Classic Christianity – Our Attitude Towards Legalism – Part 1 – 11-09-26
~ Matthew 23:1-4 — Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples: “The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So practice and observe everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
In “Our Attitude Towards Legalism, Part 1,” Bob George teaches that turning one’s eyes toward Jesus means understanding His thoughts and attitudes. Bob says believers receive the mind of Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit, who reveals spiritual truth.
Bob contrasts life in Christ with legalism, arguing that the law cannot give life and that believers should not be placed back under its demands. He compares legalistic teachers of his time to the Judaizers who sought to bring Christians under the law.
Discussing Jesus’ response to religious experts, Bob highlights the two greatest commandments: love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. He emphasizes that people respond to God’s love rather than earning His favor through faith or good deeds.
Bob also underscores Jesus’ rebukes of the Pharisees and teachers of the law for hypocrisy, imposing burdens, and seeking public recognition. The lesson’s central message is that salvation rests on faith in Christ’s righteousness, not on human efforts to earn God’s acceptance.
Here are the Scripture passages Bob quoted, referenced, or clearly alluded to.
Matthew 22:34–46 — The experts question Jesus about the greatest commandment; Jesus answers with the commandments to love God and neighbor, then questions them about the Christ as David’s Son and Lord.
Deuteronomy 6:5 — Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and strength.
Leviticus 19:18 — Love your neighbor as yourself.
Psalm 110:1 — “The Lord said to my Lord…”—the passage Jesus cites about the Christ.
Matthew 23:1–22 — Jesus’ words about the teachers of the law and Pharisees, including their hypocrisy, burdensome rules, and desire for recognition.
Philippians 2:5 and 1 Corinthians 2:16 — The attitude and mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:9–10 — What God has prepared is revealed through the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:6–7 — The contrast between the law, which brings death, and the Spirit, who gives life.
Galatians 3:16, 23–25 — The promised “seed” and the law’s role before faith in Christ came.
1 John 4:10, 19 — God loved us first; our love is a response to His.
2 Peter 1:3 and Hebrews 11:6 — God’s provision for life and godliness, and the importance of faith.
Romans 6:23, Romans 3:10, and Isaiah 64:6 — Sin’s consequence, humanity’s lack of righteousness, and the inadequacy of human deeds before God.
Ecclesiastes 1:9 — “There is nothing new under the sun,” applied to the persistence of legalism.
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Pray to God:
Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. James 1:5
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.”
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Announcer 0:13
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.
Bob George 0:30
Let’s turn together to chapter 23 of the Gospel of Matthew. You know, we sing songs like “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus,” “Praise the Name of Jesus,” and all of those type of things, and we have to sit back sometimes and wonder: Do we really know what that means? In other words, when you’re saying “Turn your eyes on Jesus,” do you have a visual aid, a picture of him that you’re supposed to just sit and stare at in your mind. What is that talking about? And you know, if you’re if you’re talking about the Lord Jesus Christ or anyone else, it’s getting to know them involves getting to know how they think, how they act, how they respond, what is their attitudes toward life in general, and and that is what that’s what it means to turn your eyes upon Jesus, to get to know Jesus. Is what is he thinking? Where is his mind? And when we look at that type of thing, we see that the Scripture tells us that our attitudes, as an example, should be like that of Christ Jesus. Well, how are we going to follow that if we don’t know what his attitudes are toward things, as an example, toward life? And so, when you’re talking about that, our attitude should be like that of Christ Jesus. We could never have the attitude of Christ Jesus until we know what his attitude was. Now we are told that as born again people that we literally have the mind of Christ. We’re told that that at the very moment the Holy Spirit of God comes to live within you, that the mind of Christ comes to live within you. The Holy Spirit is not an it. He is a he. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is alive. He has human personality, or it’s actually God’s personality that we have been given by God. But he has personality. He has a will to think. He has a will to feel. He has he has all of the elements that you and I would know in our lives as as our own personalities, but the Holy Spirit of God is not an it or a force or a power. The Holy Spirit of God is a person, and so a person has a mind, and so what you’re talking about is the mind of God literally comes to indwell us as believers, and so in as much as we have the mind of Christ living in us, then that is what has given us the ability to understand the meaning of the Word of God. We’re told that eye has not seen, nor ear has heard, nor mind has conceived of those things that God has prepared for those who love Him, but it must be revealed by the Spirit of God. In other words, you can sit and study until your eyeballs fall out, trying to glean what does this mean, what does this mean, and what does this mean? Until the Spirit reveals what it means, you will never know what it means, and so the best you can come up with is a human understanding as to what this thing means. And quite frankly, that’s the reason we got so many denominations across the country: is human understanding trying to figure out what the Scripture means instead of relying upon the Holy Spirit of God, who’s alive, living in us, to teach it what it means. Now, as we’re looking at the attitudes of Christ Jesus, I couldn’t help from thinking the other day as I was listening to a radio broadcast of a lady that is that is on, and she was teaching obviously from a messianic ___ standpoint, and was teaching all about the law, and and how we should be following the law, and and that we’re going to have on our Sabbath day, we’ll be having this, and all of this vernacular was coming out of her mouth in regard to the law. And I look back on that, and I say, wonder what Jesus’ attitude was toward the law, and especially the teachers of the law, because if you’ve got the law, then you’re going to have teachers of the law. What was his attitude toward the?
