Radio Broadcast Wednesday 01/11/2023

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P41 (01-11-23)

The Holy Spirit of God Revels to You What the Word of God Means

~ “So in our subject, Bob, that we’ve been studying through, and we’re coming to the end of this book on law and grace, and so as you recommended to our people, even though we only have a few more weeks of teaching on the radio, you’ve got the rest of your life to learn what’s in this Bible study book that will change your life if you go in it and study it. So we’re going to be studying today your freedom from sin. And then as we venture into the last chapter, it’s living by a higher life, which is the ultimate goal of everything we’ve talked about in the first 12 chapters. So we’ve taken a look at the law, we took a look at the purpose of the law was to show you your sinfulness to lead you to Christ. We’ve talked about about what the law was powerless to do. It can’t give you life. It can’t make you righteous, it cannot justify you, can’t do those things. It really doesn’t have much of a purpose except condemnation, which is what it was given for.

We talked about how Christ fulfilled the law. That’s a misnomer to some people, the young man I talked to said Sunday, that was his deal. Christ said it’s not a dot was going to go away or a T crossed until the law’s fulfilled. He said, Yeah, he did. He fulfilled the law. Because we couldn’t, he redeemed us from the law bought us back from it. We’re no longer under it. We’ve talked about the hopelessness under the law. And the real problem with the law that it condemns. We then talked about how you can’t mix law and grace, which is where the Christian world is today commingling those two. And then last week, we talked about what the grace of God means. Today, we’re going to talk about our freedom from sin under grace.”

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
You know, I think in my own life, and it’s not that I’m a criteria for anything, but I just think in my own life, that the thing that taught me the vehicle that God used to help to teach me the word of God was not a book, it was a Bible study books. Because in the final analysis, I can read what some other man has learned about God. But that’s basically what I’m reading. When you read Classic Christianity, you’re reading, in essence, how God revealed some truth to me that I am now passing on to you. But the purpose of that is not to stop with the reading of Classic Christianity and say, whoopee. This is what God did in Bob’s life. The issue of this is go into the Word of God yourself, let this be a momentum builder for you let it be an incentive to you to go into the Word of God yourself, and to let God’s word truly speak to you. And that is what will permanently change your life is not what I say to you. But what God is able to say to you, all I can do is to lead you to the source, but the source is the one that’s going to have to do the teaching. And apart from the Spirit of God living in you, you will never know what the word of God means, regardless of how well some man can put the meaning of the word of God down on paper, or to communicate it, for you to understand that it still requires the Holy Spirit of God living in you to reveal the truth of that to you. And so Bob, to me, the greatest tools that we have in Christianity today are not the books that we have. But the Bible study books that we have, because it’s the very thing that forces people to go into the Word of God and their to allow God to speak to them directly. I couldn’t agree with you more in regard to this Bible study booklet on law and grace, it’s our Classic Christianity study series, the series are covered in or carried in most bookstores. But if you cannot find it in a bookstore, you can always find it from us, we and we should not be out of print less, we’re out of business. And so but the fact of the matter is that, guys, it is a very minimum investment, I think the books cost, what $5 dollars, right? And to be able to have that kind of food in your hands for $5 For the rest of your life, looking up scripture, learning what it means. It is invaluable to you.

