on to? What did they do with their sins? They don’t have any sacrificial system anymore. There’s no day of atonement to go to anymore. They certainly don’t believe in the finality of the cross or what Jesus Christ came to do. So how in the world are those people getting their sins forgiven? For when you say, or anybody mean it’s not just that group of people, but any group of people where there is no more sacrifice for sins and you’re not going to trust Jesus? How do you get your sins forgiven? And the issue is you live in denial that you sin and or if you do, ye that’s very easy to take care of. You go and you do penance or you give some money or you or whatever the thing might be, and I do more good deeds and bad and that just kind of wipes the thing out and they are making up your own religion, folks that that absolutely may sound good to you. But it absolutely has no voice at all into the ears of God. And so when people are trying to say, well, that’s ceremonial law, but it’s but the 10 commandments, boy, they’re still there. I have to wonder what in the world do you suppose Jesus was talking about in Matthew 5:27 and 21, when he said, You’ve heard it said, don’t commit adultery. Now, that isn’t a ceremonial law. That’s one of the big 10. That’s the 10 commandments. But I tell you that anyone who looks lustfully has already committed adultery with her on her heart. And if your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. So you wonder why those people don’t have sockets in their heads? Because I’ll guarantee you, if anybody who is saying we are no longer or we’re still under the 10 commandments, then you’re under that commandment, take your eye and pluck it out, if that’s what you’re under. But again, what good would it do you because you’ve already sinned? So in other words, he didn’t saying that when he said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, he didn’t mean pluck your eye out, or take your teeth out. If you bite into something that you shouldn’t bite into. It’s too late, you’ve already been into it. It’s too late. The lust has already occurred. It’s too late. What are you going to do for it? you don’t need an eyeball, you need a sacrifice. And so, but it’s saying that is the stringency of the law, if you’re gonna live under the law, that’s the stringency of it. Now that isn’t ceremonial, folks. That’s the 10 commandments. And if you don’t believe that, why you go on down where it says You’ve heard it said that do not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment, that’s 10 commandments, Thou shalt not murder. But I tell you, I’m gonna tell you what that means. Anyone who’s angry with his brother is subject to judgment. And anyone who says, You fool is in danger, the fire of hell. Well, folks, what that means that is not ceremonial, that’s 10 commandments, that he couldn’t get a more clear on that, then that is the 10 commandments. Now, those are the 10 commandments that are holy and good. Is it true, that as an individual, and as a member of society, that adultery is absolutely devastating to a society and to an individual? And, of course, to a marriage? Absolutely. Is it absolutely true, that it is absolutely wrong to go around, murdering people? Absolutely. That is absolutely true. That law is good, and it’s holy. And it’s set apart. What’s the problem of of it? that Jesus came to tell us what that meant. And he was saying to us that man, I want to show you not what you’re doing, I want to show you what’s going on down under your heart. Because Man looks on the outside, but God looks on your heart. So you can pretend in front of man, you can clean up your act in front of man, but God’s looking on your heart. And the problem with your heart is that you are dead to God, you are playing religion, you are playing church, but you have never come into a relationship with a living God. And that’s what I’m trying to show you. Your behavior is an indicator of that truth. Your heart is an indicator of that truth. Now, you can walk around very piously saying what you don’t do, but I see what’s going on under the skin. And I’m saying you’re a hypocrite. Now, when you come to grips with what you are, instead of what you are doing, now you’re prepared for salvation. And that is a total change of identity through a new heart. That is no longer been perverted through sin. And that’s the heart that only I God can give to you.

Not only is this kind of reasoning that people will come up with, because they don’t understand grace, and they don’t understand the Christ life living in you. They may have a cursory understanding of forgiveness, as it relates to ongoing forgiveness. That is no different than an understanding of forgiveness as it related to the Old Testament days of atonement. It was just ongoing. But there’s something even more that we have to consider. And that’s the New Covenant that we’re in because the Old Covenant was not wrapped up in ceremonial laws. It was wrapped up in law period, it was wrapped up in a covenant. These are my commands, keep them. Oh, God wasn’t talking about ceremonial laws he was talking about these are my commands that I command you to keep. And we couldn’t do it. So there’s nothing wrong with the law, but when it flows through us, it kills us. That’s what Paul said the problem is with us us. And if God is interested in restoring us, then he’s going to have to do something in us and to us and for us. And so what he did was cancel after it being fulfilled by His Son, Jesus, the law, he canceled the law, the law was fulfilled, and it was cancelled. It was upheld, God cannot, isn’t going to blink at sin. Some people say, of course, he didn’t blink, at sin, he killed his Son over it. In other words, sins, killed his Son. So he, he came to this earth volitionally, to become death for us. So we upheld the law, the wages since his death, he really paid the price for that. And as we’ve said, Too many times he paid a debt that he didn’t owe for us who certainly owe to debt that we could never pay. And so Christ did that. He did it volitionally. But he did so not to stop there, he did so so that raised from the dead, he could give life to the dead. And as Paul said, without the resurrection, that we are to be pitied of all people. There are people that come up and say that salvation is strictly the cross of Christ Jesus. Well, no, it is not strictly the Christ, the cross of Christ Jesus, the cross is merely what cleared the deck for the divine action of bringing life to the dead. And that’s why Paul was asked to say without the resurrection were to be pitied of all people. Because without the resurrection, there would be no life offered to you and pay all we would be would be forgiven corpse.