Teachers of the law in his day, and would it be any difference in regard to the teachers of the law in this day? And so, if we’re going to have an attitude toward the law of Moses that the Bible says kills you, the law is an instrument of death, not an instrument of life. The law kills, it says, but the spirit gives life. What should our attitude then be toward this law that God gave through Moses until the seed, who is Jesus came, and we talked about that until faith came, and we also talked about in the Old Testament that faith is never mentioned on a personal basis, only as it relates to Israel and to marriage. When you’re talking about faith, breaking faith, because you don’t live by faith under the law, you can only live by faith in Jesus. And until that faith in Jesus came, it says we were held prisoners under the law in bondage. Now you say, what then should be our attitude toward the law and the teachers of the law that are still in existence today, nothing new under the sun has ever occurred. When Paul went in to proclaim the grace of God, the Judaizers were following it right in behind him, trying to put people back under the bondage of law and the manipulation of legalism, and telling people if you don’t do this, God’s going to zap you. If you don’t tithe, God’s going to get you. If you don’t do this, God’s going to do this. That’s all unadulterated legalism. And there’s nothing new today under the sun. The same teachers of the law that were back then are still in existence today, and so we say, “What was Jesus’ attitude toward those teachers of the law? What was his attitude?” Now, if you want to know what his attitude is, why go to the scriptures? Now, first of all, you’re going to see that the teachers of the law are always trying to trip up someone who is teaching something contrary to their interpretation of the law. Always trying to trip them up. You will always see a certain approach from a liglius, and that is a question being asked that you know they don’t want to answer that question or try to trap you, and you can hear it in their voice. Then, and just as much today, I’ve learned a little bit to be able to recognize on the radio a voice of someone trying to trick you, and you’ve heard me stop them in their boots before they ever get started because I can hear it when they’re getting started. Nothing new under the sun has changed. A legalist who is against someone will never confront them. Always go behind their back and get another court to crucify them. Always. No one has the guts to confront you face to face, always through rumor, innuendo, going behind your back to try to create a crucifixion, a court behind your back. That’s always the case with a legalist. Now, what took place here? Bounce up to chapter 22. On hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, I mean he had just shut them up. Why the Pharisees got together, and one of them, and folks keep looking at what’s stated here: an expert in the law. These people were experts in the law. We have people today who are experts in the law. Now he said they tested him with this question. They now can you imagine somebody having the audacity to think you can trick Jesus? But Satan tried, didn’t he? Through what misquoting of Scripture? We’re up in chapter 22, in verse 34. I’m sorry. And so they thought they were going to test him with this question: Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Let’s see if you can. Let’s see if you can tell me the the number one and number two. So it’s like Jesus said, “Okay, I’ll tell you. Love your God, your Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. You can see him sitting there saying, “Hm.”. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. All of the law and the prophets hang upon these two commandments. Now the interesting thing is those two aren’t in the 10.
