Radio Broadcast Wednesday 05/18/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ P30 (05-18-22)

What Does The Therefore Mean? It is Finished!

Quit going back to your religious system of forgiveness. Quit going to your confession booth. Quit using 1st John 1:9 to keep yourself forgiven. Quit calling God a liar.

In today’s lesson, from the Bible study booklet, A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ, available for purchase from our online Bob George Ministries ecommerce store

Just as a person’s physical growth is based on proper diet and exercise, so is the Christians’s spiritual growth dependent on regular feeding upon the word of God and application of its principles. With more false teaching, shifting opinions and general confusion in the world than ever before, Christians need a solid foundation upon which to base their beliefs and build their lives. The word of God declares that Jesus Christ is that foundation of truth. With that in mind, let’s now take A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ.

And I thought as tragic as that war was, my mind also flashbacked to the Civil War that was here in this country. And in my opinion, one of the worst atrocities that ever occurred in America was a Civil War. I do not know the historical aspect of how many people were killed in the Civil War. But I would imagine it would be numbers exceeding what we talked about there. And the tragedy of that type of thing was that here we were in our own country, fighting each other. Here we were Americans fighting Americans. In many instances children fighting their parents and parents fighting their children. Brothers against brother. There’s one brother living in the north and other in the south that are both dressed, in one in a Union uniform and another in a Confederate uniform shooting each other. And you look at that and you say how can anything be any more tragic than people who in essence belong to one another through citizenship through birth citizenship to be engaged in a war with each other? The Battle of the Bulge and World War 2 was talking about two different countries, two different languages two different cultures, fighting each other and you say well that’s kind of natural. You can understand that. But when you think about people of the same citizenship, people with the same family, fighting each other. It’s almost beyond comprehension.

And then you, what took place as a result of this New Covenant that took place whereby God said, I’m going to bring in a New Covenant. In this new covenant, I’m going to make a new race of people right now in the world. There’s Hebrew and then there’s Gentile and they’re different from each other and their Customs are different from each other, and they talk different than each other. And they look different than each other. But I’m going to take the Hebrew and Gentile and I’m going to make another Nation. Another group of people is going to be called the Church, going to be called the Ecclesia. It’s going to be called the called out ones. You have children of Israel and you have children of the devil, in essence, both of them, but an essence of Gentiles. And I’m going to make you children of the living God, both Hebrew and Gentile, slave and free. It’s going to be a another generation, another group. Another body of people here on the face of this Earth. And so for 2000 years, people individually have been coming to Christ accepting him as their Lord and their Savior, and being born again of the Spirit of God and becoming children of the living God, brothers and sisters in Christ. And you look at that and you say, marvelous and then you look at it. And you say civil war because within the confines of what is called Born Again, I believe there is civil war among people, brothers and sisters, fighting each other rumorrising each other. Slandering one another, trying to destroy one another. Taking the weaknesses has many times of one another and exposing it to the world who is ready at the drop of a hat, anyway, that try to destroy someone that’s an alien to them. Just like a German and American is a non-Christian. An America is a non Christian, and a Christian. They’re not family. They’re not of the same citizenship. I am an American physically, but spiritually, we are children of God. We are people who are called citizens of heaven. So, here we are with the identical citizenship called brothers and sisters in Christ and yet, pridefully and stupidly we take off against one another and it’s as tragic as a civil war ever thought of be. We may not fire bullets at one another. Although some people do very proudly say that I killed somebody because I’m standing for truth. You see that with a recent guy that killed some doctor who was in the abortion clinics and pridefully so to say, I will do standing for truth. Whose truth? God’s truth? When has God ever say for you to go out and kill somebody? If somebody’s killing somebody an abortion, they’ve got to deal with that individually. For me to go out and kill somebody who’s doing it, why all I’m doing is what the Bible talks about is judging others and yet doing the same thing. So we get our minds confused and we forget that we’ve been called as a family of God and for goodness sake, if there’s ever a group of people that ought to be sticking together and quit trying to destroy each other and standing up for each other and quit looking for our weaknesses and rejoice in our strengths, and to quit trying to expect people to be something different than what we are. We’re just frail human beings.

