Classic Christianity – Moving Towards Mount Zion – Part 1 – 8-31-26
~ Hebrews 12:18-29
For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom, and storm; to a trumpet blast or to a voice that made its hearers beg that no further word be spoken. For they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.” The sight was so terrifying that even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”
Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if the people did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns us from heaven? At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven as well.” The words “Once more” signify the removal of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that the unshakable may remain.
Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. “For our God is a consuming fire.”
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Revelation 21:1,2
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Pray to God:
Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?
Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”
~ Bob George discusses the importance of focusing on grace over the law, emphasizing the shift from Mount Sinai to Mount Zion. He argues that the law served its purpose but is now superseded by grace through Jesus Christ. Bob criticizes the tendency of Christians to prioritize morality over proclamation, using examples like political endorsements and personal behaviors. He stresses that true Christianity should be about proclaiming the gospel and living by faith, not by legalistic adherence to moral codes. Bob also highlights the hypocrisy in Christian leadership and calls for a return to the core message of grace and completed forgiveness of the Cross.
“Friends, when you’re dealing here with truth, biblical truth, you have to deal with what did God say biblical truth is. What is the biblical truth that we live in? We had the law. The law had its purpose. The purpose of the law was to show us that we cannot keep it. Why did He usher in grace? Because we could not keep it, he could not do it. We could not find ourselves acceptable in the sight of God through obedience to the law. Paul reiterates that no man will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God through obedience to the law, and so he says, “I came and gave you something better, more. I gave you someone better than a thing. I replaced a thing, the law, with a person, my Son, and He is the one who came to do what you could not do: fulfill the law with His life, uphold the law with His death, and usher in a New Covenant, a covenant of grace. He is the mediator of a New Covenant. Do we realize that this author is placing this above all things? That you can walk and be religious, and you can act like you are so good that you’re about to wake your ascension into heaven. And if you don’t grab a hold of the fact you’re no longer under the law but under a New Covenant, you’re not listening to God. You don’t come to the mount where the law was given. You come to you come to Mount Zion. You don’t come to the mount where the law was given, you have gone there. It convicted you, and you have entered into a relationship of grace. Do we understand this, guys?
Guys, in this Christian world in which we live, and my heart getting saddened more and more the older I get, I’ve come to realize one thing: Whenever your priorities as an individual, or our priorities as a ministry, ever is anything else except proclamation, you’re going to have the tendency to be a compromiser. Whenever your goal is anything except proclamation. What did Jesus say? Go into the world and what? Proclaim the gospel. He didn’t say go into the world and get involved in political matters. He said he didn’t go into the world and say be a moralist. He said go into the world and proclaim the good news that God died for who? Sinners. Sinners. He didn’t die for good people. You know why he didn’t die for good people? Cause there ain’t any good people. When are we going to get that through our stupid heads? That we just think we’re good. And so we become proclaimers of morality. Guys, the law was telling you what not to do, and Jesus told us what to do. The law says don’t do this, and grace says this is what you do do. Morals. We become the stewards of morality. Oh, really? How hypocritical can you get?” ~ Bob George
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Announcer 0:13
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Bob George 0:28
Guys, I want to pick up in the 12th chapter of Hebrews, in verses beginning in verse 18, where it talks about the author of Hebrews is coming to a point of trying to say to us desperately that we are no longer to go to any place else except the grace of God. We don’t come to a mountain that has been touched and is burning with fire. It says with darkness and gloom. That’s the place where Moses went to receive the 10 Commandments, to receive the law. We don’t go there, he says, to a trumpet blast, or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further words would be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded it. If even an animal touches a mountain, it must be stoned. The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear. We don’t go to that mountain. We we don’t go there. It’s not where we belong. He says, “But and where there’s a but, there’s a contrast. You’ve come to Mount Zion. You don’t go to the mountain of the law. You go to Mount Zion, to a heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.