So in other words, they were coming to him saying, “Which is the greatest of the 10, and he didn’t even name the 10. And they thought they were going to trick him. He said, “I’ll tell you what the greatest commandments are, and they’re not in the 10. The greatest commandment is to love your God with all of your heart and all your soul and all your mind.” Jesus, through the apostle John, later told us it’s not that we loved him, but that what he loved us first, which tells us until we know about his unconditional love, we don’t have a chance in the world of ever loving him back. So you say, do legalists love God? How could you love someone you fear? People come in and say, oh, he loves God. He’s a legalist, but he loves God. Baloney. You cannot love God on your own. You can only respond to God’s love, and if you don’t know anything about God’s love, you can’t love Him back. You do not initiate God to your love to God. You respond to His love for you, and that’s what we’ve talked about in this area of faith. Faith is not I’m going to do something to get God to respond to me. That is nonsense and presumption. God has already done everything for us, and we respond to that by faith. Faith doesn’t cause God to do one earthly thing for you. God’s already done everything for you. He’s already given you everything that you need for life and godliness. Now, what else is He going to give you if you’ve already been given everything you need for life and godliness. So faith is, and I’ve got enough faith to cause God to do something. That’s ridiculous to think that here we are, these little puny little ants down here, thinking I’m going to cause the God of this universe to just be impressed with me. And there are people like that. They’re so puffed up with their own pride that you know you tell them God loves you, and they their attitude is, “Well, no wonder. As wonderful as I am, you know, I’d love me too if I was God.” And that’s the kind of attitude we have, all puffed up with this pride of ours, God has already given you everything you need. Faith is that I got enough faith to cause God to do something. I’m going to manipulate God. Do you realize, folks, how much Christian teaching is going on today, especially in the media, with that type of nonsense that I can teach you how to manipulate God and get Him to do anything you want him to do, you want to be rich, man. I’ll teach you how to make God to make you rich. I’ll show you how to get God to cause you to be rich. You want the bless? I’ll show you how to get blessing. I’ll just show you, folks. That is the most presumptuous thing in the world. God says you’re already rich. If you’re in Christ Jesus, you’re as rich as you’re going to get. And in a final analysis, if you think rich is accumulation of money, I’ve never seen a hearse on the back end, or do you haul it on the back end of a hearse? You didn’t come with anything, and you ain’t going with anything. That’s not what riches is. That’s not what riches are. Riches are being rich in Him.
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Bob George 14:06
And so they were trying to trap him with that dumb question, and he just again annihilated them. And he said, “Upon these two commands hang the entirety of the law, folks.” When he says the law, he’s not talking about the 10 Commandments. He’s talking about the entire five books of Moses. He’s talking about all of the law, all of the ceremonial law, all of the rest of the law. Everything from Mount Sinai is called the law, and he said the whole law, and then the prophets is the rest of the teaching of the Old Testament. It’s like saying, “I want to tell you something.” The entire teaching of the Old Testament hinges upon those two things: love your neighbor as yourself, love your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. And so he set them in their place. You know why? Just deep down in their heart, said they. And love God, and for sure they didn’t love their neighbor. And so, while the Pharisees were gathered together, he said, like Jesus said, “Well, I think I’ll ask you a question. What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” Here they were come to trap him. Says, “I’ll show you a trap.” Well, they said, “Oh, he’s the son of David.” Well, he said, “How is it then that David was speaking by the Spirit, calls him Lord? For he says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until you put your enemies under your feet.’ If then David calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” Well, no one could say a word in reply, and from that day on, no one dared to ask him any more questions. That was the end of the question. No more trying to trap Jesus. Then Jesus said to the crowd and to his disciples, “And folks, listen to this: the harshest words ever spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ was to the ligless, not to the sinners, but to the self-righteous and to the teachers of the law. Things anything different today? Not announce. You want to be a teacher of the law? Then listen to what Jesus has to say to you. Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat, so you must obey them and do everything they tell you.” Now, folks, in those days, and one of the reasons that you can see, especially as it relates to in Jerusalem at the end of Christ’s life, you’ll see that. But the Romans, even though they ruled over everything, knew that they would save themselves a ton of problems if they let the JUDEANs rule themselves under the leadership of the rabbis. They would keep them in much better shape than the Romans could. So the Romans in cahoots with the spiritual leaders of that day, and they were on speaking terms with each other. That’s why they could go in and tell them, “We’ve caught Jesus, or or let’s put him on trial.” And so the leadership of that day in cahoots with the Roman government was the controlling factor of everything. The reason for a priest was in order to be a representative from man to God in all things. A law without the punishment of the law is a worthless law, and so who’s going to execute that punishment? That’s what I was thinking when I was listening to that radio program the other day, lady. Who do you think is going to execute the punishment? You see, it’s one thing to teach the law; it’s another thing to teach the punishment of the law, because under the law, the wages of sin is death. Who’s going to carry that out? In those days, the adulteress was what stoned to death. Who ordered that? The rabbis. In other words, it was ordered. That is God’s law. How can you teach the law without the punishment of the law? Who’s going to carry that out? Who’s going to say stone her? So teachers of the law today are only teaching one thing and one thing only. That’s thus saith the law. What is thus saith the law if you don’t keep it? Where is that coming in? Why don’t you teach both of them if you’re going to teach one of them? You teachers of the law, hypocrites.
