Radio Broadcast Wednesday 12/18/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Romans P33 (12-18-24)

Offer Your Body as a Living Sacrifice Holy and Pleasing to the God

“Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Romans 12:1

We will be focusing on this theme of Christ in Us, as the true temple of God for quite some time. This is the New temple built by God Himself. Everyone that is in Christ Jesus, and He is in them, is the temple of God. He made our temples holy and pleasing to Him. So all we can do now is to offer our bodies with thanksgiving in our heart for what God has done for us. And let Him use us as an instrument of Righteousness. This is not an instrument of self-righteousness, because we know our own self righteousness is as filthy rags. But it is His Righteousness that lives through us to do the things He wants us to do. And folks, that is not focusing on self, but focusing on the needs of others. It’s doing the right thing even when facing difficult choices. It’s walking in the Spirit moment by moment and trusting in Him to guide each of us as He wants. If He wants you to say something, say something. If He wants you to be quiet, and listen, then listen. Faith is expressing itself through Love, His Love living in and through you. And that doesn’t mean others will necessarily accept His Love. But here is the thing, when you know you are walking in the Spirit, you know that you know, and consequences are always in God’s hands. And remember this, Jesus said, if the world hates you, remember that the world first hated him. Likewise, if the world loves you, you know that is not of God. For if you are truly sharing Truth, most will not receive Truth to begin with.

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world but I chose you out of the world, on account of this, the world hates you.” John 15:18,19

18 And a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, having done what, will I inherit eternal life?”
19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good, except God alone.

~ “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:12

~ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one believing in Me, even if he should die, he will live. And everyone living and believing in Me shall never die, to the age. Do you believe this?” John 11:25,26
—

~ Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you. Romans 8:1-11

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.”

~ “But you can’t be lost and let Jesus live his life in and through you can you? And that’s why the Bible is very explicit that all of these other things that we call worship is not worship. We substitute those things for the true worship, and that is waking up in the morning and making your body available to the living Christ to live his life in and through you to be able to say, Lord Jesus today, if you need lips to speak with, use mine, if you need eyes to see with use mine, if you need hands to touch with use mine, if you need a heart to love with, use mine. I’m available to you. That’s what worship is, nothing less. Now we can have praise services where we come together and praise Jesus. Nothing wrong with that. And you can have praise songs that you sing about Jesus. Nothing wrong with that, but I’m just saying to you, that’s not worship. We call that worship, but that is not worship. Worship is making your body available to the living God who lives in you, to live his life in and through you. Period.” ~ Bob George

Bible Study Booklets

Join Bob George in this chapter by chapter exposition of the letter to the Romans. Available for download the complete series on the Book of Romans. Romans has been described as the most dynamic, life changing document ever penned. It is a study in systematic theology, a defense of the Gospel, and a practical guide to Christian living all in one.

Announcer 0:12
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 0:27
We’re going to pick up in in Romans eight. But I just wanted to once again, remind us that really ties into what the song was that was just performed for us in Romans 12, and we’ll get to that in a few weeks. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, in view of the mercy of God, that you offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. You know what we have done is because many times we do not understand the truth of Christ, Jesus living in us. That, as we’ve talked about so many times, we’ve stopped at the cross, at our salvation. And basically, the goal of the Christian life is to quit sinning, and that is not the goal of the Christian life to quit sinning. The goal of the Christian life is to start trusting. If your goal is to quit sinning, you got a pretty bad goal, because the only way that’s going to occur is when you die. Has anyone noticed that not about me, but about you I’m talking about. The goal of the Christian life is to walk in the newness of life, the goal of the Christian life is trusting Christ, Jesus with what he came to do for us that we can put our trust in. And that’s why worship is making your body available to God to live his life in and through he gave his life for you, to give his life to you, to live his life through you. And we have to understand the truth of that.