Why is He saying this? If we should commingle these two, why should we? Why should He say this if He says, “Well, you know, you you come to grace, but then you bring in a little bit of law into this thing. People will come down and say, “Well, we’re no longer under the the ceremonial law, but we’re still under the Big 10. The Bible says you don’t go to the mountain at all. It stay away from it. It served its purpose. We’ve come to a new place called the Heavenly Jerusalem. We’ve come to grace, a spiritual place, not to an earthly place, not to a mountain where you tremble with fear, but you come to a spiritual relationship with Christ Jesus. Look at the places where it says you’ve come to. You might want to just mark your Bible. You’ve come to Mount Zion. You’ve come to the heavenly Jerusalem, not the earthly Jerusalem, but the heavenly Jerusalem. You’ve come to the city of the living God, not a dead God, a living God. You’ve come to 1000s upon 1000s of angels. We’ve become a part of this whole gamut of the spiritual realm, including the angels that say when one person is converted to Christ, they rejoice in heaven. We’ve come to those in a joyful assembly. We’ve come to the church of the firstborn, Jesus, the firstborn from among the dead. We’re the dead. He was the first one who was ever born alive spiritually, whose names are written in heaven. We’ve come into that assembly, to into the assembly where people’s names are written in the book of Life, and we’re a part of them. You’ve come to God, the Judge of all men. You’ve come to the spirits of righteous men, made perfect, made complete in Christ. We’ve come to Jesus, the mediator of a New Covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. And see to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? Warns us about what? That we are not a part. If you’re in Christ, you have been released from the law that kills, and are now entered into a relationship with the one who gives life. How much more it talks about. Do we keep refusing Him when we’ve been warned from heaven at that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised once more, “I’ll shake not only the earth but also the heavens. The words once more indicate the removing of what can be shaken, that is, created things, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. And therefore, and again, what’s the therefore? Therefore, therefore, since we’re receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and in awe, for God, for our God, is a consuming fire.
Friends, when you’re dealing here with truth, biblical truth, you have to deal with what did God say biblical truth is. What is the biblical truth that we live in? We had the law. The law had its purpose. The purpose of the law was to show us that we cannot keep it. Why did He usher in grace? Because we could not keep it, he could not do it. We could not find ourselves acceptable in the sight of God through obedience to the law. Paul reiterates that no man will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God through obedience to the law, and so he says, “I came and gave you something better, more. I gave you someone better than a thing. I replaced a thing, the law, with a person, my Son, and He is the one who came to do what you could not do: fulfill the law with His life, uphold the law with His death, and usher in a New Covenant, a covenant of grace. He is the mediator of a New Covenant. Do we realize that this author is placing this above all things? That you can walk and be religious, and you can act like you are so good that you’re about to wake your ascension into heaven. And if you don’t grab a hold of the fact you’re no longer under the law but under a New Covenant, you’re not listening to God. You don’t come to the mount where the law was given. You come to you come to Mount Zion. You don’t come to the mount where the law was given, you have gone there. It convicted you, and you have entered into a relationship of grace. Do we understand this, guys?
Guys, in this Christian world in which we live, and my heart getting saddened more and more the older I get, I’ve come to realize one thing: Whenever your priorities as an individual, or our priorities as a ministry, ever is anything else except proclamation, you’re going to have the tendency to be a compromiser. Whenever your goal is anything except proclamation. What did Jesus say? Go into the world and what? Proclaim the gospel. He didn’t say go into the world and get involved in political matters. He said he didn’t go into the world and say be a moralist. He said go into the world and proclaim the good news that God died for who? Sinners. Sinners. He didn’t die for good people. You know why he didn’t die for good people? Cause there ain’t any good people. When are we going to get that through our stupid heads? That we just think we’re good. And so we become proclaimers of morality. Guys, the law was telling you what not to do, and Jesus told us what to do. The law says don’t do this, and grace says this is what you do do. Morals. We become the stewards of morality. Oh, really? How hypocritical can you get?
I don’t mean to meddle in political things, but I’m going to meddle in spiritual things. I heard the other day where the gentleman, and I know these people personally, who is the head of the Southern Baptist Convention, along with one of his cohorts, had said that there is no way that they’re going to vote for ____ _______ or ____ _______ or _____ _______. Why? They’d been divorced. They’d been divorced. And what was even more of a shock was ______ okay. Well, I’m gonna tell you something, guys. ____ _______ hadn’t been divorced either. Neither was _____ _______. Which is worse, what they’ve done, or the fact they didn’t get divorced? You see, folks, divorce is not the unpardonable sin. In case you haven’t figured it out, over 50% of Christians have gone through divorce. I’m not saying divorces of God. I’m just saying that when you start proclaiming morality is your goal instead of proclamation, I’ll go with someone who worships a god in Mormonism more before I’ll go to a person who worships your god, but he’s been divorced. Do you see the hypocrisy in this type of thinking? ______ ________ was divorced. They all got back behind him. Why were you behind _____ _______ over here, and then not behind someone over here? Both of them been divorced. ______ hadn’t been divorced. _____ ______ wasn’t divorced. Just flounders. Just maybe not _______, but ____. Folks, when you’ve got a goal, other than proclamation, you’re going to be a hypocrite, and you’re going to be a compromiser.