Bob George 3:00
There’s many teachings and I, as I look back and talk to people that have shared with us that through the ministry that their life has been has been changed. And I understand that my life has been changed, but what I learned from God and have passed on through the ministry. But I think that the reason that why that is so is because our ministry covers more than just one aspect, you will have some ministries that zero in on the exchange life. And boy, thank God for that. Because apart from your life being exchanged, don’t expect it to change and to experience the exchange. So I understand that. There are some people that can zero in on the deity of Christ. And of course, until you see Jesus and who He is God, then how in the world are you ever going to trust someone who isn’t God? So I understand that as well. You understand people talking about trying to go to the cross and die to self and until you die to self you can’t come alive to God. And that’s a true statement. The issue is what does that mean? And I believe that where we have been able and where we’ve been able to help people is not zeroing in on just one aspect. But to be able to explain what forgiveness is about in its totality. Not a partial forgiveness, but a total forgiveness. And again, in my opinion, until you come to the finality of the cross, you will never rejoice in the reality of the resurrection and all that that means. And so then we’re into what all does that mean? What did God accomplish at the cross? Was it just forgiving our sins or did indeed as it says that he nailed the law to the cross? In other words, the regulations that was against us did he nail that to the crosser didn’t he? If he did, which, indeed it says he did. What does that mean? Are we Christians as a young man who came to our Sunday Metro stopped me afterwards to try to convince me that we were still under the law. As a Christian, are we still under the Law? Or have we been freed from the law? Well, this book on Law and Grace deals with those things, because you see it, it really is only going to do me good for a specific period of time, if all I know is that Jesus lives in me, my hope of glory, I mean, until I know that I’m kind of functioning on on just a few cylinders. When I come to realize that the Christian life is not just getting my sins forgiven, but it’s Christ coming to live in me, and he truly is my only hope of glory, and he alone is who I can rely on. That is good news. And it is life changing. The issue is, what am I going to rely on him for? And there’s the issue. Well, we have to realize what did he come to do? What can I rely upon him for? Well, one thing that I can rely upon him for is the fact that he freed me from the law that condemned me. And if I do not understand that, even though I know that Jesus came to live in me to give me eternal life, that’s marvelous. But I’m gonna live miserable here until I get it in because eternal life to me, would mean what happens to me after I die. No eternal life belongs to you the very moment that you accept life and that and I am that life. So the moment we come to Christ by faith, we have eternal life. What does that mean? What? What did I have to be freed from in order to have eternal life? I had to be freed from the wages of sin, which is death, in order to receive something called a life that is eternal. Now, if I don’t understand that, I can verbalize the fact that I have this thing called eternal life. But if I’m still under the Law, what do I do with this law of sin and death? Because you can’t separate the law from the law of sin death, if you’re under the law, you’re into the law of sin and death. And until I am free from that law of sin death, how can I ever rejoice in the newness of life that has been given to Me in Christ Jesus and enjoy this thing called eternal life.

Bob George 7:09
So in our subject, Bob, that we’ve been studying through, and we’re coming to the end of this book on law and grace, and so as you recommended to our people, even though we only have a few more weeks of teaching on the radio, you’ve got the rest of your life to learn what’s in this Bible study book that will change your life if you go in it and study it. So we’re going to be studying today your freedom from sin. And then as we venture into the last chapter, it’s living by a higher life, which is the ultimate goal of everything we’ve talked about in the first 12 chapters. So we’ve taken a look at the law, we took a look at the purpose of the law was to show you your sinfulness to lead you to Christ. We’ve talked about about what the law was powerless to do. It can’t give you life. It can’t make you righteous, it cannot justify you, can’t do those things. It really doesn’t have much of a purpose except condemnation, which is what it was given for.

Bob George 8:03
We talked about how Christ fulfilled the law. That’s a misnomer to some people, the young man I talked to said Sunday, that was his deal. Christ said it’s not a dot was going to go away or a T crossed until the law’s fulfilled. He said, Yeah, he did. He fulfilled the law. Because we couldn’t, he redeemed us from the law bought us back from it. We’re no longer under it. We’ve talked about the hopelessness under the law. And the real problem with the law that it condemns. We then talked about how you can’t mix law and grace, which is where the Christian world is today commingling those two. And then last week, we talked about what the grace of God means. Today, we’re going to talk about our freedom from sin under grace.

