Radio Broadcast Tuesday 09/24/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Galatians P26 (09-24-24)

Church is NOT a Place You Go, It’s Who You Are if You Are in Christ Jesus

~ So let’s get real today. No one goes to church. That would be like saying I go to “body,” because the body of Christ is the church today, and no one goes to have body. Yet we use the term lets go have church. How much sense does that make?

Everyone is into their church, church, church, church. What’s your church doing? ‘Our church has morning breakfasts. Well our church has potlucks. And our church has Bible studies. And our church has mission trips planned. And our church is building a bigger building because we have a lot more “church” members now. And our church has such beautiful music, and a band and everything and plays all the modern “Christian music” with all kinds of musical instruments. Well our church has a choir. And our church has drama plays with actors and everything. And our church has men’s and women’s groups. And our church has couples classes. Well our church has singles classes. But our church has such a good Sunday school for our youth, with a vacation Bible school every year. Well our church has adult Sunday school programs. Well our church has family night.’ And on and on it goes. Church this and church that. But they never teach the finality of the cross, or the reality of the resurrection, or salvation is Life, or the teaching of the New Covenant, or that Jesus took away your sins at the cross and is NOT counting any of your sins against you. Instead they teach ongoing forgiveness. They don’t teach that it is Finished. But people will say, “there is no perfect church” as a justification for continuing listening and supporting ministries that are teaching the lies of Satan. And make no mistake about it, these are indeed lies that Satan has spread in regards to “church” and what a person needs to do to do “church.” For people will try and make you feel guilty if you don’t do “church.” Because they will invariably ask the question, “Where do you go to church?”

And what should be your answer? “Church is not a building. The true body of Christ is the true Church. And quite frankly, no one goes to church. Because that is saying I go to body. For the body of Christ is the true church.” That is what you say. You explain to them the truth of the word of God. You tell it like it is! Be bold in your proclamation of TRUTH. You share the truth of the word of God. “The body is a unit, though it is composed of many parts. And although its parts are many, they all form one body. So it is with Christ.” “Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a member of it.” 1 Corinthians 12:12; 12:27

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him.” John 3:36

“For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes.” Romans 10:4

Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Each one should test his own work. Then he will have reason to boast in himself alone, and not in someone else. For each one should carry his own load. Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word must share in all good things with his instructor.

Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return. The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to the family of faith.

See what large letters I am using to write to you with my own hand!

Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. They only do this to avoid persecution for the cross of Christ. For the circumcised do not even keep the law themselves, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

But as for me, may I never boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation.

Peace and mercy to all who walk by this rule, even to the Israel of God.

From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers.

Amen. Galatians 6:1-18

Pray to God:

Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

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.”

~ In regards to “church” : “And so it doesn’t make any difference whether you’re growing in the Lord or not. I could care less about that. I just want a large number of people to show up so that I can boast in how many people show up. Any of you been involved in that, around that? And so everything is outward, and we brag on how many people we have in our congregation, we don’t have a clue what’s going on inside their hearts, whether they’re in the Lord, whether they’re not in the Lord. And of course, then the way to do that is to promote baptism, not baptism as proof of salvation, but as a means of joining my church. So the way that you become a member of my church, not a member of Jesus’ body, but a member of my church is to get baptized. And so we baptized hundreds last year, and because we’ve convinced ourselves and others that that’s a means of joining the church, and then we may throw a little Jesus in there. That’s also a means of coming to Christ. We throw that in just in case we might need it. But basically it’s, this is church membership. When I was a kid, we went to church in the Christian church, it was a branch of the disciples of Christ, and in that church, every Sunday you recited the Lord’s Prayer, and every Sunday they had communion, and every Sunday the cup was passed by with the bread. And I loved grape juice, and every Sunday that grape juice came under my nose, and I sat there dying to get some grape juice. And I used to, you know, have those little glasses, and after it was passed, I’d get the little glasses out and lick the bottom out of them just to get me some grape juice. And finally, one time, I asked Mom, Mom, how do I get to drink grape juice on Sunday? And said, by being baptized, I said, lead me to the waters. And I was baptized the next Sunday, and I got my grape juice. Now, that’s a phenomenal motivation, isn’t it, for being baptized. And that lasted for a while until one of my buddies asked me to go to the Presbyterian Church.