And so so many times today, like so many other things in Christianity, because we either do not know that or we don’t know how to put that into action, we call all kinds of other things worship. And so we have worship services as if that’s the only time of the week that you’re supposed to worship God, and we have worship services, and we believe what that is is sitting there and worshiping God, singing songs. And if, while you’re doing that, you’re making your body available to Jesus Christ, holy and acceptable to his sight, that’s worship. But the singing of songs isn’t worship. Some people think it’s worship when you have your hands up in the air, when you have them in your lap and said, How important would that be if you didn’t have arms? Some people think that what’s worship is is speaking in tongues. How important would that be if you didn’t have a tongue, or that you had Parkinson’s disease or something else where you couldn’t speak anything? And yet people get all hung up on that kind of stuff, and that’s all they talk about. Is tongues or talk about that, I lift my hands up or I, I don’t care if you got them stuck in your ears. I isn’t worship. And we have to understand that. I know this could be harsh to some people, but it’s true that is not worship. Anybody can do that. You can be an actor and do that, but you can’t be an actor and let Jesus live his life in and through you. You have to be saved to do that. You have to be born again to allow the Jesus who lives in you to live his life through you. All that other stuff. You can mimic, you can do, you can play, you can coerce. You can do all kinds of stuff with that. You don’t have to be spiritual to do any of those things. You can be as lost as a goose and do those things. But you can’t be lost and let Jesus live his life in and through you can you? And that’s why the Bible is very explicit that all of these other things that we call worship is not worship. We substitute those things for the true worship, and that is waking up in the morning and making your body available to the living Christ to live his life in and through you to be able to say, Lord Jesus today, if you need lips to speak with, use mine, if you need eyes to see with use mine, if you need hands to touch with use mine, if you need a heart to love with, use mine. I’m available to you. That’s what worship is, nothing less. Now we can have praise services where we come together and praise Jesus. Nothing wrong with that. And you can have praise songs that you sing about Jesus. Nothing wrong with that, but I’m just saying to you, that’s not worship. We call that worship, but that is not worship. Worship is making your body available to the living God who lives in you, to live his life in and through you. Period.

And what does he want us to do when he’s living his life in and through us? What we talked about last week, the only thing that counts is what? Faith expressing itself through love. So what is his goal for you and me? To love one another. He came to this earth to love You and to love me. The message that was given to the apostles was go into the world and love one another, and the world will know that you’re my disciples by your necklace around your neck, or your bumper sticker or your tithing record said no, the world will know you’re my disciples by your loved one toward another. And so when we see what God wants for you and me, and that is to be available for him to love others in and through us, he says, That’s what true worship is. And so once again, the Christian world, in many instances, has perverted what worship is and made it a thing we go do on Sunday or Saturday, whichever day you like, to go to church, whatever you do, that’s what worship is. So you only worship for about an hour a week at the most. Does that make any sense guys, that the only time you worship is coming to a service and worshiping? Doesn’t make any sense at all, and yet that’s what we think is worship many times.

Now let’s get back to Romans eight. Last week, we talked about the fact that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is part of the good news. And the reason that there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ, Jesus is because the condemnation of God for sin is death. The condemnation of God is not a paddling or going to a wood shed, as some people teach, the condemnation of God for sin is death. The wages of sin is death. Are we together? It’s not out of fellowship. Now, most of the time you hear that, well, it’s out of fellowship. You’re out of fellowship. There’s in the Bible, that’s another one, guys, there is no in and out of fellowship in the Bible, we talk about that every time you sin, you’re out of fellowship. Well, then the only time you’re in fellowship is when you’re asleep, unless you have a bad dream. Fellowship in the Bible is two fellows in the same ship. It means you have been called into fellowship with Christ, Jesus. That means you’re saved. When you’re not saved, you’re out of fellowship. You are out of the fellowship of believers. When you’re in Christ, you’re in the fellowship of believers. And so that’s another one that we get all messed up with, and we pervert down, and Satan gets down and waters something down to take the true meaning of fellowship away from the Christian church. And so we say every time you sin, you’re in a fellowship, and then you’re back and you’re bouncing back and forth like a Yo yo, in and out of fellowship. That’s not true. The Scripture tells us very clearly, you’re in fellowship when you’re saved. You’re out of fellowship when you’re lost.