Bob George 8:44
As we pick up in chapter 12. We stayed there that the biggest criticism concerning the teaching of grace is that it will give people a license to sin. That criticism is not new. Folks, it’s a strange thing to me, isn’t it how that that kind of a mindset can be into the mind of a Christian, where in order to be a Christian, you had to be freed from that law of sin and death in order to walk in a newness of life that has been given to us in Christ Jesus. And yet we deny the newness of life and therefore have to hang on to the old newness of life, which is the law. Instead of walking in the freedom of the New Covenant, we still hang on, hang on to the Old Covenant. We talked about in past lessons. In chapter eight, I believe it was in First Corinthians 15:56, where it says the sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law. And so people will say if you teach people Grace instead of law, why you’re going to give them a license to sin and the Bible says that the power of sin is in the very law you’re trying to keep them under. And and Paul talks about that. It says when we were controlled by our sinful nature the sinful passions aroused by the law, the law was what aroused the sinful passions that were at work within our bodies so that we bore the fruit of death. He said, I wouldn’t even know what coveting was had the law not said, Don’t covet. But it says sin seizing that opportunity that was afforded by that commandment, produced every kind of covets desire inside a man. And he said, I died. It said, for apart from the law, sin is dead. So, you see, Paul goes ahead and Colossians two, and he told us that, look, since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why is though you still belong to it? Do you submit to its rules? In other words, not only are we to die to the law, but were to die to the basic principles of this world. And he said, what kinds of principles? don’t handle don’t taste, don’t touch, don’t dance. Don’t do this. Don’t do this. All those other don’ts that we come up with. You see, these it says, are all destined to perish with usage. In other words, sooner or later, it’s going to be somebody who’s got to be dead, then what are you gonna say about them? Because they’re based on human commands, and teachings don’t have anything to do with the Scripture. They’re human. These regulations, it says indeed, have an appearance of wisdom. So there’s the problem, it seems like the thing to do, it’s has an appearance of wisdom, with their self imposed worship, in other words, what I am doing for God, or what I am not doing for God, which produces my false humility, it says, and harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. In other words, God is working on these minds of ours. Those kinds of things don’t do don’t taste, don’t touch. They have such an appearance of wisdom, folks. But it creates either pride or self condemnation. And sooner or later, I’m going to be hard on myself, I’m going to pull myself up by my bootstraps, well, you can do that. But it’s going to lack any value at all, in restraining sensual indulgence, in your in my life. It doesn’t change your mind, it doesn’t change your attitudes that can be perverted so easily as a human being. And so it’s we’re to die to these basic principles of the world. It’s like saying, Do you have your own understanding? Yeah, die to it, don’t lean on it. But in all things, acknowledge him and let him direct your path. Why? Because what sounds good to you, what has an appearance to wisdom to you, is not what God says is true. So God knows us as Jesus said, I don’t need the testimony about man concerning man, I know, man. And I know what it takes for him, to be able to walk in the newness of life. He’s got to die to the regulations that killed him. And folks, to this day, you have people and new movements constantly that are going to be coming up in Christianity. teaching us the law of God, you’ve got whole segments of Christianity, teaching people that you’re under the law, and then they put their own laws, they tell you, who you can marry and who you can’t, how you can wear your hair, how you can’t. And those are the extreme legalistic mean as hornet people, it can’t get a meaner than that. But that’s okay to be mean just as long as you’re following the rules. And then you’ve got other groups that come in saying, Oh, we’re going to teach you principles. And so now we’re going to gather people by the 1000s to teach them principles to live by. And then then we’ve got in today, you’ve got people gathering in order to to keep their promises. And folks, please, what I’m saying what I’m saying, I’m not saying this critically about any group, but I’m saying the teaching is contrary to what God has told us in His Word. That’s all I’m saying about that.