I remember when I would get so irritated about people taking drugs, mind-altering drugs. I’ve had a lot of ministry with people, and I and and they come and say, “Well, yeah, I know Jesus, but I’m taking mind-altering drugs. And boy, I got after that. And I remember going out to California, and I went to a place called the Church of Scientology, and I visited them. Why, man, they got anti-drugs coming out their ears. You remember ___ _____ and his little deal on anti-drugs? They got a great deal on anti-drugs. Well, I got to thinking to myself, if I’m gonna go after anti-drugs, I got me some people, some friends out there that don’t even know the Lord. What do I want to hook up with them for? And you know, it was like God said, “Bob, you get off of this priority of yours. This is not the issue to go out and tell people don’t use drugs. Your issue is to tell people to trust Jesus. You got your priority off. You’re going to be a compromiser. You’ll hook up with anybody. What about abortion? Oh, don’t want to get a code. No, no, whoever I got my president, it got to be. They got to be anti-abortion because we evangelicals-that’s what we believe. Of course, we like to kill our wives, but not our babies. Anti-abortion. Well, I don’t think the Muslims are for abortion, so gather them around. You certainly the Catholics aren’t for abortion, so get them involved in your camp. And before long, you got a hodgepodge of people that don’t know the Lord from a spook, but we’re anti this, and we’re so proud, especially we guys, because we’ve never had an abortion.
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Bob George 14:12
It’s amazing how proud we can be as guys that we’ve never had an abortion. Am I advocating abortion? No, I’m saying pro-life, and I’m also saying pro-choice, because God gave you a choice, did He not? And for me to say I am not pro-choice is to say I’m not for God, because God gave me a choice, and He gave you a choice, and so I’m for both. I’m for pro-choice, and I’m for pro-life. What is my? Is that consistent with the Christian message? Absolutely. God gave you a choice, lady. But God also said that He gave you life. Do you want to take a baby and destroy? Instead of giving that baby a chance to grow up, it was Richard and I, Luton the other day, become like Richard because he could have been aborted very easily, and many other people that we know could have been aborted very easily. I’ve been counseling with people on abortion for I don’t know how many years. I don’t remember one person who ever had an abortion. Never told one person not to get one. Wasn’t my job, my job’s telling about Jesus. My job’s telling them about life, not to become a compromiser and a hypocrite. So you got all these things. What’s your opinion on gun control? Don’t. no, no, no! Not going to elect a. I’m not going to elect a president. Not going to elect somebody that takes alcohol. That’s grape juice. You know, get do not be drunk on grape juice when is excess. What’s wrong with these people? I get down and say, here you’ve got the Lord. You know about Jesus. You talk about Jesus and you act like an idiot. Oh, my Lord would never touch alcohol. Really? What do you think he was drinking? Grape juice? He said, “Don’t get drunk on wine. We’re in his excess. Did he not say, “Don’t get drunk on wine, or did he say, “Do not get drunk on grape juice” Why would he say, “Don’t get drunk, unless wine could make you drunk” There wasn’t any miracle at the wedding of Canaan of turning the water into grape juice. I could have done that with a can of concentrated Welch’s. There wasn’t any miracle to that. It was a fact the fermentation is what the miracle was. Why don’t we tell truth? I’d get kicked out of church if I was there for teaching this, but I also get kicked out of church for teaching First John one nine not to believers. When are we going to start having some appreciation for truth, as the Scripture teaches it, not as we would like it to be?
You know, I’ve said to people some time, if you’re out drowning, which would you rather have-a Christian lifeguard that doesn’t know how to swim, or a Christian, or a non-Christian lifeguard that did know how to swim. We have some funny ideas, guys. Some funny, funny ideas. They say at _____ _______, he committed adultery while he was persecuting _______ for committing adultery-it sounds like a bunch of people up here committing adultery, doesn’t it? As if Washington, D.C. was a holy place. At ____ _______, guys, what did Jesus? You say I’m a follower of Jesus. How many of you say I follow Jesus’ teaching? Then what did Jesus say? He said the law says don’t commit adultery. I say unto you, if you’ve looked at a woman with lust in your heart, you’ve already committed adultery. Now I want to ask you: How many of you want to condemn an adulterer, according to Jesus, not according to the laws like Paul, where he said, “But as far as legalistic obedience, I was without equal. I’m talking about that kind of a guy, or these kind of guys up there acting like they’re just ready to make their ascension into heaven. I know them, and the hypocrisy is unbelievable. Guys. If we’re going to be a follower of Jesus, then we better think like Jesus. And Jesus says that if I’ve ever had the ability to look at a woman with lust in my heart, it’s the same thing as committing adultery. So I had to look at myself as an adulterer in order to come to Christ. Am I right or wrong? So what right do you have to condemn somebody if you’ve done the same thing?