If anyone’s going love Bob George, you’re going to have to love him warts and all. Don’t have to love me. But if you are, you’re going to have to love me warts and all. What has happened, many times in the Christian world is we have forgotten that we have been cleansed of all unrighteousness. We have been forgiven of all of our sins. And anybody who is in Christ has been the recipient of the same cleansing and the same forgiveness and inasmuch as you had to be cleansed and I had to be cleansed, it meant that there was a need in both of us. And that means that we should never be in a position of judging one another because we all needed cleansed. And we all need to forgiven. As I said, if anyone’s going to like me, they don’t have to, they don’t have to love me. But if they do, they’re going to have to love me warts at all. They’re gonna have to love Bob George who has good points and bad points. A Bob George that sometimes says good things, sometimes says bad things. A Bob George that sometimes does things right, and sometimes does things wrong, because that’s who I am, and incidentally that’s who you are. And if I’m going to love you, I’m gonna have to love you the same. Warts and all. The choice isn’t whether you’re going to have warts or not. That’s not a choice. You got them. And so do I. The choice isn’t whether you have good points and bad points. That’s not a choice. You’ve got them. So why the choice that we have is are we going to extend the love of God as brothers and sisters in Christ to each other or engage in a civil war?

When we look at a Civil War in all of its gory detail, we look at that and say that is the most unbelievably evil thing that I’ve ever seen in my life. And yet that same kind of evil is taking place all over the world, people who are children of God here we are with real enemies out there, wanting to destroy our country real enemies. And here we are fighting with each other. Making each other enemies. God says, you’re not enemies. You’re my children. I died. I was sacrificed for you. I’ve given my life for you. Now for goodness sakes, love one another. And that’s what the New Covenant was all about. I forgave you, now forgive one another. I have taken you and released you from the law and the righteous demands of that and the punishment of it. Now quit punishing one another. If I am not punishing you any longer, and quit punishing one another. Learn to love one another, learn to accept one another, learn to walk in the newness of life. Not an oldest of life that anybody in the world can do. Any Heathen can be even, any Heathen can rumorrise another brother. Any Heathen can do that. That is not of God. We have to look at our own actions, my friends and the actions of others as we are analyzing these things and keep asking ourselves the question, is that what Jesus would do? If Jesus saw a brother stumble, is Jesus going to go out and put it in the New York Times. I don’t. I saw a brother stumble. Is he going to go out and try to destroy him or her and their family? I don’t believe so. If Jesus saw someone make a mistake. Is He going to go out and try to destroy that person over that mistake? I don’t believe so.

We saw an example, after example, of the life of a woman who was caught in adultery. Caught by self-righteous people drug into the square, they try to get Jesus to acknowledge and to give his credence to stoning a person to death. And as they were standing there with their stones, He asked the question, is anyone here without sin? There wasn’t anybody. Then drop your stones and they did. And the only one there without sin was Him. And His response was get up and sin no more. It wasn’t that I’m going to try to destroy you and hurt you. It was an attitude of restoration, never of condemnation. Now, when you and I function in a mindset of condemnation rather than restoration, we have to ask yourself the question. Am I functioning with the Life of Christ Living in me if I’m out condemning someone? The answer is absolutely not. If I am saying, well, I’m not going to be that person’s friend anymore. They really screwed up. You’re not functioning with the mind, or you’re functioning in a worldly carnal mindset, and so am I, if I’m functioning in that way. And we cannot get away from that. You see that old covenant has to age, obsolete, disappear. What’s the old covenant? Man, if you have blown it, it said there’s punishment, that’s all kind of blown it and there’s punishment, death stoning, or condemnation alienation. That’s all a part of legalism. It’s all a part of an old Covenant that it says has to disappear. If you’ve been released from it and you’re in a New Covenant, then you’re going to have to let all of the thinking of the old Covenant disappear. Get rid of it.

