Radio Broadcast Wednesday 09/28/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P06 (09-28-22)

We Know, Without The Shedding of Blood, There is No Forgiveness. ~ Hebrews 9:22 ~ So Rest!

~ Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness, there’s no more shedding of blood, there’s no more sacrifice. So either keep trying in the desert, or enter in to this Sabbath rest, and rest from your works just as I rested from mine.

Listen in to today’s lesson with more in-depth teaching, from the Bible study booklet, A Closer Look at Law & Grace, available for purchase from our online Bob George Ministries ecommerce store.

Jesus asked how does God love and accept us? And how does he expect us to live the Christian life? To answer those questions, this insightful study explores a vital issue at the heart of the Christian experience, the biblical relationship between law and grace, understanding their role in our relationship to God will bring joy, freedom and spontaneity to your Christian life. Now, let’s take A Closer Look at Law & Grace.

Bob George 0:40
How exciting it is that you realize that God has said, Look, I’ve now accomplished all of this for you at the cross. And now as a resurrected God as resurrected, I’m offering you now this brand new covenant. I’ve already done all this your sins, lawless acts, I don’t even remember anymore. They’ve already been taken care of. They’ve already been remembered. And there’s already been a verdict. It’s guilty and a punishment is death. And I took it all for you. There’s no more sacrifice for sins. It’s all been done. And then says, enter into that. Enter into that Sabbath rest. It’s the same thing we were talking about last week, that it’s the same verse, type of verse of scripture that God got the best news in the world for you God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself you unto Himself, not counting your sins against them. That’s the offer. And then what’s the acceptance? I beseech you on Christ’s behalf for his sake, be reconciled to God. There’s the acceptance there. The offer and the acceptance. So under the Old Covenant, there was also an offer and acceptance, here’s the offer. Here’s your command. If you keep them you’re going to prosper. And the response of the Hebrew was of Israel, we will do it. Well do it. You just watch us. And we will. We will do it now sincere, absolutely sincere, able to accomplish it. Not a bit, not a bit. No more than today in the Christian world can we live up to the righteous requirements of the law. And if you’re trying, it’s because you have never entered into the New Covenant, you may not have ever entered into the desert, you may still be in Egypt under the law. And folks, you know that you are listening to me right now know whether you are saved or whether you’re not saved, have you entered in by faith even into the desert, where you’re tired of the bondage and the slavery that you were under under the law where your life was so miserable, that you could not handle it anymore, and heard the voice of God walk through, walk through the Red Sea, that’s the picture, have it, go walk through, I’ve already opened up the waters for you Christ through His death, burial and resurrection has opened up the way for you and me to walk into salvation. And when your sight when and once you have entered into that desert of salvation, the water goes back behind you. So you can’t get over to the other side, thank God. And he had no opening that up anymore, because he’s already made his enemies his footstool. He’s already accomplished, what he wanted to accomplish with the enemies. So that’s already been done as well. So the waters closed behind you. So it isn’t the case, that wandering in the desert, that I’m going to go back to Egypt, you can’t go back to Egypt, you’ll sit there sometimes longing, thinking to yourself, I was happier back then than I am now. Because in many respects, you are happier as a slave than you were wandering around the desert chowing down on manna every day. And we have a tendency to also to forget don’t we how miserable that was. But you see, folks he never intended on keeping you in the desert. He said there’s there is a Sabbath rest. There’s a promised land there is a place called Cana where you’re going to be able to drink from wells that you didn’t dig And eat, eat from trees that you didn’t plant. It’s called the promised land. It’s called a Sabbath rest. And that appeal is apt to you enter in resting from your works just as he did from from his. Now again, I’m getting back to this folks, you know, whether you’re resting or whether you’re not resting,

