Radio Broadcast Wednesday 06/01/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ P35 (06-01-22)

Quit Making a Mockery of the Cross With Man-made Atonement

Christ said it is finished, yet the religious world wants to call Jesus God a liar and say to Him, no it isn’t. I need more forgiveness from you God, because it makes me feel so good to keep myself forgiven.

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.

It’s like a crime here on this earth, but friend you can commit a crime or not commit a crime and be drug into court, drug into jail, drug into court, drug before a jury, and a jury listens to the evidence of the case and says not guilty. You could be guilty as sin, but the jury says not guilty and you walk out of that courtroom free as a bird and you can never be tried for that sin again. Never tried for it again. Once the jury said, not guilty, that is it and you could go out there thumb your nose back at the court, and it would make an ounce of difference. You’re not guilty. Well, folks, something greater than a jury, is there. And that is Christ.Jesus, our sins were placed upon Him. He went before the judge. He took it for us and it’s over and we love Him now, it says, because He loved us first. Now folks, that’s what enables us now to go into the presence of God, Hebrews 10:19 to have confidence to enter the most Holy place now by the blood of Jesus, that’s a new and living way that has been opened up for us by the Body of Christ. And since we have this great Priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God now with a sincere heart and in full assurance of faith.

Folks, do you have full assurance of faith? Or are you still doubt your salvation? Do you realize that doubting your salvation? I could doubt my salvation. I can’t doubt His salvation. He’s the one who is saving me. So I’m not going to doubt His salvation. He’s the one who promised I’ll never leave you nor forsake you. And he is the one that we are told in Hebrews that is He is able to save completely, me and you who came to him through faith. Why? He always lives to intercede for us as Hebrews 7:24 and 25. It’s His salvation. He is the mediator Hebrews 9:15 of the New Covenant that those who are called may receive what the promised Eternal inheritance. Now that He, Jesus has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first Covenant. My friends, He is your guarantee. He’s the guarantee and the guarantor of the greatest guarantee that’s ever been given to man. And that is, you are saved completely.

Now, for you not to walk in full assurance of faith is to spit in the face of Jesus who said I’ll never leave you nor forsake you. To doubt your salvation is to say, I think I can lose my salvation and to teach people that you can lose your salvation is an abomination to the Lord. He came to save you completely, and if He said, I’ve saved you completely, your saved completely. Why do you want to doubt that? It’s not up to you anyway? Wasn’t up to you to get saved to begin with. It’s all Him. And none of you.

Now, that’s why once you are truly in Christ and you have come to Him for what He came to give you life, eternal life, then, don’t spit in His face. And insulted by saying, I don’t think you gave me eternal life. I think you gave me temporal life. He said, I don’t know what the word temporal means. I didn’t make anything temporary. I made everything eternally and so my friends, if you are in Christ, that you’re saved because of what He has done, what He is continuing to do. And what He will continue, to continue to do.

It’s called full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience, and having our bodies washed with pure water. Not this kind down here, but the water from Heaven, let us therefore hold unswervingly to the hope that we profess. Why? Well, because He who promised is faithful. He didn’t say hold unswervingly to the hope we profess because we are so faithful to God, but because of He who promised is the Faithful One.

Now, if Ephasians 3:12, then tells us in Him and through faith in Him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. You notice it didn’t say in what you do and through faith, in what you do or what you don’t do that you may approach God with freedom and confidence. Everything is by faith in Him, and what He did and enables you and me to approach God with freedom and in confidence.

Now, folks, we come to a therefore if that is true. And is that good news? Well, I don’t know any better news on the face of this Earth. I certainly couldn’t make myself complete. I certainly couldn’t forgive myself. Neither can I live a Christian life. You know, folks, we’ve placed such emphasis on go out and be such a good example. You’re not a good example. Half the time were bad examples. That’s why I say there’s no such thing as a worthless life. You can always serve as a bad example, so you don’t have to worry about having a worthless life. People are all hung up in my testimony. How I do things, that everyone’s going to walk around looking and say, why are you so wonderful? Maybe people might say that to you. I’ve been a Christian 27 years I never had anybody ask me why it’s the wonderful make it why I’m not wonderful. I’m a Child of God. I’ve wonderful in His sight. I’ve been made pure and holy in His sight, but I still have indwelling sin living in me. I can still blow it, can’t you? But I’ll tell you one thing any body and I don’t say that you know, in a bragging way, but I’ll tell you one thing that anybody that is around me, very long, will know. And that is that I have a faith in a living Christ to do what He said He’s going to do. And I have no faith in Bob George to do anything in the same going to do. But I have total faith in Him to do precisely everything that He says He’s going to do. Now that’s what faith is about.

