In this thought-provoking episode, we delve into the true essence of salvation and the profound impact of Jesus Christ’s resurrection on humanity. Bob George leads us through a detailed exploration of sin, law, and grace, emphasizing that true salvation extends beyond merely receiving forgiveness. Instead, real salvation embodies embracing the life and resurrection of Christ, a gift provided once and for all. Throughout, listeners are challenged to reconsider long-held beliefs about faith, the crucifixion, and the resurrection, urging a deeper understanding of the Gospel beyond traditional interpretations.
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.
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Well, you know what he said? If your eye causes you to lust, pluck it out. Are you a follower of Jesus? Have you ever lusted? What do you do with eyeballs? Do you realize that if we really were followers of what Jesus said, in other words, if we didn’t know the meaning of what he said, just of what he said, we’d all be sitting in here with sockets in our head. And I wouldn’t be able to see you. That’s the demands of the law. The law is that if you’ve gotten sin, I’ll paddle you. We have that. People say, oh, I’m going to send you to the woodshed. How many of you have been to the woodshed? No, it isn’t the woodshed. It’s death. Do we understand that, guys? The wages of sin is death. And when Adam sinned, what happened? Got out of fellowship? He died together. And all of us are born into Adam, dead spiritually. And what is death? The absence of life. What does that mean? We’re not born with the life of God living in us. We were created, Adam was created with the life of God living in him. When he sinned, the life left him. We’re born in Adam, dead spiritually. But with ability to choose. That was the whole plan of God from the formation of life on. I’m going to make a plan in my time. And guys, God let man go out in the energy of his self-righteous flesh and try for 4,000 years to prove he could live under the law. That’s a long time, isn’t it? To prove to yourself you can’t do it. And when the time was exactly right, he sent his own begotten son. And he sent his son to die. He had to be born before he died, but his goal was death. And the reason for that death was very simple. A sacrifice for sin must be made because without the shedding of blood, there’s how much forgiveness, guys? No forgiveness. Mark it. Without the shedding of blood, there’s no forgiveness of sin. Are we together? Now, has Jesus died for your sin? Did he shed his blood? Did he shed his life? How many times do you do that? Once. And for how many people? And for all. And for how long? Forever. When Christ went to a cross… There he who knew no sin became sin, so that I and you in him can receive life. What’s the problem of man, folks, if you’re dead? What’s your problem? You’re dead. We’ve concentrated on you’re a sinner. Hold on a minute. There’s a consequence to sin. It’s called what? Sin. I don’t think you’ve got to be a mental giant to figure out death is worse than sin. Sin caused death, did it not? Now, if sin is what caused death, and God’s goal was to give you life, what kind of life did he want to give you? Temporal life or eternal life? Eternal life. In order to give you eternal life, If sin is what caused death, what’s he going to have to do with sin? Take it away. For how long? And for how much of it? How much are you going to have to take away? If he’s going to give you eternal life, he has to take away eternal sin. Are we together? Do you see the practicality of this, guys? If I’m going to give these people eternal life, then I have to take away eternally what caused death. And what caused death? Sin. Whose sin? Ours. And that’s precisely what Jesus did when he went to the cross. There he who knew no sin became sin. So that we could become the righteousness of God where? In him. Now, we’ve taken and Satan has been very clever in hiding that meaning. Because what we have done is concentrate on the cross instead of where you get life. You see, getting forgiveness does not bring life to the dead. How many people do you know that said, yeah, I got all my sins forgiven, I’m saved? It’s taught universally. When Amy and I were in Russia, riding back to the airport with the pastor and his wife, yeah, they’ve accepted the cross and they’re saved. Hey, no, they’re not. The Bible tells you you’re not. It says in Romans 5.8 that while we were yet sinners, that means lost. Lost. We were reconciled to God through the death of his son. You were born reconciled to God. How much more? Having been reconciled, this being an accomplished fact, shall you be saved by his what? His life. You’re not saved by the death of Christ. You’re saved by the life of Christ. What are you saved from? The wages of sin, which is what? Death. Death. Death. Forgiveness clears the deck for the divine action of bringing life to the dead. But salvation is in resurrection. That’s why Paul said without the resurrection we’re to be pitied of all people and are still where? In our sins. Knowing full well that Christ had taken away the sins of the world. But