So when you and I have been saved from the consequence of sin. The consequence of sin is death. That’s what we’ve been saved from. We’ve been saved by the law of life, and we’ve been saved from the law of sin and death. Is that a pretty good deal, guys? I mean, do you realize that had he not done that, all of us would be dead? Do we realize the truth of this, that it’s not how bad you are, it’s how dead you are. And again, we have perverted the Christian message. We have not taught people that you’re dead. We’ve just taught them you’re sinners, haven’t we? And then some people, they then, where does it go from there? And guys want to tell you something, when your premise is off, your findings are going to be off. The findings of experimentation are no more accurate than the original premise. If your premise is off, everything’s going to be off. If you’re a doctor and you go to somebody and he said, I think what you have, Jim is tuberculosis, and here’s some medication for it, and you don’t have tuberculosis, he’ll probably kill you with the medication. He might kill you with it, even if you had tuberculosis. But the issue is, your premise is off, and everything’s going to be off. And that is exactly what takes place. We get into this thing that that that that the the wages of sin has been watered down. It’s death, folks, that’s the premise. It’s death. And you and I have been saved from the consequence of sin, death, by this marvelous gift of God, which is life. That’s what we’ve been saved from. That’s the dynamic of the Christian life. That’s why Paul said, without the resurrection, we’re to be pitied, of all people and are still in our sins. What do we concentrate on? The cross. What did Paul concentrate on? The resurrection. Thank God for the cross. That’s what cleared the deck in order to give us eternal life. Thank God for it, but it was the cleansing of our unrighteousness that enabled him to give you righteousness. Now all we’ve concentrated on is being cleansed of unrighteousness.

And so you’ve got the Catholics going to the to the priest to get cleansed, to get forgiven. You got the evangelical walking down aisles every Sunday to do what? Get forgiven. And if you don’t want to walk down the aisle, sit in your chair in first John one nine to do what? Keep yourself forgiven. You have, do you not? How many of you have been taught you got to keep short accounts with God. How many of you heard that one practical? The whole group short accounts with God. So go try that one on for size, keeping short accounts with God when you realize what sin is. Sin is more than the nasty nine, the Dirty Dozen, the terrible 12. Sin i unbelief. That which is not a faith is what? Sin. We are too dumb to even know when we don’t exercise faith. That’s why he called us sheep, the dumbest animal on the face of the earth. Isn’t that complimentary? He called us sheep. We don’t know. How could you keep short accounts with God when you don’t even know when you’ve sinned? And then that first short accounts with God, mentality puts the emphasis on you and what you’re doing instead of him and what he is doing. Whether I’m speaking in tongues or speaking in English, puts the emphasis on what I am doing instead of what he is doing. When I’m talking about how I’m going out and knocking you over called slain in the Spirit, which is nothing in the Bible about that spirit didn’t come to slay people. He came to give life to people. You’re putting emphasis on what you’re doing instead of what he is doing. All that stuff’s nonsense, and it’s promoted by nonsensical teachers whose puffed up mind has them distorted to the point they couldn’t see truth if it hit them in the face. And we have to understand the truth of that, and we have to understand that this Bible is what truth is. Talked to a man the other day on the radio about Catholicism, they talked about the blessed, all the blessed things that the what do you call that traditions? I said, What’s blessed about traditions? What’s blessed about what the Church says? The church could be lying to you. It’s the Bible. It’s not my traditions. It’s the Bible. We right or wrong guys? I’ve been telling you guys for years and years and years and years I could be lying out my teeth to you just because I’m on the radio doesn’t make me smart. You can be an idiot and be on the radio, can’t you Bob? It has nothing at all to do with spirituality. A guy doesn’t know the Lord from an apple tree can get on the radio if he just got the right connections or got the right money.

Click to Donate to Bob George Ministries

If you’re enjoying the Book of Galatians, check out our website, Shop.BobGeorge.net. There, you’ll find a whole collection of messages from the book of Galatians, as well as other DVDs, CDs and Bible studies available for purchase. That’s Shop.BobGeorge.net. Let’s join Bob. Now as he continues the radio program.

