Radio Broadcast Wednesday 03/30/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ P09 (03-30-22)

In Christ Jesus You are a Child of God – A Saint

I don’t think there’s a more important subject that we can deal with than our identity. First of all, I think the most important subject that we have to deal with is His identity and that’s Christ. And of course not only do most people, not only not know who He is, but because we don’t know who He is, we don’t know who we are. And so we really don’t know a whole lot when it comes right down to it. I think the other thing is because we’re in such a mindset that our identity comes from what we do, that the reality of that is and the problem with that is, we go out and do something and we don’t even know who it is that did it. If we don’t understand who we are, so when my identity is in what I do, I can say well I do this, I’m a preacher. I’m a basketball player. I’m a housewife, but if that’s according to what I’m doing in otherwards, if It’s I’m a housewife because I’m sweeping the floor and I’m cooking meals, that’s what I’m doing. But again, I don’t know who it is doing if until I come to grips with my true identity.

And as we’ve talked about before, for a person to have an identity, he’s going to have to have it an identity and something that is constant. Otherwise, you’ve got a pretty flimsy identity. Now, again, if my identity is based in what I’m doing, what happens when I have to start doing something else? In other words if I’m a pro basketball player or a pro football player, who am I going to be when I can’t play anymore? Well, now my identity is an ex-football player, right? If my identity is in being a doctor, who would I be if I stopped practicing medicine and or if I was a surgeon, if my hands got cut off. Who would I be then? Well, I’d be a ex-surgeon. So you see it continues going down when we’re young, my/our identity is kind of, I’m a student. You know, what are you? I’m a high school student or a college student. And then we get away from that. And again, we have an identity crisis. We really don’t know for sure. Who we are.

So in my particular case I was a college student and then became a businessman suit. And then I became an army private in the army. That was nice and all of those kind of identities that all of a sudden you’re having all of these identities and you really don’t know who you are at all. And I can remember many times of looking in the mirror during those years and looking back and saying, who is this staring back at me because you’re one thing at home, you’re another thing at work. You’re another thing at play. And so it’s kind of like there was an old television program years ago that was based upon that type of thing. I think it was based around multi identities. It was an FBI man. And so he had all these different identities, why after a while you don’t know who you are. And so it is so vitally important that we come to grips with that.

Now, as we’ve said before that a person, he has no identity at all, apart from his relationship with someone or something else. I used the illustration before that if all of a sudden, you found yourself alive for the first time on a desert island and a voice came out of heaven, saying, who are you? You look around at yourself and you would not have a clue. There would be no way to bring identity for that. Being all of a sudden, Bob Davis comes up in a ship and gets out and says, hi, I’m Bob Davis. I’m your father. And somebody says, okay. Now, who are you? I’d be able to say, I’m David. I’m Bob Davis’ son. I now have an identity based upon who I’m identified with. So that’s why, because we do not have a true identity apart from having it, with someone or something else, is why we see people latching on to practically anything in our desperate need to discover who we are.

So, if a person tells you, an alcoholic, you’re an alcoholic, will be at least I know who I am. I mean, it seemed like it’d be bad news, but it isn’t. That’s good news. Now I know who I am. I think that’s why you see people today walking around and just so proud that I’m gay. I’m homosexual. I say, why would you be proud of that one? It’s based around a sexual activity. What you know, why would you be proud of that? That’s because I have an identity. And I want to tell you something, if you don’t have any identity in Christ, why I guess that identity is as good as any of them. Do you see what I’m getting at? In other words, that’s why you’ll see people I’m gay and I’m proud of it. Well, what have you said, that’s my identity. So my identity is based upon my sexual preference. Absolutely, you know. And again, I think it’s just a matter of time till all the adulterers in the world can stand up and say, hey, I’m, form a club. Hey, I’m an adulterer, you know, at least you got some identity, may not have a wife left, but you got some identity now. So people are going to determine their identities in so many different ways. And we’ve studied a few of those already, their appearance, their occupation, their abilities, their family relationships, friends, denominational affiliation is a big one. We just love to be able to say, I’m a Baptist, or I’m a Catholic or a Presbyterian or Methodist or Plymouth Brethren or just just a myriad of names that are out there. Available to get an “I’m a.” That’s who I am. So who I’m, I’m that’s who I am. At least on Sunday. Now on Monday through Saturday, why I’m an attorney. But on Sunday, I’m a Baptist. And so we’ve got all these type of things and they’re confusing after a while because there’s no other way ultimately to come down to the point of saying, I really do not know who I am.