also knowing something that we evidently forgotten or never knew. And that is forgiveness. that salvation is in his resurrection. And so we put the emphasis on the cross instead of the empty tomb. Oh, the empty tomb, yeah, we talk about it at Easter, along with their Easter bunnies. But it’s just kind of a historical event that took place. And folks, for over 20 years on the radio, I’ve been asking people, What’s your definition of salvation? Folks, if you could hear, 90% Christ died for my sins. Christ died for my sins. Is that it? Yeah, that’s it. That’s not salvation. It’s part of salvation. Thank God for it. But in and of itself, it’s not salvation. You’ve got a death problem that has to be solved. And forgiveness does not bring life to the dead. Life brings life to the dead. And it’s not the life of a bowling goat, which was under the law. It’s a human life who was sent from God. And his name is Jesus. It’s the good news of the gospel. Now, folks, as we pick up this passage in Hebrews, an unbelievably important passage because… It’s saying to you, are you really saved? Because you’re saved when you’ve come to truth, not when you’ve come to error. Could you as an example be taught that the way you’re saved is to come forward and to take a wafer? And that wafer miraculously becomes Christ’s body. Could you be saved with that? I mean, guys, come on, are we awake? Could you be saved with that? Why? Well, it’s not truth. Now, you could sit and say, yeah, but that’s what my church teaches. I know. But they don’t teach truth. So you can’t be saved by that. We get down and say, well, now, what about babies? You know, that I’ve never had an opportunity to hear. What about dogs? Well, you see, so we got to do something with these babies. So we come down and we sprinkle them. And we bring little babies down to our arms. Everybody sits out in tears, falls down their eyes. And we put the, you know, we put the sprinkled little water on their head and say, they’re okay. Okay. Are they? Where do you read that in the Bible? Where are you going to go for truth? Are you going to go to tradition? Or are you going to go to the Bible? That’s going to be 90% of what I talk about on radio in Los Angeles. Where is your standard of truth? Is it the Bible or is it your tradition? Is there anything in the Bible about christening kids? Sprinkling water on anybody doesn’t save anybody. Gets them wet, but doesn’t save anybody. But your denomination teaches it. You see, you can come up with all kinds of ideas as to how you’re saved. People come up and say, well, you speak in tongues, you’re saved. Really? Where do you find that in the scripture? I don’t know anybody that’s ever spoken in biblical tongues. I’ve heard a lot of gibberish. But I’ve never heard anyone speaking in biblical tongues because biblical tongues was a language. That’s understandable by a tribe of people or a group of people someplace. It isn’t gibberish that nobody knows what it is. It’s a language that could be interpreted. Have you ever heard anyone speak that? Never learned it? Amy speaks in tongues. She speaks Russian. She speaks German. Speaks a little Polish. She can speak a lot of languages. But she learned them. Now, if she had never learned them, never heard them before, and all of a sudden she was back in the back of the room, she stood up and started talking in, let’s say, what would be a language? Japanese. Started speaking in Japanese. She had never learned Japanese and started speaking. I’d say, that’s tongues. But then I’d say, what are you doing that for? We understand English and so do you. But what are you doing that for? Doesn’t make any sense. Got that gift of tongues, go to Japan. Don’t need to be here. You speak English, so do we. It’s truth. Now, folks, the truth that this passage is getting to is around the superiority of Christ. It isn’t Jesus plus Mohammed. Jesus wasn’t a prophet. He was God who came to this earth. God, who knew no sin, became sin. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word God became flesh, and dwelt among us as the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. He wasn’t a prophet. He was God. Now, it’s not Jesus plus a prophet, or Jesus plus Moses, or Jesus plus Abraham. It’s Jesus. Jesus. Period. He is God’s representative here on this earth. He came to reveal truth to us.
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Classic Christianity Radio thanks you for your support of our online and radio ministry. Make sure to visit bobgeorge.net to order a copy of the Closer Look Bible Study Series. A Closer Look Bible Studies features eight in-depth study guides that detail hundreds of Bible verses to help you deepen your understanding of the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. A Closer Look Bible Study Guides are an excellent tool for both individuals and larger Bible study groups. Please visit bobgeorge.net to order your copy of A Closer Look Bible Studies as well as many other wonderful books, CDs, and study guides. With your support, we can continue to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Let’s continue now with our Classic Christianity radio program.