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Bob George 14:36
You don’t live by principles, you don’t live by law. You don’t live by promises. You live by a life and that life is Christ Jesus the life I live, Paul said, I live by my promises. No, I live by faith in the Son of God, the One who loved me and gave himself for me. I am crucified. Nevertheless, I live by principles is that what it says? No does not. I am crucified nevertheless I live yet not it’s I but it is Christ that lives in me. I don’t live by the law. I don’t live by principles. I don’t live by my promises. I don’t live by my commitments. I don’t live by my accountability groups. I live by Christ Jesus because He lives I live. Now, that is truth out of the Word of God. Now, if we want to live some other way, that’s okay, we’ve got the right to do that. And we’ve got the will to do it. And we certainly God gave us gave you a will to exercise. All I’m saying is that is not consistent with the teaching of the abiding life in Christ Jesus, that’s very consistent with teaching, go out and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, try harder. Go out and and try to be as honest as you can try to have all the integrity that you can. And you say those are nice sounding things, they have an appearance of wisdom. And they’re neat things, if you could pull them off, there’s only one problem, you can’t pull them off. And all you’re doing is setting yourself up for more disappointment, more disillusionment. And, in many cases, extreme self righteousness. And so folks, if you can temper these things, there’s nothing wrong. In fact, there’s a wonderful dynamic that can occur, of 1000s of men getting together 1000s of women getting together 1000s of people getting together to praise the Lord and talk about the Lord. And this type of that’s a marvelous, it’s a dynamic, marvelous dynamic that can take place, not a necessity, but the dynamic. But if you’re not being taught truth, then all you’re going to do is to leave that environment, attempting to do something that you’re going to fall flat on your face, and you cannot live up to the law. You cannot live by principles. You cannot live by commitments. You cannot live by promises. You live, because he lives. I live, you live by a life, folks. And I’m not saying that, to try to perpetuate human wisdom. I’m saying that because that is precisely what the scripture has to say. The power of sin is in the law. The more you commit to do something, the more sin seizing that opportunity is going to make you desire not to do it or to do it.

Bob George 17:43
And so the biggest criticism that we have, is you teach grace to people, you’re going to give them a license to sin. That criticism again, is not new. People asked Paul when he stated that we lived by grace alone, What then shall we sin then we’re no longer under the law. Paul, what then? Shall we sin? Because we’re not under the law, but under grace? Romans 6:15. You can just hear the sarcasm in that can’t you? What are you saying that Paul? Shall we go on sinning because we’re not under law? In other words, you know, you’re no, no, no, no longer under the law. Well, then shall we just go sinning because we’re under the law as if the law kept him from sinning when the power of sin is in the law? So Paul said, Look, folks, I wouldn’t even known what sin was at the law not said don’t sin. But when it did it, I started I started coveting, I didn’t even know what it was. So the law didn’t stop me from sinning the law became the vehicle to cause me to want to. And incidentally, folks, that was the purpose of the law.

Bob George 18:46
Now Paul, in the book of Philippians, tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. What does it mean to work out? it means to work out what’s been worked in what is fear and trembling mean? It means humility. Paul said on another occasion, when I came to you, I didn’t come to you with brilliant words and lofty ideas, but I came to you with fear and trembling. In other words, I came to you and total humility and dependency upon Christ Jesus and him alone, because I did not want your faith to stand on some great man’s ideas, but on the sovereignty and on the truth of God alone. So I came to you with humility, and in total dependency upon Christ Jesus, I came to you in weakness, fear and trembling in weakness, that is a that is not weakness, as we think of it, it means no dependency on me at all. I came to you totally in a dependency upon Christ Jesus. And I found out that his strength is manifested in my weakness. Now he said, our salvation is the result of God’s grace, and it is His grace that we are to work out. We talked about Bob that grace could be, we could talk about that as a master plan, because the Master Plan of God was to bring grace to people who needed only grace, using the law to show us that need, so that we would turn to the provision for that need. So it’s all a part of his master plan. And so our salvation is the result of this of God’s master plan of grace, and it and it is His grace that we’re to work out. Now, God, however, does not leave this task to our self efforts, because Paul goes ahead to say for it is God who works in you to willing to act according to His good purpose. He tells us that in Philippians 2:13. So we talk, you know, we quote that verse about working out your salvation, but we don’t go ahead to the next verse, For it is God who works in you, to will and to act according to His good purpose. So working out our salvation is not dependent on us. It’s the result of God working in us. And that’s why we can stand confidently in the grace of God, God would never lead us to a life of sin, He will lead us to will and to act according to His good purpose.

