Radio Broadcast Wednesday 02/23/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at The Reality of The Resurrection P38 (02-23-22)

What God did you respond to folks? The god who rewards the righteous or the GOD Who Justifies the Wicked?

We will review a bit of yesterday’s program and then continue on with taking A Closer Look at The Reality of The Resurrection with that same lesson. The importance of this message can not be overstated. God is the one that justifies the wicked. He doesn’t reward the righteous, for there aren’t any. The sooner we understand that, the sooner we come to the end of ourselves and the sooner we can share the full truth of the gospel with others.

Now, is that good news, or is that bad news? Well to the self-righteous, I don’t like that because I want to make myself holy. And so we walk around and think we’re going to make ourselves holy, by what we wear, the length of our hair, what we wear to compare all to everything else. You just go right down the line as to the mindset of the person who thinks they’re going to make themselves holy. But what they do instead of recognizing that if you are in Christ, you’ve already been made that way.

What God did you respond to folks? The god who rewards the righteous or the God who justifies the wicked? Well, it also says that Jesus such a high priest who meets our need is one, who is blameless. So not only is He holy so he made you holy through your identification with Him, but He is also blameless. So, what’d He do? Well, He made you blameless. Also, through our identification with him, Ephesians 1:4, He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. Not only have you been made holy in his sight, you’ve been made blameless in His sight. Now you will notice who’s sight, that’s His sight. Not your sight you and I might not look holy and blameless to each other but you have been made holy and blameless in His sight, because of the one who took your blame set you apart because of Him being set apart. And through your identification with Him, you became holy, He gave to you who He was, He gave you the blameless status, the One who was blameless. He made you blameless. Romans 8:1 and 2 says, and there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That means you’re blameless because of and through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of Life, set you free from the law of sin and death. No man could ever be justified to obedience to the law. But it was through the law that we became conscious of sin. Remember that? And therefore Christ through His work, came and upheld the law through His death, after He had fulfilled the law through His life. Now this high priest Jesus, such a high priest who meets our needs, one who is not only holy and blameless, therefore made you holy and blameless, but it says He is pure.

1 John 1:7
⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

So what did He do for us? 1 John 1:7, if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his Son purifies us from all sin. Now, what is walking in the light? Now some people come up and say, well that’s walking in obedience and obedience folks, light and darkness in the scripture is always lost and saved. And I’m not negating obedience, my friends, but that does not bring about anything. Obedience is a result of what He has brought about. It is not something we do in order for Him to bring about something. It is what we do as a result of what he has already done. Because the Christian life is not that we loved Him, but that He loved us first. So it is our love for Him that results in dependency upon Him, that then results in obedience to Him and it’s in that order. And we’re out trying to get people obedient. Until we get them in love and dependent, and that’s where the grace of God is totally paramount to obedience because obedience is not something you do. It’s a result of who you are. It’s a result of what He did now, so He made you pure. If we walk in the light that’s saved.

Folks, darkness and light is lost and saved. If we walk in the light, you’re in the light, God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If you walk in the light, as he Christ Jesus is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. You and Jesus have fellowship with one another now. That’s not being in and out of fellowship that I’m in the light, but a sin so I go into darkness. Because there’s no way to get in darkness when you sin if you’re in the light because the blood of Jesus His Son purifies you from every sin immediately automatically. So, how could you ever get in darkness? So darkness is lost. It has nothing to do with being out of fellowship, which is also taught that you’re not going to find in the scripture that if you are in Christ. In the light as God is in the light you and God In the light have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son keeps on continually cleansing purifying you from all sin. So Jesus, such a high priest who meets our needs, one who is pure, what does he do? It purifies you from all sin? Anything to do with that folks? No. You’re just walking in the light that you are now in today, you can’t walk in darkness. Now, folks as a Christian where if you are going to sin, where are you going to have to sin, in darkness or sin in the light? That’s why it’s not as much fun. It doesn’t have anything to do at all with when you sin you go into darkness. You can’t go into darkness anymore. Darkness is lost. You have to sin in the light. But when you do, sin in the light, you have the assurance that God his Son continually keeps on purifying you from every sin imaginable. That’s your faith in Him and His blood, and that’s what enables you to have continual fellowship with Him. Realizing it, you’re in the light with Him. It’s not that you get in fellowship with Him as a result of being purified from all sin. It’s the fact that because you are in fellowship with Him, walking by faith, in the fact that He is continually purifying you from all sin, is what makes you fall in love with the God, who is doing this. Not that we loved Him and He loved us first. And then realizing I have a God that I can depend upon for everything in my life. And that’s what draws you to the heart of the love of God. And that’s what this man with a God like that, what do I need to be sinning for. It’s stupid and it’s what again brings about what we emphasize obedience which certainly is there, but it is not. Love is the emphasis, obedience is the byproduct.