I had a young man that was around the ministry. At one time, we discovered quite by accident, we are, we’re not looking for it. But discovered by accident that this was a guy that was working inside the confines of the church, but at the same time, having another life of homosexuality taking place. And with young boys. And I can remember in counseling with this young man afterwards, of finding that out, and sitting down and he made a statement to me and we really hadn’t studied identity very much. I was a young Christian at that time and I really hadn’t thought through this subject. But this statement was what got me thinking to study the subject. He said, I don’t know if I’m a Christian practicing homosexuality or I’m a homosexual practicing Christianity. And I stepped back from that situation and thought about it and said, you know, there’s the problem and there is also the problem of we’re having your identity based in a sin is such a tragedy. Because what has happened is that homosexuality, or adultery, or stealing, or lying, or slandering, or any of those sins that are talked about in scripture can get such a hold on you that after a while you look in the mirror and say I’m a slander. I’m a liar. I’m a thief. I’m a homosexual. I’m an adulterer, because that has got such a grasp on you that Satan convinces you that’s who you are, and I couldn’t help thinking from that remark, I don’t know whether I’m a Christian practicing homosexuality, or whether I’m a homosexual practicing Christianity.

And so my friends, you see, we have got to come to grips. With who am I? Not from man’s vantage point, not by what I’m doing, not by where I go or where I don’t go, but based upon who does God say that you are. Because who God says you are is going to be truth throughout eternity. You know, unfortunately, the tragedy of modern day Christianity is in many instances are utter ignorance of who we are in Christ. And as a result of not knowing that, many Christians struggle wondering if God loves them. If God is going to be faithful to his promise to complete the work He began in them? If God is going to take them into heaven, when they die? All kinds of questions come up if we do not understand who we are in Christ. And again until we come to grips with who we are in Christ, we do not know who we are, because the only place that we have to establish that is in the world.

Now what I’d like to do is to therefore begin our study with the statement that a believer’s identity in Christ is not a side issue folks. It’s the central issue in regard to experiencing what the real Christian life is all about. If I did not know who I was in Christ, I would be a goner today and so it is absolute paramount, it is not a side issue. It is the central issue of living the Christian life.

Now as we go to 1 Corinthians 15:22. We’re going to see how God divides humanity in 15:22. It says for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. And so from God’s point of view, folks there are only two kinds of people in this world. Now, those in Adam are called pld natural man. Those in Christ are called spiritual man. So once again, from God’s vantage point, there’s only two kinds of people: spiritual and natural, in Adam and in Christ.

Another designation is a person in Adam is called a sinner. A sinner is one who has not exercised faith in Christ. That’s what Jesus said, the world’s sin is unbelief in Me. And so a sinner is not one who sends a sinner is one, who is dead in Adam? A natural man. So now that’s from a Biblical standpoint. Now we call anybody who does anything a sinner. But God calls lost people, sinners. So when you were a sinner and you were saved by grace, you now have a new identity called a saint. So once again, another identity, a saint. Those in Christ, not what you do that but where you are those in Christ. And a sinner, those in Adam. So if we’ll keep that in mind for as in, Adam all die. What are, who are those in Adam? Those who are dead spiritually, those who are called Sinners, meaning, an unbeliever. Those people who are called natural man. Who are those in Christ? Those are ones who are now in Christ. They are called spiritual man, they are called Saints. They are called alive. So as in Adam, all die. So in Christ, all will be made alive. So once again, from God’s point of view, only two kinds of people in the world and therefore their identities are determined by who they are identified with. And so, who are you identified with, who are you in? Well, if you’re in Adam, you’re identified with Adam, if you are in Christ, then you are identified to be in Christ.

The language to be in Adam and be in Christ is strange language to us. In fact, it’s foolish language to a lost person and that’s why it says the natural man, that’s someone in Adam remember, cannot understand spiritual things. It sounds foolish to him because spiritual things have to be discerned spiritually, and you cannot discern a spiritual thing out there until you are spiritual in here. And so, it’s strange language to the lost person and in many instances is strange to us as a brand new Christian until the Spirit of God begins to reveal what that means. But again, biblically to be in someone, means that that person is our family head. We are in the United States as an example. We are a citizen of the United States. Well, that has some meaning to it, the United States, as long as I’m a citizen and I’m a part of the government. The decisions that the government make, and most the time anymore unfortunately, affect me in an adverse way, used to affect us in a positive way but mostly in an adverse way today. But because I’m a citizen of this country, the decisions that the president makes and the Congress and Senate makes affects your and my destiny.