Now, the covenant in Hebrews eight we studied this had there’d been nothing wrong with the first covenant, then no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with those who were at fault. And as people said, I found follow the people. And he said, The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I’ll make a New Covenant with the house of Israel with the house of Judah. Now, we talked about last week, how Paul was saying in Galatians, that I’m astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you. In other words, he said, I’m not astonished that you’re deserting the law. He said, I’m astonished that you’re deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. In other words, I am turning to returning to the law, maybe not in its fullness, just partial. In other words, I’ve turned to Christ totally for my salvation. But I still need more forgiveness. I’m turning to him totally for my forgiveness. But I still need more forgiveness. Why? Well, because there’s a law there, that still is convicting me. And I’m sorry, folks. But that just is not the gospel. That is a different gospel. That is the commingling of law and grace that Paul said, You are foolish, and someone has hypnotized you. Now, he said, that is no gospel at all. You have been thrown into confusion by people who are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But he makes a very strong statement. But even if we are an angel, from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preach to you. Let him be eternally condemned. That’s how Paul saw a perverted gospel being preached, let that person be eternally condemned. That’s pretty strong language.

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Bob George 13:52
So as we turn to chapter 11, now called the grace of God, we’re going to we’ve examined the fact. And again, I don’t know how much more evidence we need in the Scripture. And again, I say to people who have been brought up under this doctrine, or this belief system, that that all of Paul’s writings are not dealing with the 10 commandments, just the ceremonial. I want you to come to grips with what we just talked about. Why would Jesus then have talked as he did in Matthew, it is not the case of ceremonial and the 10 commandments. It’s the case you don’t go to Mount Sinai at all. That is not where we go to we go to the empty tomb, we go to Calvary. Now we’ve examined that truth that we’re no longer under the law that we’re under the grace of God. But instead of immediately going into what it means to be under the grace of God, we’re going to spend this time together as well as in our subsequent chapters, looking at what life is truly like living under the law. It is a life that is characterized by fear and guilt and failure and feelings of frustration and condemnation, the lack of ability to love God or others, it’s a life where there is no peace, and certainly there is no rest. It is the exact opposite of the abundant life that Christ promised. A life filled with love and joy and peace and patience and kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self control. Now, until we see that the law can never accomplish God’s desire in our lives, we will never be willing to put aside that law in order to receive Him, and the newness of life that he called us to. Now let’s look at our key verse in chapter 11, which is Romans five two, one and two. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access, how? by faith, were? into this grace in which we now stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Now, folks, again, we’ve laughingly said whenever you see a therefore, by you ask what is it therefore? and the reason that it is there for is because of what the Apostle Paul has explained in detail to us in the first four chapters of the book of Romans. And in those chapters, why you will see Paul talking as clearly as you can talk to anybody, that righteousness, and no one will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God through the observing of the law. And he dealt with that in abundance in chapter three, verse 20, you can just mark the verse, Therefore, another therefore, no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law. And I think it’s funny why he put in his in his sight in our sight while we look good in his sight. He said, It’s filthy rags, but rather through the law, we become conscious of sin. Now, folks, did the ceremonial law make you conscious of sin? That’s it seemed to me that ceremonial law was dealing with ceremonies, it was dealing with foods, it was dealing with all kinds of things, it wouldn’t make it as conscious of sin. 10 commandments is what makes his time conscious of sin. And He isn’t talking again, separating ceremonial from 10 commandments. It’s the law period. All of it makes you conscious of sin. But no one but the issue is that no one will ever be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law. So if you don’t get righteous in His sight by observing the law, then why do you think you would stay righteous in His sight by observing the law? If I didn’t get saved by faith? How can I stay saved by works? Or how could I stay saved any other way except by works? In other words, if I’m saved by works, then I have to keep my salvation by works. So we’ve talked about if I have to strive to get money, after I get it, I’ll have to strive to keep it. So if you’re going to strive to get something, you’re going to have to strive to keep something. And so he says, If righteousness didn’t come from the law, in other words, if I didn’t obtain my original righteousness from God through obedience to the law, then why would I think that that my righteous I’m going to remain righteous through obedience to the law, the law has nothing to do with righteousness. The law cannot produce righteousness, folks, that’s what it’s saying, no one will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God, through observing the law, whether it’s through the law, we become conscious of sin. And verse 21, and goes here to say, but now a righteousness from God not from you, from God, apart from the law totally apart from it has nothing to do with the law has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. Now this righteousness, again with the key here is from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ. To all who believe there is no difference. How come there’s no difference for all of sin, Hebrews, sin, Gentiles sin, everybody sins. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.