Do you have a right or don’t you? That’s why Jesus said, “I didn’t come to condemn the world. The world’s already been condemned. God has already condemned the world. He said the wages of sin is what? Death. That’s all the condemnation that there is. The wages of sin is spiritual death. But the gift of God is eternal Life. We right or wrong, and so he’s already condemned the world. He said, “In this world, you’re dead. You’re born dead, but I came to give you life. And we stand up with all of these condemnations. I’m not saying any of these things are right. I’m not saying going out and being a drunk certainly is not consistent with who God made us to be, going out and being a drug addict is certainly dumb. To be filling your body up with a bunch of drugs that alter your mind, but God gave us a better way. What’d God say? Renew your mind, think, come to truth. Let my truth set you free. Isn’t that a lot better than don’t do this? Let me set you free, and that’s our role. It says in the scripture that we should not be military, does not get involved in civilian affairs. It says to us, quit getting involved in these things, quit getting involved in them, but we stand up, and that’s what structure does for you. We are the evangelicals. We are moral, really, really. My friends. We have become nothing but a bunch of first-class hypocrites, and if I was the lost world today, looking in on these so-called Christian leaders, I would say, if that’s what Christianity is all about, who in the world needs it? You couldn’t lead me to Christ if you wanted to. If that is an example of Christianity.
I’ll tell you what touches my heart. Someone saying, “I forgive you. I forgive you. We’ve all sinned. We’ve all fallen short of the glory of God. There’s none righteous. No, not one. Now, guys, is that true or is it? Have we come to this mountain or haven’t we? Are we still claiming out of one side of our mouth, “I’m a follower of Jesus, and are standing on the mountain of the law with our own determinations as to what is right and wrong? We’re supposed to be people who are able to identify evil, but you supplement or you identify evil, but you correct that with Jesus. How much good does it tell people don’t get divorced? How much good is it done? How much good has it done to tell people don’t go out and drink? We tried that in probation days. Don’t drink. Well, we just made it in your backyard. How much good is it tell people don’t go out and use drugs? Has it done any good? Not an ounce of good. The issue is that when we get our goal off of proclamation, we’re going to be a compromiser in our souls, and we’re going to be a hypocrite because we’re going to be pointing fingers at you when I got them pointing back at me. And we have to see this, guys. We have to get a grasp of the truth of these things, you are no longer under the law. Can we get that through our heads that we are no longer to go back to Mount Sinai? It isn’t the case of are we under ceremonial laws, but still under the 10 Commandments. You don’t go to Mount Sinai. Period. You go to the empty tomb, and there you find Jesus, and there you find the one who’s called the mediator of a New Covenant, the person who ushered in the grace of God to us in its fullness, so that you and I can walk and love people without judging them. I look to myself, and again, these presidential elections just point out how hypocritically we are, or somebody is. They come out with these kind of statements. Now you got the evangelical community. No, we don’t like these. We we like this guy over there, because you got a different God than we are, you know. He’s a Mormon, but that’s okay. He and divorced, folks. It’s my feeling this, and when he says, “Keep on loving each other” in chapter 13, keep on loving each other as brothers.
Don’t forget to entertain strangers. By doing so, some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those in prisons as if you were their fellow prisoner, and those who are mistreated as if you yourself were suffering. Why didn’t he say, “Remember those who are mixed up but are extremely wealthy? You see, it’s real easy to get into that arena, isn’t it? But who wants to go to prisons? Is it any showy? I mean, not you know you can get a little bit of publicity with that, but people kind of look down on it a little bit. He said the marriage bed should be honored by all. That’s that’s what he says about that. He didn’t say quit doing something. He said the marriage bed should be honored. We ought to be able to figure that out. And the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge adulter and the sexually immoral. He’s already judged it. Don’t do it. Judged it. There’s a better way. There’s a better way than impurity. Keep your lives free from the love of money. Be content with what you have, because God has said, “I’ll never leave you. I’ll never forsake you. If that’s the case, then you don’t have to worry about what your money condition is. And so we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
It says, “Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. The leaders, the people who have communicated the word of God to you, remember them. It says, “Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Don’t imitate their actions. Imitate their faith. If there’s something to imitate, why it’s the fact that hopefully your leaders, whoever they are, are walking by faith and teaching you to walk by faith. Don’t be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, guys. There’s a lot of strange teachings out there today. It’s good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, by grace, not by ceremonial foods, not by what you eat and what you don’t eat, because whatever you eat goes in and comes out. Don’t have to be a genius to figure that out either, which are of no value to those who eat them. We have an altar from those who minister at a tabernacle that they have have no right to eat. The high priest he carries the blood of animals into the most holy place as a sin offering, but the bodies well they’re burnt outside the camp, and so Jesus also suffered outside of the city, and his blood was outside of the city to make the people holy through his own blood.
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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 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.