That’s what he’s calling us. So he said, “You listen to what God is saying here, folks. You must, so you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Everything they do is done for men to see. Does that sound familiar? Do it for men to see. Have a show. Make Christianity look good. Make it look acceptable, just like a radio station we’re talking about. Get some good old music. Quit the teaching; it’s not necessary. And in the end times, it says that all people are going to want to do is get their ears tickled. I don’t want to hear sound doctrine. I don’t want to hear teaching. Just make me feel good. Just make me feel good. And that’s what we’re in, folks: is a feel-good society. You don’t need to exercise faith with that. I don’t have to have faith in that. And without faith, it’s what impossible to please God. Without faith. So he’s saying, he’s saying to us that these people want to do everything so that people will see. This is done for men to see. That’s sad, isn’t it, folks? You think that’s unusual in today’s Christianity? Not announced. Not announced. That’s sad. Now listen to what he’s saying. They do things for men to see. They make their phylacteries wide and tassels under garments long. They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seat in the synagogues. They love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them Rabbi, that’s still today the same. You go whether you go over to Israel or you go to Greece, you see these men walking around in their robes, don’t you? Just alighting and people coming up and saying rabbi. Of course, they wouldn’t know they were if they didn’t have robes on. Maybe that’s why they wear robes. Now here’s what he says: You are not to be called Rabbi, for you only have one master, and you are all brothers, and do not call anyone on earth father. That annihilates a bunch of people, for you have one Father, and He is in heaven, not down here. Nor are you to be called teacher, for you have one teacher, and that is the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. Well, that’s a blow. I want to get great so I can be served. No, no, no. It said you won’t be great. You’ll be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Now we’re going to get seven woes here, folks, and they’re strong. He said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law, and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourself do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. You are.” keeping through your own teaching people from entering into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. You refuse to do it because of your pride, and you’re going to do everything in your power to keep people from doing it. How do you keep people from Christ? Tell them you got to earn to get there. That’s all. That if you do this and this and this, God will accept you. That’s someone that’s saying, if you think I’m going to accept Christ by faith, you’re nuts. If you think someone’s going to tell me that my deeds are as filthy rags, no way. I’ll tell you all about my deeds. Amy and I have a little waiter that waits on us a lot, and when we go out to for breakfast or something, and man, he is constantly from Greece, and he’s constantly telling us about his good deeds. He just wants praise so bad it’s unbelievable. Well, you tell him, hey, your deeds are as filthy rags. Why he’d have a heart attack. He thinks those deeds are going to get him to heaven. Well, I’d have to ask you the question: How many deeds would you have to do before you got there? And how many fewer deeds would you have to do to lose it?
And if you were right up to the line and just won away, wouldn’t that be bad if you lost it with just one? Okay, Lord, just let me live one more day. I’ll do one more deed and get in. You see how stupid that stuff is, folks. And that’s why he said all of our deeds are as filthy rags. There is none righteous, no, not one, and there’s no one that’ll ever stand in the presence of God in His own righteousness. Nobody, none of us. There’s only one way we’ll ever enter into the kingdom of God, and that is by faith in the One who was righteous, and that’s not you and me, that’s Him. And so he says, “You keep people from that.” He said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of hell as you are.”. Are those nice words? You’d say, “Lord, you’re not being very politically correct in this deal.” Why does he say that? Again, what is your attitude toward legalism? Is it his, or is it your flesh’s? You see, the flesh likes legalism; the spirit hates it, and we have to come to grips with that. If I’ve got the mind of Christ, and if my attitude should be like that of Christ Jesus, then why shouldn’t my attitude toward these things be the same as His? And yet, are we tolerant of it? Well, of course we are. As a matter of fact, I’ve heard it so many times; it’s unbelievable. Well, a little legalism, a little grace, both of them. They’re both good. Little poison, little food, both good. Is your attitude toward legalism like Jesus, or is it like a Pharisee? Well, he goes in to say, “Woe to you, blind guides! You say if someone swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold in the temple, while he’s bound by his oath, you blind fools. Which is greater, the gold or the temples that makes the gold sacred? You also say if anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift on it, why then he’s bound by that oath. You blind men, which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred, and therefore he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it, and he who swears by the temple swears by it, and by the one who dwells in it, and he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
Announcer
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.