We’re kind of bouncing off of Hebrews 7 in that passage of scripture of 7 26 and 28, and dealing with the fact that we have this high priest Jesus Christ, one who meets our needs, one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens and perfect forever and showing that how through when we come to Christ by faith through our identification with Him that he made us all of those things. He is holy. He made us holy through that one sacrifice. He is blameless. He has made us blameless in his sight by that sacrifice. He is pure. He’s the one who threw His substitutionary death on the cross for us, his eternal life where He is constantly interceding on our behalf. He is constantly purifying us from every sin. He’s pure. He continually purifies us now. It says he was set apart from sinners.

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1 Corinthians 6:11
¹¹ And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

So 1 Corinthians 6:11 says well, that’s what some of you were sinner, but you were washed. You were sanctified, now that kind of knocks out progressive sanctification, folks. You were sanctified, you were, you were justified, you were sanctified, you are glorified. That’s all done. It’s all by Him. You were sanctified, you were set apart. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And by the Spirit of our God. Now, folks, you can’t say, well, there’s progressive justification and you can’t say there’s progressive sanctification. It’s all in the same verse that’s in past tense. You were washed. You were sanctified, you were justified all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of our God.

Now what “is sanctified” mean? To walk around with a kind of sickly grin on your face with your head tilted over to one side, trying to look holy? No, sanctified is a very very practical word. It means to be set apart for the use in which you were created. A lightbulb has been sanctified when you turn it on, it was made to give light when you flick on the switch connected with the electricity. It gives light. You’re sanctifying it as you’re using it for the intelligent purpose for which it was created. You have a watch on your arm. You could use that watch and stick it on your ears as earrings, if you wanted to. It would look a little silly, but you could do so if you wanted to do it, but you wouldn’t be sanctifying it, you wouldn’t be using it for the intelligent purpose for which you were created. You look at the watch to see what time it is. You’re sanctifying your watch, you’re using it for what it was made for, to tell you what time it is. On Sunday mornings I see people sanctifying their watch after about an hour of teaching and maybe some of you are doing that right now, but that’s what you’re doing, if you’re using them for the intelligent purpose for which they were created. You have shoes. I guess that you could serve and pour water out of them and drink out of them if you were so inclined to do so. You wouldn’t be sanctifying and probably make yourself sick, but you wouldn’t be sanctifying your shoes. When you put them on and walk in, I’m here using them for the reason they were created. That’s what it means to be sanctified folks. It’s a very practical terminology again. You were set apart, from God, from the world. For sure. the very moment that you became born again. Now, you don’t sanctify yourself more, again, by what you wear and the color of your hair, or the length of your hair, or where you go to church, or what day you go to church or any of those things. You’ve already been set apart by God, to be used for the intelligent purpose for which He created you, a vehicle, a vessel through Him, holy in Him, whom the Holy Spirit lives and through whom he wants to use our bodies, in order to complete his work of Love here on this Earth. It’s already taken place. You’ve been washed. You were, you were set apart. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God that lives in you. Well, it says not only are you, holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, that’s what He is, and that’s what He’s made you.

But He has been exalted above the heavens. Well, what about us on that one? Well, look at Ephesians 2:6 God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. That’s already taken place in His sight. He’s not limited by time folks. He doesn’t live in the past, present or future. He just lives. He just is when he said I am. He didn’t say I was, or I is, or I will. He says, I Am the I Am. That means I’m just always there. So as far as God is concerned you are already seated with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. Folks, can you comprehend that as far as God is concerned, this work has already been completed the very moment that you were justified by faith. You were sanctified, set apart. You were glorified, you’re already seated there as far as God is concerned, who sees everything at once. So, is that something again? Can you walk away from God? Well, can you walk away from where He is? Is he seated in the heavenlies with Christ Jesus? Yeah, you are already there. How are you going to walk away from that?

So folks, this eternal, this thing of eternal eternal life is exactly what it means, eternal. Your eternal inheritance is exactly what it means. It is eternal. This is all folks, the work of God. It has nothing at all to do with you and me. It’s everything that He did. Now there are those whose God or which God, you responded to. If you responded to a god, other than the one who justifies the wicked and responded to a god who rewards the righteous. I’m sorry. That is not God, you’ve responded to something else, to say, except the God of this universe. You’ve made up your own. You’ve been taught your own. But if you have responded to the God, who justifies the wicked, the One who says, no one will ever be justified in My sight through obedience to the law, because you can’t. If you’ve responded to the God who sent his own Son, who through His physical life, fulfilled the law, through his physical death, upheld the law, and through that death paid the price for you and me. Paid a debt He didn’t owe for you and I, to death, that we couldn’t pay. For the God who was raised from the dead so that you and I could identify with Him and share in His resurrected life. The same way, we share in his sufferings that Jesus, that Jesus is the One who gave you an eternal inheritance.