And what was spiritual about the Presbyterian Church is it had a basketball court in the basement. …” ~ Bob George

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Announcer 0:12
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Bob George 0:28
And so this thing of trying to please people and to look good outwardly is not unusual. It’s been going on for centuries. So he says in this particular case that the only reason that these people are doing this is to avoid being persecuted of the cross. Now who got responsible for killing Jesus at the cross? Who was the blame laid on there? The Jews. Now, did the Jews execute Jesus? No, who did that? The Romans. What did the Jews do? Encouraged it. They were the motivation behind it. But the but the Gentiles carried it out. So who killed Jesus? The Jews and the Gentiles. But in essence, you killed Jesus and I killed Jesus because of my sins, but the Jews got credit for it. Now here they had a way and a means of being set apart from the rest of the world. What was it? Circumcision. So if I can get the Gentiles circumcised, no one’s going to know whether I’m a Hebrew or not, because everybody’s circumcised now, and that has gone on to this very day, and I won’t go into the details of that, but I think we know that to be true, that circumcision is no longer a sign of being a Hebrew. So that was accomplished, and that was one of the ways in which they avoided being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Now he’s saying about these people who are looking for outward impressions, that even to those who are circumcised, not even those who are circumcised, obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh again. How does that relate to this modern day? I don’t care what’s going on in your heart, just show up. I’m not interested in you. I’m interested in numbers, nickels and noses is what I’m interested in.

And so it doesn’t make any difference whether you’re growing in the Lord or not. I could care less about that. I just want a large number of people to show up so that I can boast in how many people show up. Any of you been involved in that, around that? And so everything is outward, and we brag on how many people we have in our congregation, we don’t have a clue what’s going on inside their hearts, whether they’re in the Lord, whether they’re not in the Lord. And of course, then the way to do that is to promote baptism, not baptism as proof of salvation, but as a means of joining my church. So the way that you become a member of my church, not a member of Jesus’ body, but a member of my church is to get baptized. And so we baptized hundreds last year, and because we’ve convinced ourselves and others that that’s a means of joining the church, and then we may throw a little Jesus in there. That’s also a means of coming to Christ. We throw that in just in case we might need it. But basically it’s, this is church membership. When I was a kid, we went to church in the Christian church, it was a branch of the disciples of Christ, and in that church, every Sunday you recited the Lord’s Prayer, and every Sunday they had communion, and every Sunday the cup was passed by with the bread. And I loved grape juice, and every Sunday that grape juice came under my nose, and I sat there dying to get some grape juice. And I used to, you know, have those little glasses, and after it was passed, I’d get the little glasses out and lick the bottom out of them just to get me some grape juice. And finally, one time, I asked Mom, Mom, how do I get to drink grape juice on Sunday? And said, by being baptized, I said, lead me to the waters. And I was baptized the next Sunday, and I got my grape juice. Now, that’s a phenomenal motivation, isn’t it, for being baptized. And that lasted for a while until one of my buddies asked me to go to the Presbyterian Church.

And what was spiritual about the Presbyterian Church is it had a basketball court in the basement. Now the ceiling was only about eight foot tall, so you could slam duck when you were five foot tall. But it didn’t make any difference to me. It’s a basketball court, and Reverend Spurgeon was loved kids had a phenomenal youth ministry in that little church. 20,000 people, 300 kids marched down the aisle on Easter Sundays with palm branches singing up from the grave. He arose. None of us knew the Lord. He didn’t know the Lord, but we sang songs. And in order to play basketball in the basement, you had to be in the choir. And so every kid in the church was in the choir, and his concept was, I don’t care whether you can sing or not. Some people are off key low, some are off key high. It’ll all balance out in the end. Just open up your mouth and make a joyful noise unto the Lord and sing. And that’s what we did. What did it sound like? I don’t know, but we sang, and we got to play basketball and we got to go out on he bought a bus that was unheard of back in my days, for a church to have a church bus, turned a bus, went out to Memorial Park. And Amy and I were just back there recently, and we played ball there, and we’d have take our lunches out and have a prayer with us. And all those things were true, and they were good. It was a good environment to be in, but no one knew the Lord. No one knew the Lord, but we had a nice youth ministry, and we had a nice program, and today, the same is true. You got a program. You got a youth program. The good you and that’s what, where am I going to go? Where they got a good youth program. Doesn’t matter, we know the Lord or not just activity. And we got a good singles department, and we got a fantastic young marriage department. We got the auto adult and here the Bible says we all ought to mix together and Oh, and here we separate. You got the old adults and the medium adults and the young adults and all of this, and you got all of these classes down so the people can relate to each other, because that’s what’s important, isn’t as relating to each other, and that’s the condition of our organized church today, is programs and more money and more buildings to house what? Here in the Gospel? No, programs. And so before long, as we’ve talked about before, what is no a supplement to becomes a substitute for, and it’s subtle, and anyone who thinks that they’re not subject to that something’s wrong in your head, you’re not aware of the spiritual battle that is going on in the hearts of man today. You’re not aware of what Satan wants to do to you, and that is to deceive us and to get our focus off of him and on to anything except him. Satan does not care what you have your eyes on. As long as they’re off of Jesus. That’s all he cares Christian activity. Praise God. He likes that. It doesn’t make a difference as long as they’re off of Jesus.