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Forgive one another. How? As Christ Jesus forgave you. That’s New Covenant. Love one another. How? As Christ Jesus loves you. That’s New Covenant. And whenever we’re functioning contrary to that what we’re doing is deliberately putting ourselves back under the old Covenant. And treating people like you did under the old Covenant. If someone’s done something wrong, stone him to death. That’s old covenant. But there is nothing in there, in the New Covenant, not an ounce of it. So literally when we find ourselves with mindsets of condemnation, rather than restoration, it should tell us something about ourselves. It should bring us to the reality that Bob you have forgotten where you are and you have forgotten who you are. And you have forgotten who, who is, if somebody’s offended, you who they are. If they are truly children of God, you need to come together. You need to forgive one another. You need to restore not tear down. And so, it’s an indicator of where you’re walking. Have you really died to the old covenant? Is it really obsolete is it really aging has a really disappeared or have you resurrected that in your own life? Or is there a possibility that you’ve never been under the New Covenant to begin with? You’ve just been a religionist.

And so when he’s talking about in Hebrews 8 about this New Covenant, and this New Covenant made the first Covenant, an old Covenant. It said, the first one obsolete and what’s obsolete is aging and will soon disappear and that’s in our own lives, if indeed we have truly have entered into a New Covenant.

Now, in Hebrews 9, it talked about, then it was necessary for the copies of these, heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices. So we got an old Covenant, a New Covenant. And now, we got a better Covenant, a better sacrifice. Who is that better sacrifice? Why Jesus Himself. In the old Covenant, it, for forgiveness to be executed by God, there had to be a sacrifice. In other words, there had to be bloodshed, the wages of sin is death. Someone had to die in the old Covenant. It was the blood of a bull and goat. It was an innocent animal that died for a guilty human. But a better covenant, better sacrifice, had to be made than these. And it says, for Christ, He did not enter a man-made sanctuary, that was only a copy of the true one. When Jesus died for us, He entered heaven itself. Now to appear for us, in God’s presence, not God’s presence in a temple, or some place or a tabernacle. But God’s presence where He is in heaven Himself. And neither did He enter Heaven himself but to enter heaven to offer himself again and again. In other words, it wasn’t the type of forgiveness, whereby I forgive you today, and tomorrow, when you blow it, I’ll have to forgive you again. And then the next day, when you blow it, I’ll have to forgive you again. That was Old Testament form of forgiveness. That was necessary because the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, it could never deal with sin once and for all. It could only deal with when the offense had taken place. That offense had a provision for forgiveness, but it had no provision to take away sin, to take away the law that condemned man for a blood of bulls and goats could never do that. And so it says, he didn’t enter Heaven to offer himself again, and again, the way the high priest enters, the whole Most Holy place every year with blood that’s not his own. And if said, if that was the kind of sacrifice that Jesus did was the same as Old Testament. It goes ahead to say, then Jesus would have had to suffer many times, since the creation of the world.

Now, the option to that would be that Jesus died once and He’d have to be raised again and then come and die again, be raised again, or when he did die, that just took care of all the sins from their past and now we have to go back to another form of forgiveness will bring reinstitute the sacrificial system or let’s reinstitute a confession booth or let’s reinstitute 1st John 1:9 in the lives of believers, and keep yourself forgiven in those ways. Now that’s what you have to do if you do not believe that Jesus died, once for all, and He’s not going to suffer many times since the creation of the world, but go ahead in Hebrews folks now, He is appeared once and for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of who? Himself. Now folks, again, here’s the options. If Jesus sacrificed was not final for all mankind, then He only died for the sins that day passed, and then you have to keep the sacrificial system going. Well, if you had to keep the sacrificial system going then, why would he have had to die? Just use the sacrificial system. They those sins past, it already been forgiven, just go kill another bull or goat and so it doesn’t make any sense. Is He Himself then going to come back and die again? No He is not. He did it once and for all. What should we conclude about that death? What He stated on the cross. It is finished! It is finished! Man is destined to die once it says and after that to face judgment. So Christ was sacrificed how many times? Once. To do what? Take away the sins of many people. And He will appear a second time, not to bear sin but to bring salvation for those waiting for Him. Why is He not going to bear sin? Already did.