Now, folks, therefore, you go into chapter three, we go into chapter four, we’re talking about the fact that righteousness is by faith and by faith alone. Abraham believed God it was credited to him as righteousness. We talked about in chapter five now therefore, since we have been justified through this faith, we have peace with God. How’s the only way that you can have peace with God? Is when the priest when the Prince of Peace comes to invade your heart? How else are you going to have peace unless it is given to you? You can have temporary peace going out in the mountain someplace by a nice stream and experience some temporary peace. But when you drive home, why it’s gone, you leave it there. And about a piece of God that passes all understanding is something that does not come from where you are, but who you are. Now, since we have been justified by faith and faith alone, shouldn’t that bring some peace to your heart, my friends, I mean, to realize that God has done at all that you have absolutely been declared righteous, in his sight, you’ve been declared justified in his sight, you’ve been declared totally saved in his sight, you’ve been declared alive. You’ve been made a declaration that you have a life called eternal life. It’s been declared about you that you are, as far as he’s concerned, already seated in the heavenlies with him in Christ Jesus. Your destiny is secured, you have what’s called an eternal inheritance. It seems to me that that would bring some peace to our hearts. If that is true, do I ever have to worry about death? No, because I’m really not going to die. But body’s going to fall in the grave. This thing’s dead anyway. It’s it’s just a shell. There’s no life here. It’s a difference between you can have a house. But there’s a difference between a house and a home.

When it talks about that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into the grace in which we now stand. And I think that it’s also interesting that as that verse continues, it says, And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only so but we also rejoice in our sufferings, we not only rejoice in God revealing Himself to us, and we see the glory of God and we see the magnitude of God. But it says, I can also rejoice in my sufferings. Now who in the world in their right natural mind is going to buy that one? Because how am I going to rejoice in sufferings? Well, but because I’m in Christ, and I’m at peace with God, he can say, I’m gonna tell you how you can rejoice in your sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance. And perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. And you see it just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though, for a good man, someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrate His love toward us. And while we were still sinners, he died for us. And now, since we have been justified by His blood or his life, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him? For when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, that’s when we were lost, how much more having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life? And not only is this soul but we also rejoice in God through the Lord Jesus Christ, who, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

What’s all his talking about, folks? Is it talking about being preoccupied with our problems? Or is it being preoccupied by the fact that I have peace with God, what’s more important to you? Getting your legs straightened out or have an eternal eternal life? What’s what is, again, what is more important? Death or a cold? I mean, think about that for a moment. And here we are so preoccupied with, with our colds in with our health and with our physical infirmities, and we just are so proud and you see so many people just constantly it’s all you ever see is somebody’s body, supposedly getting healed. And everybody’s rejoicing and say, Well, God wants everybody healed. Well, what about death? Did God come down and and take away though from everybody the wage is a sin, which is death dough. Is your body that you’re so preoccupied going to die? Yes. Is that ever going to go to heaven? No. Where’s it gonna go? It’s gonna go in a grave. God’s gonna take that and make a new body out of it, but there isn’t a thing worth saving in the old and yet we’re so preoccupied with the physical and we absolutely ignore the spiritual folks, this bodies of ours, I don’t care how healthy you are. There are people that I know, that have never been to a doctor until they die at ninty years old. And I had I had a guy that I knew one time, he said, I tried to go to a doctor at least one once every 100 years whether need to or not. And so, but he’s healthy, but he was lost, this man was lost, totally lost. So he died with a relatively healthy body was an old one, but a relatively what we would call healthy body, but he died. And his spirit unless something occurred that I don’t know about, remained dead to God separated from God. So that’s a person that didn’t even need to get physical healing wasn’t sick. But we’re so preoccupied with healing, physical healing, that we miss the point of what spiritual birth is all about, in other words, what’s going on internally, because that’s what’s going to last forever. So he says, I can rejoice in my sufferings, I’m going to have sufferings as a child of God. But you see, what is the solution to that peace with God, in the midst of disturbance in the world. And so in this world, I’m going to have tribulation, but he said, Fear not have overcome the world. And we’re many times trying to get the peace of God, when we don’t have peace with God. And I think so many times Bob that verse in Philippians, two, in all things with prayer and supplication to let your requests be known to God, and then the peace of God that passes understanding, will quiet in your heart, your mind in Christ Jesus. So we’re trying to get the peace of God, but we don’t have peace with God. And so we look at that and say, Well, I don’t want to say this out loud. But really, the Scripture just doesn’t work. I’m not gonna talk about that out loud, knowing that God looked bad, but it just doesn’t work in my life. Well, of course, it doesn’t work in our lives because we can’t have the peace of God until we have peace with God and you can’t have peace with God until you realize you’ve been justified by faith.

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.