Bob George 21:15
Galatians 2:20, Paul, spelled what I was talking about out very clearly, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live. In other words, the Paul without the Spirit of God living in in him, that guy is dead. You are crucified with Christ so that you could be raised again with Christ. So, in order for you and me to come to Christ, we have had to, in essence, enter into a co-crucifixion with him. The old Bob, George, the Bob, George, without the Spirit of God living in him, had to die. He wasn’t worth improving. I’ll guarantee you that. And if anybody has a question about that, why they might interview Amy. So there wasn’t a thing worth improving. You have to die. So Bob, George, without the Spirit of God living in him, that guy died as far as God is concerned, he’s gone, there is no more guy like that. Never will be another Bob George, this Bob George without a Spirit of God living in him, that guy’s gone. I was crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, why do I live? Well, because I was raised from the dead by the one who came to live in me, and that is the living Christ. So even though the Bob George died, Christ’s life came to live within that corpse in essence, and raised me from the dead. So that’s why it says, it’s no longer I who live, it’s Christ, who lives in me now. Christ is my life. If Christ wasn’t here, I would have no life. Any more than a human body would have no life if the life was not there. When you look at a corpse, there’s something missing its life. Now, we don’t know what all that is. But it sure is identifiable when you see a corpse. When you don’t see a corpse. And if you’ve never seen death, it would be hard to identify. You couldn’t imagine that. They say, well, that’s when somebody lays real steel. And you may say, Oh, you mean when you’re sleeping, know when they’re real still. And you couldn’t relate to it when you see a dead animal or a dead corpse. When I looked into the casket of my father, dad wasn’t there. I was looking at a shell. He was not there. Life is gone. Now the reason that I am alive spiritually, I am the reason I’m alive physically, I have been given a physical life, the invisible me that has been regenerated by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so my life is his life living in me. That is my only hope of glory.

Bob George 24:18
Where does the life in a branch come from? From the life of the vine. A branch cannot produce life. A branch cannot cause life, a branch can only bear the fruit of the life, but the source of the fruit is life. So if you’re in Christ today, your life is Christ. There’s something that has happened to you. You didn’t necessarily see it, and I’ll guarantee you don’t understand all of it any more than I do. But Christ explains what happened. You died. The old you died and I brought you back to life with the new me. And I came to live within you, and I raised you from the dead just as I was raised from the dead, and the life that I died for you, then I did so so that I can live in you now. Now Paul, there for us is the life I live in this body of mine, I live by faith in the Son of God, I live by faith in his faith, his life living through me the one who did what? love me and gave himself for me. Does that sound like a pull yourself up by your bootstraps kind of life folks? Does that sound like a life that says I’m gonna go live under the law? Is that a life that says I’m going to live according to my promises? I’m going to live according to my principles, I’m going to live according to my commitments. Well, if that’s the case, who’s doing the living? It certainly isn’t Christ, because he isn’t living his life that way. He is living his life, because that’s who he is. Now he’s saying, I Jesus and all that I am am now living in you. You can’t live the life. Why don’t you get out of the way and let me live it? It’s like saying to a branch branch. I didn’t call you I don’t expect you to produce fruit. You can’t quit trying. I didn’t expect you to live by promising to be a fruit producer. You cannot you think you can it sounds good. It would make sense to people listening to it, because they would like to get some of that fruit. But you cannot do it. I’m telling you, you can’t do it. When you got to grasp it? You cannot do it. The Greek for that is you cannot do you cannot do it. No. When are you going to realize that you’re going to be the most successful when you become the biggest failure. When you realize that when you’re trying to live the Christian life in your the energy of your own flesh, you are a total failure. Now when you come to realize that you can’t, that’s when you’re going to experience what he can.

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.