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Now, the same thing was true in Russia. When Amy would have been a Russian citizen that they, she was in Russia. That meant she was in the entire system. She was in that country. She was under their jurisdiction. She was under their supervision and therefore, the decisions that were made, made by the government, totally affected their lives. Now those decisions made by a government under demagoguery, under communism, that type of thing, obviously, affect the citizens in an adverse way more than in a democracy, but the fact of the matter is in both cases, you are totally affected by those decisions. So when I am in Adam, it’s like I am a citizen of Adam, I belong to him. I’m a part of him. He’s the head of my family and as such, he’s left us his name, his nature, his inheritance and his destiny. You and I are born into this world in Adam. I have two ears, and a nose, and two eyes, because Adam had two ears, a nose, and two eyes. I have two arms and ten fingers because Adam had those. I’ve got toes because Adam had toes. Everything that he was were born into this, now I realize there are birth defects where people are born without some of those things, and that is an oddity, that’s a birth defect. But the fact of the matter is physically, we are in Adam. And in Eve, obviously for the, for the for females, but as they were, we became physically. Well, as they became spiritually, we were born into that.

And that’s why as we’ve talked about that. It says, in the scripture, that Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, but it says, in the fifth chapter of Genesis that when Adam and Eve had Seth, Seth was born in the image of Adam. So, Adam and Eve were a created being they were not born, they were created and they were created in the image of God, alive bodily, soulesly and spiritually. So that spiritual life, they were born with God, living in them occupying their human spirit. Now, man, in order to be man, has to be in as much as he is. A man made up of body, soul and spirit. He has to have a human spirit that is separate from the Holy Spirit. Otherwise the Holy Spirit would be the human spirit and human spirit to be the Holy Spirit. So, there’s two spirits involved here, man’s spirit, which is a part of the way God created a man. And God’s Spirit living and dwelling in that man.

Now when God created Adam and Eve, He created them alive in all ways. Now because God was living in Adam as a created being, that did not make Adam God. He was a man in-dwelt by God in the same way Jesus called the last Adam, as the federal headship of all humanity. He is God, clothed in an earth suit. Adam is a man, in-dwelt by God. Jesus was God, clothed in humanity. Now because Adam was a man, in-dwelt by God, did not make him God. And Jesus, He was God in an earth suit, does not make Him totally man. He took upon himself, our humanity as and it says in the scriptures finding himself in an appearance as a man. He humbled himself, but that was God finding himself in an appearance as a man just as it was Adam, as a man finding himself in-dwelt by God. So, you had two different discoveries that were taking place there a created, be finding himself in, but by God and God finding himself made in the image of man, but in both cases, one is God the last Adam in an earth suit and Adam was a man Adam in-dwelt by God.
Now, there are people today who when they think that you are born again, and God comes to live within us, that we’re a bunch of little Christs running around. And therefore anything I think must be God. And so if I think that I’m that I’m healed. Well, then I’m healed because I’m God and after all God says something, well, that’s true. And if I think that I ought to be a millionaire, why then I ought to be a millionaire because that’s God speaking. If I’m thinking it, that’s God’s thoughts, after all He lives in me.