Now in Ephesians 4:32. It’s therefore, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ God forgave you. Now folks, if Christ Jesus forgave you totally, once and for all, then what should our mindset of forgiveness be toward others? Forgiveness, once and for all. Now if I believe that the only reason that God forgave me is because I came and asked him and I begged him to, then what am I going to require out of you in the event that you mess me up? Forgive that guy. Well, I will, if he comes in and beggs and, you know, kind of grumbles a little bit while I might forgive him. But it’s why do you, why do you feel that way? Because you feel, that’s what you have to do to get forgiveness from God. And as long as we have this mentality, that I’ve got to go to get forgiveness from God, then I’m going to demand of everyone that they come to me and ask me for forgiveness before I forgive them. That’s the very opposite of Godly forgiveness.

The only motivation, true motivation that we can have for forgiving one another is the fact that Christ Jesus has forgiven us. Until we come to grips with that. In this world, we’re going to have trials and tribulation and much of that trial and tribulation is brought about by other people. We bring a lot of it on ourselves and we force it on a lot of other people and vice versa. In this world if you’re living as a family, you’re going to have your mate, sometimes doing things that you don’t appreciate and vice versa. You’ve got kids that drive you nuts. If you’re my age you’ve got grandkids coming up that you know, you’re going to have to be exercising, some forgiveness someplace down the line, but you see if you don’t realize that you are totally forgiven, then forgiveness becomes an option to you. In other words, should I, or shouldn’t I.

As a lost person you’re not tied into forgiveness, and that’s why it talks about in the old Covenant and what we call the Lord’s Prayer, which was it really wasn’t the Lord’s Prayer at all. It was just the Lord, telling the disciples how to pray, not him. But in that prayer where it says, for if you do not, forgive your brother here on earth, your Father in heaven will not forgive you. So, in other words, forgiving, someone was what activated God’s forgiveness towards you under the old Covenant. That was the law, but there’s only one problem with that idea. I did not have it. I would not have had it in me to forgive. I don’t have forgiveness in me. I can exercise some of it if it’s beneficial to me, or if it’s, or if it can bring some attention to me, but I do not have forgiveness living in me as a lost person any more than I have God’s love living in me or God’s joy living in me. It just isn’t there. It’s not in the house. And so we have to for it to do that, we’ve got to have a motivation for forgiveness and the motivation to those that were trying to live under God’s law was if I don’t forgive, my Father in heaven God won’t forgive me, so I’d better get with it some way down the line. And under the old Covenant, why God even instituted things that whether it was in your heart or not, where there was forgiveness in outward action. I believe every seven years that you had to clear the debts.

And so there was an outward action that had to take place to end. In your hearts you may have been mad as a hornet at somebody, but you acted it out because if you didn’t, God wouldn’t forgive you. So that was your motivation. Well you had to have that kind of motivation folks because you had nothing internal going on inside of you. As I said, you didn’t have forgiveness living in you. But today under the New Covenant if you’re a born again Christian, regenerated, which there was no one spiritually regenerated prior to the cross. And prior to the resurrection prior to Pentecost actually, when the Holy Spirit of God came to indwell people, for the first time. Prior to Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon people for divine service, but then would leave. But after Pentecost the Holy Spirit came to live within us and indwell us forever with a promise, never to leave us nor forsake us. So, now as a born-again Christian, I have something called forgiveness living in me. So there’s, there’s an inward nudge. It’s not so that I need to forgive, so that God will forgive me. But it’s the fact of that unbelievable knowledge that God has already forgiven me. That there’s nothing that I can do that could stop that forgiveness that is God himself from being exercised toward me. And so once I realized that that’s what enables us as Christians to say, who am I not to forgive somebody when Christ Jesus has forgiven me. Now. I want to also explain an equally important thing to get ahold of, then that is the forgiveness of yourself.

Because many times, we will walk around and say, well, I forgive others, but I can’t forgive me. In other words, I did something so bad that I cannot forgive myself for that. Now what you’re doing with that mindset, whether you realize it or not, but what that mindset is saying, is that my standards are higher than God’s. Now if we know God forgave me of all that but I can’t forgive me. Well, then your standards are higher than God’s.