Hebrews 10: 5 through 8. Therefore when Christ came into the world. In other words that, “therefore” what’s it therefore? Because he’s comparing the difference in sacrifices. There was the blood of bulls and goats that we just talked about, that could never do what? Take away sin. So Christ did not come to sacrifice for sin over and over and over again. He came once to take away the sins and He will come a second time, not to bear sin. Why is He not coming to bear sin? He’s already done it. It’s already done it folks. Therefore, it says when Christ came into the world. He said sacrifice and offering you did not desire but a body You prepared for Me with burnt offerings and sin offerings You were not pleased and it says that although the law required them to be made, but Christ came to do Your will. Here I am, He said, I’ve come to do Your will not a bloody bull and goat, but I’ve come to do it. I’ve come to sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Now, it says, in Hebrews 10: 15 that the Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. And folks again for you to understand the meaning of the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit of God is going to have to reveal that to you. This is His testimony. It is the role of the Holy Spirit of God in this dispensation after Christ’s ascension into heaven, sending the Holy Spirit to us to do what? John talks about it, to teach us, lead us into all truth. Take the things of Christ, making it known to us, taking the things, showing a person their own sin of unbelief. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job. Only the Holy Spirit can teach you what we’re talking about, what that means.

This is the Covenant that He says, I’ll make with them after that time says the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts. I’ll write, them on their minds. Again, what were those laws? The Ten Commandments? No, the law of love that He said it’s the fulfillment of all the law. So He writes the law of Love on our hearts. Love your God, with all your heart, with all your soul. What are we told about that? It’s not that we loved God, but that what? He loved us first. And so, until you and I come to grips with the fullness of the love of the Love of God for us, we will never be able to respond in love to Him. And it is impossible to initiate love to Him. We are responders, not initiators and we can only respond to the love of God. We cannot initiate love towards God, and that response can only come as a result of understanding His love for us.

That’s why a legalist can never honestly say, I love the Lord. Why? Because you’re not resting in His love to you. You’re trying to earn His love instead of responding to His love. Now He says their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins. In other words, put aside and put away your day of atonement. Tear down your altar. There is no more sacrifice for sins. It’s over. It is finished. Quit building your confession booth. There is no longer any sacrifice for sins. Protestants, quit begging God and walking aisles to get forgiven. You already are. Thank Him for what He has done. Receive His life. Accept that forgiveness has already been executed on your behalf by Him and Him alone, who is not coming back to bear sin, but to save you in the event that you’re not yet saved.

And quit trying to do for God what God alone could do for you. Quit adding to what He said is finished or subtracting from what He said is finished. Quit practicing religion, let it die. Let it age. Let it disappear and begin walking in a newness of life. With a relationship. God is not a religion. He did not come to form a religion. He came to give a relationship. Religion is man, reaching up to God for love and acceptance. True Christianity, was God, reaching down to man, through His Son, Jesus Christ, with love and acceptance. You cannot learn what has been given to you. The grace of God is a gift. The grace of God is Jesus. He is a gift to you. You can’t earn a gift. You can’t work for a gift. You can only receive a gift or refuse the gift, but you cannot alter the gift.

And so we have to come to conclusions, folks. We can’t just sit here with our minds in neutral. You can’t hear something and say, praise God. Let me write down, memorize that he’s given it to us. So you have to come to a conclusion, a conclusion, a therefore. So what does this mean to me? Holy Spirit of God, reveal it to me, teach me what it means. And what it means is it’s finished. Now if something is finished, something has already been done. Do you spend your life begging and asking what has already been accomplished? Or do you spend your life thanking Him for what was accomplished?

Ask your wife to marry you. It would be stupid. You’ve already been married, you already are married. You can thank God for being married, but you can’t ask to be married. If you’re already married. It is idiotic, folks. It does not make sense. You are not walking by faith in what was done at the altar. And folks, you and I cannot walk by faith in truth. We can walk by faith in error. We can walk by faith and deny through denominational persuasion, but you cannot walk by faith in truth and be asking God to do what he has already done for you. I cannot sit at wake up and say, oh God, please make me a child of God. I’m already a child of God. I didn’t deserve to be one. I didn’t earn to be one. I am not worthy of being one. He made me one, under the condition that all I do is accept the fact that He is God that he died on a cross for me, to take away my sins. And now is offering me His resurrected life and I receive that life. I’d need that life. I can’t earn it, I just accept it by faith. And He said, when you do that, I will make you a child of the living God.

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.