if you are still trying, and you know for sure you’re saved. So you know you’re in the desert, but you feel like you’re in the desert. And like I said, Isn’t it amazing what we do with deserts we make Las Vegas is Tinseltown’s, you go out and like get Palm Springs hotter than blazes. But when I put nice places on it and tell everybody how nice it is. And we’ve done all kinds of things to make tinsel town in the desert. And that, quite frankly, is what Christianity is. And as a rule today, it’s just a bunch of neat looking spiritual casinos built in a desert, with a pecking order of leadership and people keeping people under bondage living in a desert. And God never intended you to live in a desert folks intended you to walk into the promised land, he intends you to walk enter into a rest, not bondage. You are in bondage in with Pharaoh. You’re now in bondage with your own people. Pharaoh was your enemy. These people should be your friends. And they too now have us in bondage. And so he says enter in, enter into this new life. Are you still working? To keep yourself forgiven? If you are you’ve never entered into the rest. You may be in the desert, or you may still be lost. I don’t know. But for one thing I do know you haven’t entered into the Sabbath rest yet. Mean you’re not saved? No doesn’t mean that just means you’re miserable as being saved. Are you still working at trying to be accepting to be accepted by God by what you do or what you don’t do? If you are you’re not resting from your works as he did from his. Are you still trying to gain brownie points in the eyes of God? In other words, I know people who are leaders have huge ministries that are absolutely have huge ministries in the desert. They’ve just I mean they’ve just prospered in that desert. But I know factually, they’ve never entered in to the Sabbath rest because they’re desperately working for rewards. And that’s why I’m working. So I’ll get rewards so that someday when I die, I’ll be a ruler over these all these saints someday. There’s no rest of that. No rest at all. People still trying to keep themselves forgiven through their first John one nine dedication to short accounts with God, confession booth, days of atonement. They’re all the same, just just different formats, all the same heart is all the same, I need to go get forgiven. It doesn’t matter where I need to go get forgiven at a Day of Atonement. I don’t or whether I go need to go get forgiven at a confession booth. Or whether I need to go get forgiven at an altar call. Or whether I could just stay at home don’t need to go to the altar. That’s some real freedom. I can do it right here. God just first John one nine right here. It doesn’t make any difference, folks, all of those are the same. I’m still working to get myself forgiven. Instead of entering into a new covenant where you are forgiven your sins and lawless acts, I will remember no more. And were these are forgiven. There’s no longer any sacrifice for sins. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness, there’s no more shedding of blood, there’s no more sacrifice. So either keep trying in the desert, or enter in to this Sabbath rest, and rest from your works just as I rested from mine.

You know, folks, that rest still stands. And that is the offer that is still out to each and every one of us that that Sabbath rest still stands and it says, I just did I warn you don’t fail to enter into that thing. And in other words, why would you want to roam in the desert, for the rest of your life playing church in the desert, instead of enjoying the benefits of the life that is available to you in Christ Jesus, and folks that isn’t a life of prosperity and a life of never being sick and all that stuff? That’s desert stuff as well. We’re talking about entering into peace in your soul. I wouldn’t care if my leg was longer than the other is shorter than the other if if I have peace of my soul, what does it matter? This body is going to head to the grave sooner or later one way or the other. But when it does, I want to go with peace and my soul I want to go rejoicing in the Lord with what’s taking place internally, and that’s what Christ came to do was to save us spiritually. That’s an internal soullessly that’s internal. And again, what is desert do? Why it concentrates on the external. Now we give praise to God for all of that but we’re not experiencing any rest at all. As a matter of fact, in that type of desert external experience why you’re combining that with the reason that you’re a mess in the desert because your faith isn’t big enough, you know, like saying the reason your your hot course it’s only 120 out there in the desert region, your hot faith not big enough, you had big enough faith to be cool. And And again, what is a total preoccupation with flesh, that’s all it is. God isn’t preoccupied with flesh, he said enter in, I got something spiritual for you. Enter into this rest, folks. Now, I’ll hit that in a little bit more, but I want us to understand something. Friends, there’s two waterways that you and I are going to deal with. And this one was the Red Sea crossing and that represented salvation. You left Pharaoh, God opened up the waters, and you entered into the desert. You’re going to see in the third chapter of Joshua, and Joshua is the Hebrew name for Jesus. Whereby in Joshua, that also people came to the Jordan in order to enter into the promised land. And I’m not going to read all of that. But beginning in verse 14, when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage, all during harvest, it’s a flooded river. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the Ark reach the Jordan and their feet touch the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled in a heap, a great distance away at a call at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zehra Thanh while the water flowing down to the sea of Arab ah, the salt sea was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed crossing on dry ground. We talk a lot about the Red Sea. It’s just like evangelism, we talk a lot about being saved. But where in the world have you ever heard about going into the promised land? I want to tell you, Bob, I’ve been a Christian for 27 years. And it had absolutely escaped me the fact that that that the Jordan River was also dried up by God to enable the Israelites to walk over into the promised land. And that fact has escaped me. And so you say, Well, have you ever read it? Well, I assume I have. But obviously, this dumb head of mine didn’t absorb it. But there were two rivers there, there was the Jordan River that had to be crossed over and there was the Red Sea that had to be gone through and, and our emphasis is always on evangelism, getting people into the desert to do what? Well again, to build desert buildings, and practice desert religion. But there’s something that he says no, that’s not what I called you, for. I called you to cross over into Jordan. And just as Joshua led the Hebrews into the Promised Land, Jesus has to be the one leading you in into there. And the way he leads us is by again, the Holy Spirit of God convincing Bob I died for all of your sins. I’ve taken them away, enter in, there’s nothing you can do to make me love you more. And there’s nothing you can do to cause me to love you less. Enter in there is no more righteousness to be gained. Enter in Bob. There’s no more holiness. You can’t make yourself holier than I made you enter in. You can’t make yourself any more justified. I made you as justified you’re going to get enter in I’ve dried up the Jordan, enter in and rest.

