Radio Broadcast Wednesday 01/18/2023

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P44 (01-18-23)

The Law Cannot Give You Life ~ Only Jesus Can Give Life!

~ “Now, here’s the good news. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of Life, set me free from the law of sin and death. Under the law, the wages of sin is death. And the gift of God is life. There was no human solution to that, folks, there was only a godly solution, and that is through the only one who could give you and me life and that’s Christ Jesus. Why? verse three For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature. What was the law powerless to do? We talked about that a couple of weeks ago, it was powerless to bring life. If life could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing. It was powerless to bring righteousness to a person. It was powerless to bring justification, if we could be justified through the law again, that Christ died for nothing. It could not do anything good. It could only condemn. So what the law was powerless to do and that it was weakened by us ourselves. He said God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met now in us who do not live any longer according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. So in other words, if you’re in Christ, you don’t live anymore according to the flesh, I don’t have to live according to the law of sin and death, because I’m not under the law of sin and death anymore. Thank God that is a hopeless condition. I am not under that anymore. I am under the law of life. Now those that says who live according to the flesh or to the sinful nature, have their mind set on what that nature desires. When you live, separate from the Spirit of God living in you, your mind has to be totally set on what the only nature that you have desires, and that sin, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit, why they have their mind set on what the Spirit desires, the mind of the flesh of the sinful man, the mind on the flesh is death. But the mind control by the Spirit is life and peace. The sinful man is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit the God’s law, nor can it do so. And those controlled by that flesh or that sinful nature, cannot please God without faith. It’s impossible to please God and you don’t live by faith, under the law last, you live by the law, you don’t live by faith you live by obedience or disobedience. Now, it goes ahead to say that you, however, are not controlled by the flesh, but by the Spirit if the Spirit of God lives in you. So folks, if the Spirit of God lives in you, then you have the total capability of being controlled by that spirit. In other words, when I’m lost, I had no ability at all to be controlled by the Spirit, I wasn’t even enveloped by the Spirit. But now that the Spirit of God has come to live within you, you have the wherewithal to be controlled now by the Spirit of God.”

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

Why does my mind need renewed? because it’s full of garbage. Why does my mind need to be enlightened? Because it’s unenlightened. Why does my mind why is my mind so important? Because as a man thinks, so is he. And so you see a law that is taking place, there’s a war that is taking place, with my mind and in my mind. And it says that this law that is at work within the members of my body is waging war, against the law in my mind against the law, that is that Christ now lives in me and is there to renew my mind. There’s a war against Jesus input and the input of the world. And this, this, this bodily, this worldly thing that I’m continually being exposed to, it says is making me a prisoner of the law at sin at work within my members. In other words, there is a degree folks in which We are imprisoned in this body of ours, the Spirit of God is like imprisoned in a body that is contrary to us. It would be like an innocent person imprisoned in a, in a in a jail. Like a person who is totally innocent, convicted of a terrible crime and sentenced to life in prison. What is that? that’s someone totally innocent, imprisoned in a prison where he doesn’t belong. But he’s got to learn to live there. He’s in it, but he’s not offered. He doesn’t deserve to be there, it’s just the case, that’s where he’s going to have to live his life. And Bob, if you were a born again, Christian, totally innocent of a crime that was charged against you. And you were condemned to live in a prison for the rest of your life. And the law stated it, there is there’s no getting out. You’re just gonna have to adopt to the fact that I’m in prison, I don’t deserve to be here. I was not guilty. But I’m in prison. And so I’m going to make the best of it. It’s where I’m going to have to live. Well, it’s similar to that as a child of God that as a person who is born again, spiritually, I am forced, if I’m going to live here on this earth to live in prison in a body that contains indwelling sin. And so therefore, when you if you’re a totally innocent person, but you’ve been condemned to a prison, how are you going to be treated? like a prisoner. And that’s not fair. But but that’s the system. And so there’s going to be a conflict, because there’s people treating you like you’re guilty when the fact of the matter is that you’re innocent. That’s where your body treats you. And it says that, that this law is at work within the members of my body, waging war against the law, my mind and making me a prisoner now, because that’s where I live of the law of sin at work within my members. And he says, What a wretched man that I am, who will rescue me from this body of death, where am I ever going to be rescued from? And the only answer to that, folks is not to go to therapy. It isn’t to take drugs. It isn’t to think positive. It isn’t to develop a positive mental attitude. It isn’t to make some promises that it is that isn’t going to happen anymore. It isn’t that I’m going to live now by principles, or I’m going to live by the law. There is only one solution to this conflict that we are in. And folks. And there is a sense in which we did not put ourselves in this conflict. We were born into this world, totally under the influence of sin and death. We were born into this world, under the law. And so as a person born dead spiritually, the very moment that I chose spiritual life, I became alive spiritually, but again, imprisoned in this body of sin and death, and this body of mind is still going to die. And it says, there is a conflict there is there’s conflict between this an indwelling sin that’s screeching out to my mind to fulfill the the less of its flesh. And then there is the voice of God that is continually screaming out to my mind to walk in the newness of life. But there’s a conflict there in there, folks. Now, you see, when we recognize that conflict, we realize that I have a problem much deeper than what I am doing. And that is you have a problem as to who you are. I am a child of the living God born spiritually in dwelt in a human prison. And I can look at that and say, wretched man that I am, who’s going to free me from this body of sin and death? And folks, have you ever asked yourself that question? Have you ever been to a point in your life where you’ve wondered about this conflict that you have, as a human being? Do you see yourself that, that, in essence, you are helpless and hopeless under that situation? If you have to correct it in the energy of your own flesh in accordance with what you do? You find yourself I don’t know how to do that. Any more than if you found yourself to have terminal cancer that you could develop something internally to cure that you’re in a wretched state.