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Now folks, all of us have done or will do or have thought of doing or could do whatever you want to call that, some pretty slimy things in our lives. And that’s why as Amy has said, she’s so glad that God didn’t make our heads like a bubble where people could see in them. And I am too. We thought evil things. We’ve done evil things, even though other people may not know it. We’ve done evil things in our lives, and we certainly thought evil things, and you could very easily sit back and say I just can’t forgive myself because it caused so much pain for people. It caused so much disillusion with people. I hurt so many people with what I did that I’m just not going to forgive myself. Bob, that kind of a mindset again, what it is saying and I can understand that I don’t have a problem understanding how a person could grab a hold of that. And I don’t have a problem understanding how a person could belabor that for a period of time, but as a child of God, you’re going to have to listen to that overpowering voice that comes in and says my son, let me talk to you again. Are your standards higher than mine? Do you think that I may be capable of dealing with the pain that has been inflicted upon these other people? Did it ever enter your mind that maybe that pain that your decision that pain on other people might be the very pain that will also draw them to Me instead of to you. Have you ever thought of those things? They say no Lord, I never had. Well Bob, if I’m able to deal with your pain that someone else put on you then why don’t you think that I’m not capable of dealing with the pain that you’ve put on somebody else?

And you look at that, you say Lord I didn’t think about it in relation to the big picture. All I was thinking of was what I did, the decision that I made and how that has inflicted disillusionment, pain and everything else on other people. I just assumed that you couldn’t handle that pain. He says I’m more than capable of handling any pain that comes toward you or toward anyone else. So Bob, why don’t you forgive yourself just as I forgave you 2000 years ago? And you say, Lord, thank you.

I’ll never forget a number of years ago. And you know, God can use anything, you, donkeys in the old testament. He is still doing that, I think with me in the New Testament, but I remember being in Canada a number of years ago. I had not a clue of what I’m teaching today. I had not a clue of it. I was still living back in the old days of everytime you said that you were out of fellowship with God. So he had to ask God to forgive you to get that a black mark off. 1st John 1:9 it and you walk around all day long, thinking about your sin and no different than thinking about you since I got to go back to sacrifice and get it taken care of. Can’t wait to get that bull or goat killed so I get free, or to go to the confession booth and get that done. No difference at all. 1st John 1:9 mentality is no different than a Catholic going to confession booth, or an Israelite going back to the day of atonement, none at all. It’s just, you just got the Israelite going to the day of atonement. You got the Catholic going to the confession booth. You got the Protestant 1st John 1:9-ing and all of them are an abomination to the Cross. All of it is saying, Jesus, I don’t believe that you died. And when you said it’s finished, I don’t believe it’s finished at all. I am just going to spit in your face, make a mockery of your cross. And as it says, in Hebrews, to make a mockery of the grace of God that has been shed abroad for you. That’s all any of that. Doesn’t make any difference what it is, so we can’t sit around and be critical of the Catholics or the Catholics being critical of the Protestants or in the Catholic and Protestants and being critical of those Israelites going back to the day of atonement. We’re all in the same boat and what it amounts to is we have not come to grips with the finality of the cross. Now when, so I remember being in Canada and remember this man who just was so burdened looking and I had taught up there and he came to me afterwards and said, Bob I got to talk to you and we sat down and talked. He said, Bob. I’ve got a sin that I have been living with all my life. And so I said, how old are you? And I think he was in his late 60s. About eight or nine years of age, I have been living with that all his life. And he said, do you think that God could forgive me? I begged him for all of these years for that forgiveness. And I was able to sit down with him and probably not even knowing what I was talking about, but I did not know the reality of what I was saying. I said sir, do you realize that God’s already forgiven them? Tha sin was placed upon Him at the cross. And He said it’s finished. It’s already done and there’s no more forgiveness to be executed on your behalf. And, you’ve acknowledged that before God, you thanked Him for His forgiveness. You have His life living in you, and went through this whole area of forgiveness, and said, would you finally for the last time, don’t ever pray it again, but for the last time to be able to say, Lord Jesus, I accept your forgiveness for what You did for me and it’s done. It’s finished. I’ll never be the same.