And if I walk up to you and say to Bob, I got a word of knowledge and your arms are going to fall off. Well, you better watch for your arms to fall off. Because this is God speaking. See, and there’s that type of all I can say is just total confusion and deception that is taking place in the Christian world today because we are in-dwelt by God, that were little gods running around and we totally negate the truth of the fact that Christ God is living in me, but he’s living in this thing called humanity, that as indwelling sin living in it. That’s as rotten as it ever was. And that’s why it has to be daily renewed. And my mind has to be daily renewed by truth to keep this thing set free. Free to do what? Serve a living God rather than give in to the Indulgence of my flesh. And so it is so vitally important that we get those things clear. I am a child of the living God, but I am not God. I have God living in me. And so do you if you’re born again. Thank God for that. But the reason for Him coming to live in you is to restore you back to true humanity, as God meant, true humanity to be at the time He created man, whereby, God is back in the man indispensable to the humanity of the man that is from God’s vantage point. So that’s why we’re called a new creation. You see when I was born, although I may look like a creation when I was born. I was born. That was Mom and Dad did that, you know, God didn’t do that. Mom and Dad did that, I was born. When I am born again. I am called a new creation. Not a new birth. It’s a new birth in as much as you’re born again, but that being born is, born spiritually by God. Now, who is the one who birthed me the second time? God. Yes, and you and I are in-dwelt by a living God. That’s unbelievable. But it is true that Chris Jesus is now alive living in you and me. And that my friends is our only hope of glory. Once again, as Adam died and it says, the day that you eat thereof you will surely, what? Die. Now, we look at death as something that as just disappeared out of existence, but you see death is nothing more than the absence of life. So what you died to, is the absence of something.

When Amy renounced her Russian citizenship as an example, to become an American citizen, she died to Russian citizenship. She died to Communism. She died to the tyranny of it. She died to the location of it. She died to all of it. She’s dead to it. In order to what? To be a DP? No, to be a new citizen, right. And now she is alive to her American citizenship and therefore dead to the Russian citizenship. Again, is it possible to get rid of your Russian citizenship, renounce it, become an American citizenship, but still carry some of those old communistic thoughts along with you? Is that possible to do one? Of course it is. And there are many people who are American citizens today, who are very proud again, their pride keeps them hanging onto their old communistic viewpoints. And so even though they sound American, and they still want to drag some of that stuff over. Now what’s their problem? Are they alive to being a citizen? Yeah, they’re a citizen. But are they alive to that citizenship totally? Not really. Are they dead to this over here? Not really. They’re out of it. There’s been a change of identity, but their old habits and our own thought patterns are just drug over. So there is an essence in which even though the citizenship has taken place. They haven’t yet died to Communism. And therefore, have never come alive to democracy. They’re in it, but they’re not alive to it.

The same thing can be true in regard to marriage. You can get married. Are you married? Yes, if you’re married. Are you single? No. If you’re single, are you married? No. When you’re married, you’re married, so you’re not single, but as a married person now can you carry on for years and years and years with single thoughts, and single activities and single habits? Yes, you can. Now, what’s your problem? You’ve changed identity, but you haven’t died to your old life. And therefore, you’ve never come alive to marriage and folks until you die to singleness, you’ll never come alive to your marriage. You can be married legally and from a judicial standpoint and yes, you are married and you are recognized as married. And if you, if you, if you check the books, it’s a marriage. But until you die to singleness, you don’t come alive to who you are. You see, you’ve got a new identity, but you’re not alive to that new identity because you’re not dead to your old identity. And so folks. I hope you’re catching what I’m saying here because if you are in Christ you have a new identity, and that’s secure. You’re married. Now, you’re going to be for the rest of your life in the process. And God is in the process of teaching you to be dead to who you were in Adam, to your thoughts in Adam, to the thoughts in the world that are adamic thoughts, adamic ideas, adamic philosophies, adamic psychologies and it’s saying I’m going to teach you to die. To those things, you’re already dead to it legally but to die to those things so that you can come alive to the thoughts of Christ, the attitudes of Christ, the mindset of Christ, the activities of Christ because until you die to this, you’ll never come alive to your new identity.

So folks, it’s not just the case that I was an Adam, now I’m in Christ and whoop-de-do, and just I mean, I’m just going to lay around down and sing songs and eat bonbons and just be, just be thrilled out of my socks for the rest of my life. It doesn’t work that way. You’ve drugged a lot of baggage into this new relationship. And so, from that point on, it’s a new relationship and folks that is that new relationship in Christ is forever. He’ll never leave you nor forsake you, but He also says in that relationship where I’ll never leave you nor forsake you, I’m to be spending the rest of my life, completing the work that I began in you. And so, there’s the process.

Now, with this, let’s take a closer look at our inheritance, that was left to us by Adam’s wonderful inheritance. Say gee, I got it, went to the attorney. What’s my inheritance? Well, you’re lost, you’re a sinner. Your dad is saying, is there another attorney in the house? Like a read of another will. Now in Romans 5 19, it says, Just as through the disobedience of one man, the many were made sinners. Now that’s that’s talking about Adam there, through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners.

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.