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You can call that once saved always saved if you want to. You can call it eternal security if you want to. You can call that eternal inheritance if you want to. But my friends, to deny the fact of the eternal consequence of His act for you, and you’re entering into that by faith and faith alone is to deny the work of God. Now, He also was He holy and is blameless and pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens and did all of those things for you. It says, he was also made perfect forever.

Hebrews 10:14
¹⁴ For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Now, that’s nice, what did He do for us? Well, Hebrews 10:14 because of one sacrifice, He has (past tense), made perfect forever, those who are made holy. Now folks, if He has made you perfect forever. How long do you think you’re going to be perfect in his sight? Forever! Remember in Ephesians 1:4, He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. To be perfect in His sight. Not your sight, not my sight, not your pastor’s sight. HIS sight!

How perfect are you right now in the sight of God? How many of you right now would know that in the sight of God you’re as perfect as the Apostle Paul? How many of you know right now know you are as perfect as Jesus Christ? Not because you are Christ because indeed you’re not. But you’ve been made that way by the One who is. How many know right now that you can say. Oh, Father in my sight in your sight, you made me perfect. In your sight you have made me holy. In your site you have made me blameless. In your sight you have made me righteous. Because folks, if you can’t say that with all confidence, you haven’t come to grips with your inheritance yet. And if you haven’t, I say, why not? It’s like having a million bucks in the bank and living in poverty, because you’re scared to go write a check. It almost seems preposterous to us that God could do that for us. Well it is, we say, well, I’m not deserving. You’re right. Well, I’m not worthy. Believe it. It’s worthy is the Lamb, not the sheep.

Folks, this God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob revealed in Christ. Identified as God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Same One, the One who justified Abraham through his faith, the same one who justifies us as gentiles by that same faith, the one who came to justify the wicked, not to reward the righteous. He’s the One who did all these things for you. It’s a part of your inheritance. How do we enter into that? By faith! It is one of those things people say, oh that’s positional stuff. And in other words, that’s what He did up in heaven. Well bless your little heart, if it’s positional, it’s real! And if that’s what He did for you in heaven, there’s only one way that I can enter into anything you did for me in heaven on this earth, and that’s my faith and walk by faith here on this earth, and what He’s already secured as the guarantor of the guarantee that is being kept for me in heaven. Thank God it’s being kept up there instead of down here. When are we going to understand that? Folks it seems like, oh, that’s preposterous. It just can’t be. It’s too good to be true. If It wasn’t true it wouldn’t be good. And the only place that truth can be found is in Christ Jesus, the one who is the truth. And it’s because He is the truth and this is the truth that it is so good. And instead of denying because of our own inadequacies. When are we going to walk by faith in the fact that it’s all Him and none of us.

Well, folks, go to our lesson on page 66; finally got to it. And not only have we been made holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens, perfect forever, but Roman 3, 23, and 24 and 28 we’re told we have been justified. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Not a one of us have not. And are justified how? Freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith. Totally apart, from observing the law. If we were justified by observing the law again, it would be a reward. Wouldn’t it? Rewarding the righteous instead of justifying the wicked.

Justified? Some people come of with that means just as if I’d never sinned. Folks, it’s so much more than that. Justification includes far more than just being forgiven. Reconciliation was dealing with sins; forgiven. Justification is dealing with his life. It’s so much more than just as if you had never sinned; you’ve been imputed with His life, His righteousness. Not only have we been justified, and it’s far more than just justified, just as if I’d never sinned. I don’t know how you do that in German, but at any rate, we put those meetings on those things. But the fact of the matter is that when you’ve been justified, it really was through His life. We were reconciled through the death of his Son. How much more having been reconciled, shall we be saved by His life, and we were justified through His blood, which is His life. That’s what justification is talking about. That through His resurrected life all of these things have become real because it’s in His life that we have our inheritance and all of these things are a part of that inheritance. So we’ve been justified by God.