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Bob George 14:18
Isn’t that fun to rest? and again, what are you resting from? your works. There’s nothing left for me to do. My relationship with God is secured. You say, All while you’re in there sometimes you don’t act real good. That’s true. That’s true. Yeah, you might pick an apple off and throw it and hit somebody’s head with it and think that was the most fun you’ve had all day. Yeah, you could do that. But are you in the rest? Are you are you able to rest in the midst of that to say that was certainly behavior that was inconsistent. It was pretty good for the desert rat, but it really is not very consistent with where I am today in the Promised Land. God Spirit’s able to deal with those things as he does not on the basis of Then he’s already dealt with you on the basis of sin. But dealing with you now on the basis of a new life, a new inheritance, and a new place that you live in the Promised Land, resting. And so you’d have to beat yourself to death over that. It’s the case of recognizing that I don’t have to think that way anymore, I got a new way of thinking. That’s what rest is, folks. I hope I’m desperately sound like I’m working trying to make myself clear on this thing. And I hope the Spirit is doing that. Because I feel so inadequate, to be able to communicate what’s really in my heart on this. But friends, we have to come to grips with the fact that there’s a rest waiting for you. And I have a feeling there’s a whole bunch that haven’t entered in. And what I’m asking you today is to consider what we’re talking about. And to be able to give up. And to say, Lord, I’ve had it. I’m through roaming in the desert, I’m through trying to keep myself forgiven. Either you’ve lied to me on the Oath of the new covenant that I already am. And if you have why, then anything I do, I’m gonna map to flip anyway. Because if God lies within you cease to be God, we don’t even have one. But if that’s the promise that you made to me, I’m gonna rest in it. And Bob, I remember the day that I came to rest in that, and I and I’ve told the story many times with the Debbie and, and the peaches. And I went back in to do my performance to keep my sins all cleaned up. And it was like God said, Bob, I’m so sick of listening to you, 1st John, one nineing, I don’t know what to do. I’ve already forgiven your sins, the issue is between you and your daughter, now go straighten that out. And it was on that day that literally, that I said, Lord, this is the last time I’ll ever insult you again by asking you to do what you’ve already done. And for this day, forth I’m going to spend my life praising you for the fact that I am a forgiving person, because of you and your promise to me. Now, prior to that time, I already knew the doctrine of the head, but I kept hedging my bets, just in case this might not be 100% true, understand, but when the Holy Spirit of God finally teaches you, then you are taught. Yes, indeed. And Bob that the rest in that particular realm of my life has been for 20 some years. And that’s why we teach what we do. And then there’s other risks, righteousness, I was trying to get my own righteousness. So he asked me to rest from that too. And I don’t try to be righteous anymore in the sight of God, already am. And all of these other things began to accumulate, to enable us to see he’s done it all. He’s done it all. And, you know, we were talking about that at the break it for some reason, just a few days ago, teaching through some of these things, it all just kind of hit like a like a burst of light in there. It’s nothing new outside of the fact that I’ve wondered myself, What in the world happened to me 15, 20 years ago, when all this happened, you know, and we say, well, you entered in the exchange live said, Well, that’s nice. Or you entered into this, and you did this and none of that. It was always there. But it never pinpointed what happened. And what happened was, I just entered into the promised land I just entered into a Sabbath rest. That’s all I rested for my works just as God rested from His and my life’s never been the same. And it’s not a work. Now I don’t have to practice Christianity, you just are don’t have to practice being what I am it just go be who you are, and let God teach you wish he promised to do. And it’s very faithful to do it is just a relaxed way of living the Christian life. Yeah.