And so we have to understand that the apostle Paul, in writing this book, is trying to drive us to our senses and trying to get us to see it’s not activity. It is not flooded games that this Christian life is a serious matter. It doesn’t mean we walk around looking like we just ate a skunk, because we have joy in the midst of trials and tribulation. But he says, In this world, you’re going to have trial and tribulation. I want to tell you, folks, there’s not a person sitting in this room that doesn’t have trials and tribulation, is there. And so in this world, you’re going to have it. If you don’t have it externally, we have it internally. And the issue is where you going to go to? And you see, we get all of these young people, especially all wrapped up in our youth groups, in our high school youth groups. What happens when you go to college and your youth group in there anymore? I’ll tell you what happened to probably eight or 10 people that I know of. They all died of AIDS and became homosexuals when they got to college. They might have been in high school, I don’t know, but I do know they’re dead today from AIDS sitting in the Baptist Church singing their hearts out. Folks, you don’t have anything to draw upon. If you don’t have Jesus, you cannot draw upon your youth program. When you don’t have a youth program, you can’t draw on your young marriage class. When you don’t have a young marriage class, if you’re by yourself, all you have is Jesus, and we better have a relationship with him and someone that we can talk to and relate to and pour our heart out to and be ministered to by Him, because he’s always he’s all you’ve got.

And so to these outward appearances that we get so hung up on, they’ll kill you, and they’ll put you in bondage to desiring outward appearances and acceptance by man. Paul said, If I was if I was teaching the law, I would not be persecuted by man. I’m not here to be pleasing to man. We’re not. Thing for sheriff. We are children of the living God who’s under a continual spiritual warfare and an attack every moment of our lives by the one who says, I have only one goal for you, to kill, steal and destroy everything in your life. I’ll steal your marriage from you, if I can, I’ll destroy your marriage from you. I’ll destroy you. I’ll destroy the ministry. I’ll destroy anything that I can get my hands on, if you allow me. And that’s the enemy that is nudging into your in my head every single moment of the day. And I want to tell you fun and games don’t contradict that. And so he’s saying to us that not only those who are circumcised obey the law. The people were saying, be circumcised at the part of the law, but I don’t obey the law. What are the requirements of the obedience to the law? If you’re under the law, it says, first of all, you’re under a curse. Why are you under a curse? Because you can’t obey the law, and what’s the wages of sin under the law? Death. That’s the curse of the law. As long as you hang on to one piece of the law, he says, You may as well hang on to all of it, because if you’re trying to obey one law, you’re obligated to obey all of it. We studied that, didn’t we, and it says in there that if you, if you kept the entire law and just violated one law in all of your life, you violated all of them. And so he’s saying to you, if you’re under the law, you’re under a curse. So if you’re going to hang on to the law of circumcision or baptism, or any other law that you hang on to for salvation, you’re under the curse of death because you’re obligated to obey all of it and all of its outward signs, outward impressions that mean nothing to God.