Bob George 14:13
You don’t have to know the Lord to be a pastor. I’ve known more pastors you could shake a stick at that didn’t know the Lord at all. All of them that I had growing up didn’t know the Lord from an apple tree. You don’t have to be a Christian to graduate from cemetery. You just gotta go to school. That’s all. Just go to school because you’re not gonna learn much Bible at most of them anyway, you’re gonna learn counseling, you’re going to learn tradition, you’re going to learn how to give the Lord’s Supper. You’re going to hear it. You’re not going to learn much Bible, so don’t teach it in most seminaries. I’m very serious about this, folks. There are some denominations that are very Bible oriented. Thank God for them. Thank God for. Them, but the mass majority of your denominational you get very little Bible in the seminary. And so we have to understand the truth of this, that in the final analysis, what you and I are dealing with is the Spirit of God living in us, who has promised to reveal the meaning of this word to you and me. Do you understand that? God has said, I am living in you, and my Spirit does not conflict with my Spirit. And so if my Spirit, who wrote this Bible, is living in you, then depend upon my Spirit to reveal what it means, because no eye has seen, nor ear is heard, nor mind is conceived, of those things that God has prepared for those who love him, but it must be what revealed by the Spirit. Now you can sit and study your little eyeballs into the ground, and you can become a student of the Bible and never, ever, ever have a clue is what it means, because the Spirit has to reveal it to you. I don’t care what your educational background is, whether you haven’t had any, or whether you’ve had a bunch, the Spirit of God still has to reveal the meaning of the word of God to you. The person who has had a bunch, you’re probably going to have to be more dependent than the one who’s had little, because one who’s had little can’t depend on his education. He hadn’t had any, so he just depends on the Lord.

You want to know something, folks, when you go back into the history of this country, and you go back to the time, which was the worst atrocity that this country ever went through in as the days of slavery. And you found a lot of slave owners going into their nice churches and sitting there and singing their songs and having their announcements and a 10 minute message. And then you had the slaves, and you had the slaves over in their slave quarters. Do you know who learned about Jesus? The slaves. The slaves, they had a relationship with Jesus that would make the owners sick. Why? They didn’t have anything to count on, except that the only one that they had to rely upon was Jesus, and that’s why you’ve got the strong base many times that you have in the black community, even today, of a lot of especially, of black mothers who see fit that their kids go to church and hear about Jesus, lot of that came from the fact that they had nothing else to offer. They had no place else to go except to the Lord Jesus, where the others we go and we have our social nice thing to do. We went to church, left a little money, an offering plate, and came home and got busy with the important things of life, where the important thing to life, to the slaves, was Jesus. That’s why you got the spirituals. That’s why you got that type of thing that you see continually going on the world today, a real, true relationship with a living God.

Now, he says, that’s what we’ve been saved from. We’ve been saved from the consequence of sin, which is death, by this marvelous gift of life in Christ, Jesus. Why do you have to do that? Well, because it says that the law was powerless, absolutely ineffective to do in us because it was weakened by our flesh. God, therefore, because it was weakened by our flesh, He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. He condemned sin. He didn’t condemn the man. He condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh. In other words, live lost without Jesus, but according to the Spirit, live born again. Now those who live according to the flesh or according to sinful nature, here he’s talking about lost people. When you are a lost person, you have your mind set on what your flesh desires, do you not? And that’s all you have it set on. And that can spell itself out in all kinds of ways and all kinds of habits, can’t it, and all kinds of things that we get hung up in some it could be alcohol, it could be drugs, it could be promiscuity, it could be anything. It could be all kinds of things that the flesh is telling you to go do. And it says that. It says, quite frankly, that you have your mind set on those things, and therefore, because your mind set on them, that’s what you’re going to do, that’s how you’re going to live. Am I right or wrong there? Do you how many of you remember when you were in that condition? Don’t all of you don’t. Remember? Okay.