Religion Bob keeps you constantly dealing with what that flesh is doing. constantly dealing with what the flow she’s doing. As a matter of fact, religion keeps you dealing with what the flesh is doing both what we would consider evil and religious, because religion functions out of the flesh, not out of the spirit. Life functions out of the spirit, God’s Spirit and everything to do with religion. It’s only the flesh that practices religion, whereby the flesh can either condemn itself for doing bad or praise itself for how wonderful we are. In both cases, the prayer, the praise, and the condemnation is at least placed in the right spot towards you, because God and everything at all do with any of that, that’s just you and what you’re doing. And we have to realize that religion will always deal in behavior, whereby Christ came to cure a condition. And there is a condition that we are in as a born again, Christian, there was a condition we were in before we were born again, we were absolutely without hope. We were absolutely without the life of the Spirit of God living in us, and to be pitied of all people. Now as a born again, Christian, alive, spiritually prisoned imprisoned in this body of ours. We asked the question, who’s going to rescue me from this? There was one answer in verse 25. Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, period. Folks, that’s when we come to understand that I don’t need Jesus just when I sin, I need Jesus every moment of the day. Because as long as I have something called indwelling, sin living in me, I cannot cure that it can only be controlled, and it can only be controlled by the Christ, who lives in me.

The the issue of this whole area of teaching is the fact that folks, you and I have a problem much bigger than what we do. It’s a problem of who we are. That’s not a problem before in Christ were a child of God. But it is a problem as to where that child of God has to live. And that’s imprisoned in this body of ours that contains His indwelling sin that creates the conflict that we’re talking about. But the only solution to indwelling sin, we are no match for Satan, folks. We’re no match, it cannot be cured by positive thinking. As I said, it cannot be cured by your promises. It cannot be cured by your commitments. You can see that by people answering all their calls every week, it cannot be cured by trying to obey the law because you can’t, it cannot be cured by living by all kinds of principles. It has to be cured by a life. This is a living thing living inside of us and dwelling sin is alive, it lives in us. And the only thing can control a living sin is a living God. And that’s why Paul was able to say, who will rescue me from his body of death? and there’s only one solution to it. It’s not a thing, it’s a person, and that person is Jesus Christ our Lord. So he goes ahead to say so then I myself, and in other words, the new me, in my mind, in my reasoning in my spirit, I’m a slave to God’s law, and that’s the God that’s the law of love. I’m a slave to God’s will. I want to know His will, I want to do it. But in my flesh and my sinful nature, and by flesh, I’m a slave to the law of sin. In other words, those indwelling sin living in my body is never going to want to do anything except sin. And so there’s the conflict.