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Bob George 13:09
And so he’s saying they’re yet they want you to be circumcised so we can boast in your flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ only got one thing to boast about, and that’s the cross. Now, folks again, have you ever wondered, why do we carry the symbol of the cross? You say, Why don’t we carry some symbol of the resurrection? Well, I was in Canada last week. I did two interviews in Canada, one in Winnipeg and the other in Toronto. In Toronto, a place called Huntley Street. It’s a wonderful, wonderful facility there. And did about a 20 minute interview on television on Huntley street, about the same on the one in Winnipeg. But we were talking about that. And as I said, the reason for the cross is this, and people don’t understand this. The cross is universal in application. How many people did he die for the sins of? The whole world. How many people was he raised? For all people. But but only the ones who accept his life are saved. Whether you accept it or not, your sins were taken away. So you see, the cross is a symbol of the one who came and took away the sins of the whole world, not only ours, but the sins of the whole world, that is universal in application, there’s not a soul alive that has ever been born that you could not walk up to and have the authority as a child of God to say to them, I got good news for you. God was in Christ reconciling you unto Himself, not counting your sins against you. Could you say that to anybody? Absolutely, it’s scripture, isn’t it? Could you say that to someone in the jungles of New Guinea? Yeah, could you say it in the city of New York? Yeah, it’s universal, and therefore it’s truth. And so that is true that the sins of the whole world were taken away at the cross. Does that mean you’re saved? No, because you’re not saved by getting your sins forgiven. That’s a part of salvation, but it’s not in and of itself, salvation. So the cross, the reason it’s a symbol, universally, is because it’s the pronouncement of God saying, I took away the sins of the whole world. There’s no one who will ever go to hell because of his sins. Do we understand that, folks? There’s no sin that you have ever committed that was not taken away at the cross of Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? Now, some of us have tried to out sin God, but we can’t do it. There is no such thing as a sin unforgiven. They were all taken away at the cross. I have people who say, Well, what about my future sins? How many of your sins were in the future when Jesus died for them 2000 years ago? It appears to me that that would be all of them. And so there’s not a sin that has been, is or will be committed that was not taken away at the cross.

Now we talk about the atoning death of Jesus Christ. Did Jesus come to atone for sins. No, a bull and goat atoned for sins. And we hear preachers today continually talking about atonement, atonement, atonement. Say, What are you talking about? There is no atonement in the New Testament. Atonement was Old Testament way of getting your sins covered until the next covering. So atonement covered sin. Jesus took it away. And if you have a translation where atonement is used, check it out in the Greek. That is not the translation. It’s propitiation. It is a word that means it’s done. It’s final, it’s over. So knowing that to be true and knowing that the cross is the universal sign that your sins have been taken away at the cross. Can any of you go up to a person and say, if you don’t shape up that sin you’re going to hell? Can you or not? Is there any sin you could commit that would send you to hell? How about Hitler’s sins that couldn’t send him to hell? Gee Whiz. What about Stalin’s? What about Old Ben Laden? I’m not so sure about that one, too. Were those sins forgiven? Absolutely, absolutely. Are they saved? No. Why? Because they have not gone to where you received the forgiveness. It’s money in the bank, but I haven’t gone to the bank. So guess what? I’m going to die impoverished because I don’t go to where the money is, in the bank. And the scripture says in him, you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Where is forgiveness that was provided for the whole world received? Where is it received? In Him. Now, what do you mean in him? What do we mean in him? The one that sacrificed for the sins, but more important than that is the one who was what? Raised from the dead.

And there’s where we’ve come with a half gospel. And in so many of our churches, and I say in the Baptist churches I went to, it don’t make any difference where it was, you got a great evangelistic call, but it’s always come get your sins forgiven. Get your sins forgiven. Get your sins forgiven. And so young people are buying a life insurance policy, a fire insurance policy. Who wants to go to hell? You got to be an idiot. So come forward and receive Jesus and forgive your sins and you won’t go to hell. That’s not true, and you go back to the pew as empty as you walk to the altar. Why? Because you don’t come to get forgiveness. You come to get life. And it’s not the just the physical Jesus that walked on the earth 2000 years ago. It’s the resurrected Christ. That’s why he said, without the resurrection, we’re to be pitied, of all people and are still in our sins. What’s the matter? Didn’t Paul understand the cross? How can he say that? Didn’t he know that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world? Was he confused on something? No, he wasn’t confused. He was just giving you truth. Without the resurrection, we’re to be pitied, of all people and are still in our sins. Why? Because without the resurrection, there’s no forgiveness, even though it was provided, it can’t be received any place except in the resurrected Jesus, not the Jesus who walked on the face of this earth, who healed the blind and made the deaf to hear, but the one who was raised from the dead, and today is seated at the right hand of God. That’s the resurrected Jesus. And folks without the resurrection were lost. And if you’ve never come to believe in the resurrection, you’re lost. We’re not saved by believing Jesus hung on a cross. You’re saved by believing he was raised from the dead. Now, in order to come to a resurrected Jesus and receive what He came to give you, eternal life, you have to believe in the eternal consequence of the cross. And we have people who teach the opposite of that. We don’t teach the finality of the cross. We teach, yes, He died for the sins of the world, but if you keep on confessing your sins, he’ll keep on forgiving you. That’s nonsense. It’s idiotic nonsense. I taught it for years. I taught nonsense for years. There’s nothing true about that. When Christ took away your sins, he took away your sins, and when he took it away, he took it away eternally. That’s why that act of the cross is as an eternal function as his resurrection is eternal. He had to die for all sins in order to give you eternal life, he had to deal with the cause of death eternally in order to give you eternal life. So had he not dealt eternally with the sins of the world at the cross, he could never have offered you eternal life.