Now he said, on the other hand, those who live according the spirit, those who have been born again of the Spirit of God, they’ve got their minds set on what the Spirit desires. Guys, do you remember when you were lost? How many of you remember when you were lost? Do you remember, you know, outside of maybe going to church on Sunday, or being dragged, rather, to church on Sunday? What did you ever you might give some thought to God every now and then, but you weren’t sitting there thinking about how to please. God. Were you? What were you thinking about? Who how to please? Who were you wanting to please? Yourself. That’s why I tell people. You know, if you’re worried about what other people are thinking about, you forget it. They’re not. They’re thinking about themselves. If you don’t believe that, take a group picture and get it back and see who you look for. We’re self centered, aren’t we, and we have to understand the truth of that. So it says that your mind, where your mind is put on as a mind as a man thinks so is he? So this mind of ours is placed as a lost person. It’s placed on what the flesh desires, and when you’re saved, it begins to get on what the Spirit desires. The mind of the flesh, the sinful man, it’s death. The guy who is without the Spirit living in him. He’s dead. That doesn’t mean he can’t receive life, but at that moment, he’s dead. That’s why his mind is on there. But the mind control by the Spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind was hostile to God. Now you might not have thought that you were hostile to God. I wouldn’t have thought I was hostile to God. I thought I was indifferent to God, but I never looked at myself as hostile to God. I just believed that God probably graded on the curve and until I grew to the age well, I knew that I was going to have to live to be 150 before that equation would come on my side. But I figured something like that, it didn’t wasn’t hostile. I was just indifferent, and those are the two attitudes of the heart, passive indifference or active rebellion. But it says there that that mind is hostile to God, in that it doesn’t submit to God’s Law is law, nor can it do so, nor does it want to do so. I used to when I studied in grade school, as back in days, we used to teach the 10 Commandments in school, and I remember I had to learn those. And I did learn them what they were, but then immediately forgot them because, and I really wanted to forget them because I could plead ignorance. I didn’t know it was their God. It’s like WC Fields, that old, crusty comedian. It’s on his deathbed. Someone walked into his hospital and he was reading the Bible, and he said, WC what in the world you doing? He said, looking for loopholes. And that’s what you’re doing. You’re looking for loopholes. Well, maybe if I don’t know what the law is, then I can’t be held accountable for it. And don’t think that people don’t think that way. So there’s a hostility to God. So it says it can’t do so those controlled by the that flesh, those lost people, could never please God. Now, how many people who are lost will think they’re pleasing God? How? Well I go to church, I sing the choir, I’m pleasing God. I bet he’s thrilled to death with me. He says, no, no man who is lost is pleasing to God.

You, however, not control by your flesh, but by the Spirit. If the Spirit lives in you, and we talked about that last week, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn’t belong to Christ. So you could not be born again apart from being indwelt by the Spirit, that’s why it is an absolute impossibility, as is taught in some circles of Christianity, that you’re born again today and then receive the Spirit tomorrow. That’s an impossibility, and it’s false teaching. You could not be born again unless the Spirit of God indwells you. That’s what it means to be born again of the Spirit. And if the Spirit of God doesn’t live in you, you don’t belong to Him. So there’s no way to get the Spirit today and get the Spirit tomorrow. There’s not two spirits, just ONE. So when you’re born again, the very moment you’re born again, you’re indwelt by the Spirit. Then the Spirit baptizes or places you into the body of Christ. The first thing is Christ in you. Then you are in Christ. He comes to live in your spirit, and then makes you his body. Now, if Christ is in you, He said, your body is dead because of sin. In other words, this body is going to die. In your body is death. Do we realize that something called death reigns in your body? Do you all understand that? What does that mean? Every one of us are not going to be here someday, some sooner than others. Do we realize the truth of that you’re not going to be here? Amy said she has read the last survivor of World War Two. Did you read that in or World War One? Do you read that in a paper just recently died? The last survivor. Gonna all go sooner or later, there anybody left from the Civil War, all of us are going to go. So in our bodies is a thing called death, and that’s what he says. Your body’s dead because of sin, but your spirit is alive because of righteousness. What does that mean? You got the body that your Spirit lives in? This is only a house. This thing that we pay so much attention to is only a temporary house. It’s a tent. Look what we do to it. We blow it up, we manipulate it, we operate on it, we paint it up, we dress it up, we exercise it up or down, whichever one you I mean, we are preoccupied with this house, not what’s inside, the house. Now there’s a balance as a Christian, and the balance is that your number one priority is what’s going on inside, and then what goes on on the outside. Now, prior to my heart attack, my favorite passage of scripture was exercise profiteth little. But I’ve kind of had to reverse that a little bit.

Announcer 27:11
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 will 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.