Now, here’s the good news. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of Life, set me free from the law of sin and death. Under the law, the wages of sin is death. And the gift of God is life. There was no human solution to that, folks, there was only a godly solution, and that is through the only one who could give you and me life and that’s Christ Jesus. Why? verse three For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature. What was the law powerless to do? We talked about that a couple of weeks ago, it was powerless to bring life. If life could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing. It was powerless to bring righteousness to a person. It was powerless to bring justification, if we could be justified through the law again, that Christ died for nothing. It could not do anything good. It could only condemn. So what the law was powerless to do and that it was weakened by us ourselves. He said God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met now in us who do not live any longer according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. So in other words, if you’re in Christ, you don’t live anymore according to the flesh, I don’t have to live according to the law of sin and death, because I’m not under the law of sin and death anymore. Thank God that is a hopeless condition. I am not under that anymore. I am under the law of life. Now those that says who live according to the flesh or to the sinful nature, have their mind set on what that nature desires. When you live, separate from the Spirit of God living in you, your mind has to be totally set on what the only nature that you have desires, and that sin, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit, why they have their mind set on what the Spirit desires, the mind of the flesh of the sinful man, the mind on the flesh is death. But the mind control by the Spirit is life and peace. The sinful man is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit the God’s law, nor can it do so. And those controlled by that flesh or that sinful nature, cannot please God without faith. It’s impossible to please God and you don’t live by faith, under the law last, you live by the law, you don’t live by faith you live by obedience or disobedience. Now, it goes ahead to say that you, however, are not controlled by the flesh, but by the Spirit if the Spirit of God lives in you. So folks, if the Spirit of God lives in you, then you have the total capability of being controlled by that spirit. In other words, when I’m lost, I had no ability at all to be controlled by the Spirit, I wasn’t even enveloped by the Spirit. But now that the Spirit of God has come to live within you, you have the wherewithal to be controlled now by the Spirit of God.

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Bob George 14:02
Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of God, it says he doesn’t belong to Christ, you couldn’t be born again apart from having the Spirit of God living in you. But if Christ is in you, your body’s dead because of sin. In other words, his body of ours is headed to the grave, yet your spirit, it’s alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, that’s the Holy Spirit of God is living in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who lives in you. So one of these days, these mortal bodies of ours that is going into the grave, I’m gonna get a new one. That’ll be a blessing. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation there, there’s an obligation that we have because of this, but it’s not to the flesh to live according to it. I’m dead to that. For if you live according to the flesh, you’ll die. In other words, if you’re living apart from God, you’re going to die. I don’t have any obligation to live the life that I used to live before I knew Christ. But if by the Spirit you put to death, the misdeeds of the body, and that’s the only way that those misdeeds of the body could be put to death is by the Spirit. Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. So he said, You didn’t receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father, the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit, that we are children of God. Now, if we are children, then heirs and heirs of God and CO heirs with Christ, if indeed, we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. Now, folks, we have to see that, that what Paul is talking about here is is the fact that if we’re in this body of ours, if we are imprisoned in a body that contains indwelling sin, that there are going to be sufferings connected with that. And he said, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that’s going to be revealed in us. It says, the whole creation, waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, by the will the one who subjected and hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage of decay, and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. It says, We know that the whole creation has been groaning, as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And not only so but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly, as we eagerly await for our adoption as sons the redemption of our bodies. In other words, Paul’s talking about here, it’s the whole nature, which is physical, and our bodies all of this as a part of this world. It’s groaning, it’s decaying, nature’s decaying trees are decaying, plants are decaying, you and I are decaying. This whole physical realm is on a downward spiral downwards. That’s why this philosophy of evolution is so idiotic. There is nothing evolves upwards, everything evolves downwards. Everything is groaning for this redemption to take place. I’ve already thanked God been redeemed in my spirit but my body someday I’m gonna get a new one.

Verse 24, for in this hope we were saved that hope that is seen as no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? I don’t have this new body yet I got a new spirit, but a new body. But if we hope for what we do not yet have we wait for it patiently. And Bob You know, you see age taking place and you see if you’ve ever had a people in nursing homes, so you see people aging and we’re aging, you see the validity of what he’s writing about the the genius of God pouring into the Apostle Paul the truth of these things. Because we are we our bodies are outward shells we live in is, is decaying, it’s getting older, and it’s going to be gone from here someday, but with the promise of that hope that we’re going to get a new one someday. Now it goes in verse 26. In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for. It says there’s some times that we are in such shape that we don’t even know what to pray for. but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans, that words cannot express sometimes the pain that you’re going through is of such intensity, that you don’t know how to do anything except just moan. It’s just painful. But he said, he searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose. And then Bob, we talk about those marvelous passages that deal with the Hebrews and the Gentiles that how that that those he for knew which was the Gentile, He also predestined to be conformed in the likeness of His Son. And those he called he also justified and those who justified he also glorified. So each and every one of us, Hebrew and Gentile alike, have been predestined by God to have the opportunity to come into a relationship with Christ and to those people that he knew were going to come to him to the Hebrew and to the Gentile like he called us. He justified us and he also glorified us, and it nothing’s going to separate us from the love of God. So, what comes up is this that people will ask the question because when we’re in a in the midst of these conflicts, there’s always that thing Well Does God now hate, God saw the sin and dwelling in man, he died to cure the wages of sin, the wages of sin is death. Christ took it for us, that there’s no more sacrifice for our sins, we are no longer those in Christ under the wages of sin being death, we’re now under the gift of God, which is life. But that sin, the stuff that caused all this is still living in our bodies. And as long as we have a body, that indwelling sin is going to be there, the conflict is going to be there. And there’s only one solution to it. And that is total capitulation. To the living Christ who is alive live in us. This is every day walking in an attitude of surrender, and dependency upon Christ to do for us what we absolutely cannot do for ourselves.