That man did that, and in a flood of tears, and it’s the first time in my Christian experience that I ever saw, the total countance on a human being changed in front of my eyes. And I saw a man who was burdened beyond measure, and get up with his face clear. And his eyes clear knowing full well that Jesus had done exactly and precisely what He said he would do. And that was forgiving. That’s the benefit of understanding forgiveness.

So what motivation do we have for forgiving one another? The fact that Christ Jesus forgave us. Now, why did He forgive us? Because He is kind and compassionate. And in Colossians 3:12 and 13. It says, As God’s chosen people and that’s what you are if you’re in Christ, holy and dearly loved. Remember, He said by that one offering He made forever perfect in the sight of God, you who He is made holy. You’ve been made holy, you’ve been made perfect in His sight. You are totally forgiven. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, you’ve been set apart to do what? Forgive others. Do you realize that God sets you apart from the rest of the world to be a forgiver? Is the rest of the world a forgiver? Oh no, the very opposite of forgivers. But he said, I set you apart to be a forgiver. You are dearly loved, so love others. Clothe yourself with what? Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience and bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive how? As the Lord forgave you. How did the Lord forgive you? Completely and forever. How are we to forgive one another? The same way, whatever grievances you may have against one, another forgive one another.

Now, folks, when it says in the scripture that as far as you are concerned, be at peace with all people, you can’t be at peace with someone without forgiveness. But it also does not mean that all people are going to want to be at peace with you. And we have to understand that. Many times I’ve heard teaching like, well if you go forgive them, why they’ll forgive you. If you love your wife as Christ loved the church why she will be submissive to you. Forget that, that has nothing at all to do with anything. It’s all conditional stuff. You love your wife as Christ loved the church, whether she is submissive or whether she isn’t. And her submission is not going to make you love her anymore. Because you don’t have it in you to love her anyway. That one, Christ Jesus can do that. And only Christ Jesus can build submission into a woman’s heart. Just like, only Christ can build that kind of agape love into a man’s heart. And, and so you’re not doing it, so that you can get something back, you do it because you’ve already received everything that there is. Forgive how? So that the Lord will forgive you? No, as the Lord forgave you. Put aside grievances. We all have grievances with each other, put them aside, bear with each other. Now, there’s only one way that we can do that. And that’s when we clothe ourselves with something called compassion, that involves kindness, compassion involves humility, because we have to humble ourselves in order to have compassion on people who have harmed us, gentleness and patience.

I’d like to read some passages to you in regard to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In Matthew 9:36. It says, when He saw the crowds he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Christ was compassionate. Matthew 14:14 when Jesus landed, He saw a great crowd and He had compassion on them and healed their sick. Matthew 15:30 Jesus called the disciples to Him and said, I have compassion for these people. They have already been with Me three days and had nothing to eat and I don’t want to send them away hungry, for they may collapse on the way. In other words, I feel sorry for them. I have compassion. Matthew 20:34 Jesus had compassion on them and he touched their eyes and immediately they received their sight and followed Him. Compassion. I felt sorry for them. Matthew or Mark. 141, filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man and said, I am willing, when he said, are you willing? He said, I am. And he made him clean. Mark 6:34 when Jesus landed, and saw a large crowd He had compassion on them. Like he said, they were like sheep without a shepherd. So He began teaching them many things. Why did He have compassion on them? Because we were filled with ignorance and He had to teach us many things. I have compassion for people. He got up and went to his father in Luke 15:20, but while He was still a long way off his father saw him and was filled with compassion, and he ran to his son and threw his arms around him and kissed him. The Prodigal Son. The father saw this son that had taken his inheritance and gone and squelched it on, on all kinds of lascivious living, prostitutes ended up in a pigpen, the son said I am going to go back to the father. When the father saw him in the midst of what he had done, he had compassion on him and he ran to his son and he threw his arms around him and kissed him. In Romans 9:15 it says about Moses. About Moses, I have mercy on whom I have mercy and I have compassion on whom I have compassion. In 2nd Corinthians 1:3 Paul says praise be to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father of compassion. The God of all comfort in 2nd Corinthians 1:3 Praise be to God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion, and the God of all comfort, and in verse 4, who comforts us in all of our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God or just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives so, also through Christ our comfort overflows.

In Romans 9:14 and 15. What shall we say? It’s God unjust? Not at all. I have mercy on whom I have mercy and I have compassion on whom I have compassion.

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.