Ephesians 1:4
⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love

We just talked about being chosen by God, Ephesians 1:4, chosen in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight and again folks that is not chosen in Him before the creation of the world to be “saved”, as some people will teach. That does not talk about being saved at it; just the chosen are saved. You are saved through faith in Christ, not because He chose you but because it was God’s will that all that none should perish and all should come to repentance. That was God’s will, but all people are not going to respond to that will. And to those who do (respond to that will of God) have been chosen before the foundation of the earth before to all who come to him by faith, that was already predetermined that they would be made holy and blameless in His sight through what His Son did.

That was a part of chosen in Him before the creation of the world. That is what predestination is talking about. Not predestined to be saved, but predestined to be made holy in His sight to all who came to him by faith and His substitutionary death for us. There’s no rejoicing in coming to him for his death thinking I was chosen in His resurrection anyways. I mean, how can I identify with His death and His resurrection and rejoice in these suffering? And in His life if it was already just foreordained? No, no. No, you’re going to come and look at Him and His bleeding face and the nails in His hands and in His feet and you’re going to realize I deserved to be there. It’s not, I was chosen not to be, but I deserve to be there. I was raised with Him and then come to the understanding that because of coming to Him by faith and what He did for me, and in me, and to me, that to that person who is a child of God this is all a part of your inheritance. That inheritance was chosen before the foundation of the earth to be holy and blameless in His sight.

It would be like a person going to an orphanage to adopt a son. That son doesn’t know he’s going to be adopted, the parents know they’re going to adopt someone and the parent goes and says I’d like to adopt someone. Anyone here want to be adopted? Now, it was already chosen before going there, to whatever child responded to that offer, that he was going to be the joint heir of everything that we have. That’s not up for grabs as to whether or not. He’s going to get the catillac someday, that’s already preordained. Pre-established that whoever responds to my offer for adoption that they are going to be a part of my inheritance. It’s the same thing to all who come to Him by faith. He chose before the creation of the world, that person who comes to him by faith, in the work of Jesus Christ would be made holy and blameless in his sight forever. Now, that’s good news! Isn’t it? Totally forgiven!

Colossians 2:13,14
¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[a] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

Colossians 2:13 and 14 when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you, what? alive with, who? Christ. He forgave us all of our sins, having canceled the written code. That’s the law folks with its regulation that was against us and stood opposed to us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross. Why was the law against us? Why did it stand opposed to us? Because we can’t obey it. That’s what Paul said, nothing wrong with law. The law is holy and good. But when it flowed through me it killed me, I wouldn’t have known what sin was he said, unless the law was that said, don’t covet. But he said when the law said don’t covet sin, seizing opportunity stirred up every kind of covetous desire inside of me because the power of sin is in the law. All sin has to do to get activated, is the law say, don’t do it. But it sure makes you want to. He said, it stood opposed to us. So he canceled the law in those of us who understood that through His life He fulfilled the law, and through His death, upheld the law, for the wages of sin is death and he took it for us, thus upholding the law and therefore through the initiation was able to initiate the new covenant, having the law fulfilled through His life, the punishment for sin in his death upholding, the law in his death.

Therefore able to usher in a brand new covenant. I fulfilled the law. I paid the price of the cross, for all of those who could not do that, thus upholding the law that the wages of sin is death. And I took it and now I’m able to usher in a new covenant whereby their sins and lawless deeds are remembered no more. Now folks, when are we going to walk by faith in that? You see you’re not walking by faith by continuing to keep yourself forgiven. That is not faith; it’s faith, but it’s faith in you and not in Him. You’re not walking by faith in the One who came to justify the wicked.

You’re walking by faith in some other god. God didn’t come to die for 99.9% of your sins. He didn’t come to take away 80% of them. He didn’t come to die for the sins that you had committed all up until the time you came to Him. And then the rest of them were up on you. If that’s the case, you would certainly never encourage children coming to the Lord early because all your sins could have been done as children, as a child. You stop to think he came to Christ at eight, lived to 80, you realize that all your life you’ve been sinning. I mean, just ludicrous. You’d say, don’t wait till you’re about to die. So that all your sins be taken away. So you won’t miss so many in case you don’t keep up with them. Folks, it is ludicrous what are we doing in the teaching of forgiveness. We’re no different than an old testament form of teachings. He already had a system of forgiveness like that; it was called atonement, where you have to keep going back and get forgiven over and over and over again. He died once. He made you alive, you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful nature and what a dead person needs is life. He made you alive when he did, he forgive all your sins. He canceled the law that killed you in order that you can be raised in the newness of life. He took it away, nailing it to the cross.

Romans 5:10
¹⁰ For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Therefore, Romans 5:10 saved by his life. When you were God’s enemies, you were reconciled to Him, (that’s past tense) through the death of his Son, how much more now having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life. What are we saved from? Death. When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.

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.

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