When you and I came to Christ, we were set free from the law of sin and death. Now in Galatians, five where we picked up that verse in 5:18, we’re gonna go through that chapter for just a moment. It is for freedom, that Christ set you free. In other words, he bought you in order to set you free, and it says, Stand firm, then don’t let yourself be burdened again by the yoke of slavery, don’t get back into the law folks. Mark my words, I Paul tell you that if you let yourself be circumcised, in other words, if you’re going to go back to the tradition of circumcision, as meaning something, Christ will be of no value to you. And I again, I declared every man who lets himself be circumcised that he’s obligated to obey the whole law. In other words, if you’re going to think that you’re under one part of it, then you might as well think you’re under all of it, because God doesn’t nitpick his law. Now, he said, Are you trying to be justified by law? those of you who are trying to be justified by law, have been alienated from Christ, you fallen away from grace. Now, people, when people talk about falling from grace doesn’t mean they’ve lost salvation. It means that you came to Christ by the grace of God, and you’re allowing yourself to get back under the law again, under the yoke of slavery. And folks, there are many of you listening me today that are absolutely under the yoke of slavery. If you’ve ever been saved, you were saved by grace. And then what you do? get back under the yoke of slavery, the very thing he said, Don’t do. But if by faith, we eagerly await through the Spirit, the righteousness for which we hope for it as in Christ, neither circumcision or uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself through love. And he said, You’re running a good race who cut in on you? Who kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you a little yeast. That’s the law folks, works through the whole batch of dough. And I’m confident in the Lord that you’ll take no other view. The one who’s throwing you into confusion, the teachers of the law today it says we’ll pay the penalty, whoever they may be. Brothers, if I’m still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? If I was still teaching the law? Why would I be persecuted by the legalists? I want to tell you something, folks, people who are in grace, don’t persecute the legalist. The Legalist always persecutes those in grace. The people who were following the love of Christ weren’t trying to persecute the Pharisees. It was the legalistic Pharisees who persecuted the people who are trying to walk in love with a follower of Christ. And I want to tell you something when you’re preaching the law, you’re not going to be persecuted by anybody.

As for these agitators who said, I wish they’d go ahead and go all the way and emasculate themselves it’s a pretty good, pretty good thing he’s saying there. And and we say, that’s Paul loving Paul said, that’s exactly what he’s saying. If you’re going to teach circumcision, we should just go ahead and emasculate yourself altogether. You brothers were called to be free. Don’t use your freedom to involve to indulge the flesh. rather serve one another in love. And the entire law is summed up in a single command. Love your neighbors yourself. And if you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out, you’ll be destroyed by each other. So verse 16, says, live by the Spirit, walk in the Spirit. There’s only there’s only one way you can walk in a spirit folks, and that’s by faith. Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. If you’re led by the Spirit, folks, you’re not under the law. If you’re under the law, you can’t walk by faith, you’ll walk by obedience and disobedience. If you’re under the Spirit, there’s only one way you can walk and that’s by faith allowing the Spirit of God had to do it in through you what he said only he can do. And those who are led by the Spirit, it says, are children of God.

Now Titus two as we pick up in our lesson, it says the grace of God, it is the grace of God that brings salvation that has appeared to all men. And if the grace of God teaches us to say no to ungodliness, and worldly passions, and to live, self controlled, upright and godly lives in this present generation, while we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, to redeem us, by us back from all wickedness and to purify for Himself of people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. Folks, the law of God doesn’t teach you and me to say no to unrighteousness, it’s the grace of God. And so in Galatians, five, Paul’s able to say I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. The desires of the flesh are always going to be there. He didn’t say clean up the flesh and you’ll be spiritual. He didn’t say the desires of the flesh should go away. As long as you’re in this body and trapped in his body of ours imprisoned by it, you’re going to be experiencing the desires of the flesh, they’re there, but you don’t have to gratify them, you don’t have to give into them. For the flesh desires, what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh, they’re in conflict with each other, so that you don’t do what you want. That’s the conflict that is there. But in Second Corinthians 12:9, what did Paul say about all that? He said, My grace is sufficient for you. And my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ power may read might rest on me, folks, is Christ grace sufficient for you? Are we still trying to add to something?

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.