Well, let me go back now. And what I’m going to do, folks is to pick up some of these, in the time that we have remaining on here, I want to pick up some more of the scriptures in regard to the law, as it was given to Israel. In Deuteronomy 28, one through two, the Lord once again spoke to Israel. If you fully obey the Lord your God, and carefully follow all of his commands I gave you today, the Lord your God, who will set you high above all nations on earth. And all these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God. Now, what did Israel have to do to be set high above all the nations of the of the earth? Well obey all the commands that he gave them. And how are they to obey the Lord and how many of his commands were they to follow? Well, all of them. Well, what else did God say what happened to Israel? If they obeyed? Well, it said, the blessings were going to come upon them and it’s going to accompany you again. All they have to do is to obey the Lord. Now, you see, folks, it seems like that would be simple and I’ll tell you what’s even more amazing is Americans think that promises to them. And so we’re out trying to be obedient by getting prayer back in schools. That’s what obedience is. It’s all right as your means a horn at each other as long as you’re praying about it. And so we’re going through all of this kind of stuff, you know. And again, I got news for you, folks, these promises were not to Americans, those promises were to Israel, who he called apart and gave the laws to them and them alone, and said, of all the people in the earth that ought to be able to do this, you should in order to show they can’t, that should tell us as Gentiles, that why should we try. But we learn slowly as well. Another passage in Deuteronomy, chapter 28, we go to verse 15. Now, we talked about obeying the Lord, it says, however, if you do not obey the Lord, it says, if you do obey the Lord, within these blessings will come upon you and accompany you. But if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all of his commands and decrees I’m giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. And it lists quite a wild group of curses that come upon and and when you look at the history of the nation of Israel, why you see all of those things that have occurred over the 1000s of years, or the 2000 years, or more longer than that, since these prophecies were given. And, of course, when you stopped to think that it’s only been within the past 50 years, that nation that Israel ever returned as a nation. And prophecy, especially end time prophecies that any student of prophecy knew was tied into a nation of Israel either said, Well, that can’t really be meaning the nation of Israel that probably means, and then we come up with what it probably means. And one of the doctrines that came out of that was it’s born again, Christians instead of Israel. And folks, in the Scripture, you have Gentiles and you have Hebrews, and then you have the church, you have the ecclesia. And that is how the society is divided. And whenever you try to make Israel the church, you’re going to fall into more confusion than you’ve ever dreamed of. You have the jet, you have the Hebrew, and then you have the Gentile, everyone that’s not Hebrew and then you have the church made up of both Hebrew and Gentile, slave and free. So yeah, and the promises to Israel are not the promises to the church, to that’s something totally different. And we studied that in one of our past lessons is how the Hebrews tried to, in the early days of Christianity would come out and tell a Gentile that you have to be circumcised, then you can be saved. Because they their feeling was unless you became a Hebrew, you couldn’t be saved. Why? Well, because salvation went first to the Hebrew and then to the Gentile. So but you’ve got that delineation, you have Hebrew, you have Gentile, and then you have church, or not, not organized church, the organism of the ecclesia made up of Hebrew, Gentile, slave and free. In other words, all peoples of the world right.

Now, they said, then if to Israel that if you do not obey these things, why these are all the plagues that are gonna come upon you, and you see every one of those things, and then all of a sudden you see this restoration that took place back in 46. And we look at that type of the thing. And again, like I said, the old Bible students and the prophetic teachers. They knew prophecy was there. But we never came to the point of saying it might be near until Israel became a nation and brother, when that occurred, everybody’s ears perked up. Because something is happening from God.

Well, what was those laws given for? Folks? What was the purpose of these laws to just curse Israel? No, no, the promise of Abraham the Abrahamic covenant, which is literally salvation by faith, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. That has never changed. 430 years later, the law was given to Israel because they wanted the law. And so God gave it to them. What they want the law for? so they could obey it to make themselves righteous in the sight of God. So he said, Well, I’ve already given you Righteousness through faith. But that’s not good enough for you. So you want the law. So I’ll give you the law. But here are the righteous requirements of this law that you said we will obey. So what did God do in his dealing with humanity? He says, If you don’t want to accept my promises, in other words, I put no requirements on you except to trust me. Jesus made that quite clear when they asked when the apostles asked him what is the work of the ministry? He said, Believe in me, trust in me. Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. We’re not talking about big faith and little faith, you’re talking about recognizing God for who he is and believing in him. But you see, man comes along, we’re never satisfied with that man, as a created being, keep saying, I want to do something to earn my acceptance, I want to do something to earn my righteousness. In other words, I want to be as good as my Creator. I want to I want to show you what I’m capable of. And so God in His love and wisdom says, Okay, give it a try. That’s what you want to do. Go out and give it a try.

I remember one time, Bob. But as a somewhat of an example of this. I remember a number of years ago that I was at a high school convocation with a group called athletes and action. It was the athletes out of Campus Crusade for Christ, and they were weightlifters. And I remember this guy, Dave Hannah, who was head of that place, and he could hunt bear with a switch, he was big enough. And man he was up there lifting these weights, you know, and giving demonstrations of that as as as an entree into sharing the Lord. And I remember this one guy, it was out in the audience, and he was a high school student, and he said, Man, I can do that. And he thought they were fake weights. So Dave just said, well come on up. And this guy came up and he grunted and groaned couldn’t even get that thing a quarter of an inch off the floor. And he left convinced, you know, what’s kind of what God said It’s kind of like man says we can lift those weights is God come on up and give it a try? Well, that’s what happened when he gave us the law. He said, okay, and try to lift try to live under the burden of that. And to this day, man is still trying to live under the burden of the law thinking just give me enough time and I’ll get that thing off the ground, you know, and it’s impossible. No one will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God through obedience to the law, folks, just get it. come to grips with it. That’s the way it is.

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.