I sat with a young lady in Toronto, who was talking afterwards with a chaplain and myself, and she was saying, Well, what do you think about these people, because they don’t believe eternal security? What do you think about these people just teach, well, I can come to Christ and go do anything I want to and and I have eternal life. I said, let me see if I can help you with this. And I went over what I just went over with you, that what caused spiritual death was sin. The wages of sin is what? Death, but what the gift of God is what life. Now, in order to give you life eternal, he had to deal with the cause of death eternally. Because, had he not dealt with the cause of death eternally and gave you life the next time you sinned, you’d die again. So do you see the impossibility of losing what salvation is? We say, Do you believe in eternal security? No, I believe in eternal life. We need to keep the word life to mean salvation, because that’s what salvation is, is life. He who has the Son has what? Life. He who has the Son is saved. Same thing, but we now have an explanation of what salvation is. It’s life. It’s his life, living in me, which is my only hope of glory, and the only way that I’m going to get that life is by faith. And if I don’t need life, I’ve already got life. And I don’t need a little life, I need all of it. And so when you come to Christ, you come to Christ for all that he is, that all he did, that all that he is, all that he was, and all that he ever will be. And you come to him for life, and you’re saved from the wages of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is life. You’ve crossed over from darkness into light, into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have something redemption and the forgiveness of sins. It’s over. It’s done. There’s no more asking for what you already have. You already have forgiveness. So when you’re asking, you’re saying, I don’t believe that you took away my sins.

Now you can say whatever you want to. You can say, Oh, that makes me feel better, and all that stuff. So if it makes you feel better to hang Jesus back on a cross and crucify him again, that’s fine with me. That’s your prerogative. But don’t say that that’s faith, because it isn’t. It’s presumption. Jesus took away the sins of the world at the cross one time and for all never to be done again. And he says, When you’re in him, you have received that forgiveness. Now walk by faith in the fact that not you are no longer a person who gets forgiven. You are a forgiven person. You’re not a person who gets redeemed. You are redeemed person. You’re not a person who gets eternal life. You have eternal life. You’re not a person that hopes it will be seated someday in the heavenlies with Christ, Jesus, as far as he’s concerned, you’re already there. You’re not a person who gets justified. You are a justified person. You’re not a person. Contrary to what some people think, that you’re sanctified. You are a sanctified person, and you can’t get any more sanctified by what you do. And we have people who teach progressive sanctification, that you just keep getting better and better all the time. And I think just wait, just someday you’ll get so good you won’t need Jesus at all. Just think, what a joy that’ll be when you’re so wonderful that you won’t even need him. And there are people who think that I’m just getting better and better and better and better. I say, let me interview your husband. Let me interview your wife. We’ll see if they agree with that. You’re not going to get a better than the very day that you stepped out of Adam into Christ, and he stepped out of heaven into you, he set you apart. And folks, I want to tell you something. What we are set apart for is we’re set apart from the world.

Now let’s go on. May I never boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. I want to ask you a question, how fond is the world of you when you stand up and claim, I am a born again, blood soaked Christian? I can’t even get on jury duty. They say, What do you do? I’m a Baptist minister. I hate sin and I don’t believe in psychiatrists. Out you go. I never have to serve on a jury. Think the world loves you? You know what the world thinks of you and me as a born again believer? I’m not talking about people who talk about the good Lord and the good boy upstairs, and God, anybody can say that. I’m talking about people who say I am a born again believer. You know what the world thinks of you? You’re a bigot. You’re a bigot. You have no sympathy for anybody. You’re not accepting. That’s the big word today, accepting, that’s what the world thinks of you. You’ve been crucified to the world. They’ll like you. World doesn’t like me, world doesn’t like you. Now, if you compromise, they’ll like you. And we were talking to a doctor the other day said, Oh yeah, I come to God through Jesus, but there’s plenty of ways to come to God. So I said, Well, you never got to worry about the world hating you.

Announcer 27:11
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