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How do you identify himself? I am the way and the what? The truth and the life. There’s no life available to us except his life. There’s no truth available to us except his truth. And there’s no other way to God except through him. He said that. No man will ever enter the kingdom of heaven apart of coming through me. That’s either true or it isn’t. You can say, no, you got to get baptized. No, now you’re adding what you do. Now you’ve just added what you do. Salvation has nothing to do with what we do. Nothing. We’re just recipients. All we can do is accept or reject or ignore. But you cannot add to what God did. So there isn’t anything you do that where you need proof, if you need a sign to prove that you’ve been saved, that’s a repudiation of faith. If you need a sign, then that’s not faith. If I need a sign for something, then I’m not exercising faith in something. Faith comes by hearing. And hearing by what? The Word of God. And so he’s told us, I came to this earth to die on a cross for the forgiveness of the sins of the whole world. Do you believe that? You really believe it? The whole world. Back to Adam and forward to eternity. Do you believe that? To take away, not cover, atonement covered sin. The word atonement is never used in the New Covenant. Atonement covers sin. Jesus came to do something far greater than cover. He came to take away. To take away from the eyes of God for eternity sin. The sins of the world. Do you believe that? How many of your sins then are in the mind of God? How could God be spinning around and putting you out of fellowship when all your sins have been taken away from the eyes of God? Now, folks, either when it says he took away the sins of the world, it means he either took them away from the eyes of God or he took them away from me. And if you knew me, you’d know that ain’t true. And I know you, and I know that isn’t true. So where do you take them away from? The eyes of God. So what is God dealing with us on what basis today? On the basis of new life. On the basis of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. That’s why the most important day in human history for celebration is Pentecost. The day when the church was born. Happy birthday, church. When this whole spirit of God came to permanently indwell believers. Why did he come to live in us? Just to hang around? No, it said he came to lead us into all truth. To guide us into all truth. Well, the first place he’s going to guide you, you’re no longer under the law. The law is what was guiding you that you couldn’t follow. Paul said nothing wrong with the law. It’s good and holy. When it flows through me, it kills me. He’ll do the same to you if you’re honest. If you’ve lived long enough. If you’ve lived long enough. You’ll find out I can’t do it. And when you find out you can’t do it. You better find out who did. And that’s what Christ came to do. To give us truth. To set us free. And so in this passage of scripture. He’s saying if we deliberately keep on sinning. After we have received the knowledge of truth. What are we sinning against? Look at the passage, guys, and think through. Ask God to reveal. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of truth, what are we sinning against? The knowledge of truth. What is the knowledge of truth that he’s talking about? The passage is just before that. That this is the covenant I will make with them at that time, says the Lord. their sins and lawless acts, I will remember no more. And where these not will be forgiven, but have been forgiven, there is no longer any, what? Sacrifice for sins. You believe that? Do you believe it? There’s no more sacrifice for sins. Now, if a sacrifice is the shedding of blood, isn’t it? So without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. And if there is no more shedding of blood, there is no more forgiveness. And if there’s no more forgiveness, what do you have to conclude? When did I get forgiven? At the cross. How many of us? All of us. While we were yet enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. How many people were reconciled? All of you. Any of you are bookkeepers? How many of you are bookkeepers? Anybody out there a bookkeeper? No one’s a bookkeeper. No wonder we’re in such financial trouble. Well, I’ll tell you, a bookkeeper, if you were the bookkeeper for a company that had sold me a million dollars worth of merchandise and I went belly up and I couldn’t pay the debt and you wanted to balance your books or reconcile your books, what would you do with that debt? You’d write it off. And therefore, you’d be paying a debt that you didn’t owe for me who owed a debt that I couldn’t pay. We write it wrong. It’d be reconciling your books. Now, that’s precisely what God did. He reconciled us unto himself. He wrote it off. He wrote the debt off and said, I will pay it. And when he did, he said, from the cross, what? It is finished. Paid in full. Do you believe that or not? If you deliberately keep on sinning after you’ve received the knowledge of this truth, he says the only thing you have to look forward to is going to hell. If you’re going to reject what Jesus did by adding to it or watering it down, there’s no sacrifice for sins left Folks, if there was any further forgiveness to be executed on your behalf by God, what would he have to do? I want you to think it through. Let me ask the question again. If there was any further forgiveness to be executed by God on your behalf, what would he have to do? Die again. Suffer again. Be humiliated again. Again, is he going to do that? Perhaps that’s why he cried out from the cross. It’s finished. I did it once. I did it for all. How many of you know the passage? How many of you think Jesus is coming back? How many of you think he’s coming back? Or what’s it say about that? When Jesus comes back, he’s not coming back to bear sin. but to bring salvation for those who are waiting for him. Why isn’t he coming back to bear sin? For goodness sakes, we’ve all sinned. We’ve been sinning for 2,000 years. Because he’s already done it. He did it once. He did it for all. And he said it’s finished. The Bible tells us, in him… Now, what does in him mean? In his resurrected life, you go to the cross… You go through the cross to the empty tomb and there you find Jesus waiting for you. Come unto me. All of you who labor and are heavy laden. And I’ll give you rest and peace for your soul. There you find Jesus. Who do you go to? Jesus. You don’t come to him for what he did for you at the cross. You come to him for him. And it says in him you have redemption. The forgiveness of sins. I just quoted a verse. I’m not misquoting. In him, you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. How many of you are in him? Okay, what do you have? Redemption. What else do you have? Now, when you have something, that means you got it, right? I don’t halfway have it. If I got something, I got it. So in him, are you in him? then what is just at least two of your possessions? Redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Now, if you were going to walk by faith, if you’re going to walk by faith, you don’t have to, but if you are going to walk by faith, would you ask God, as a person who has been redeemed and forgiven, would you ask God to redeem you every day? Why? Why? Do you need redemption? No, I got redemption. But before I got redemption, did I need redemption? But now I got it. Would it be faith to ask God to give you what you already have? I’m forcing you to think. God forbid. And ask it again. Would it be faith for you to ask God to give you what in him you already have? See, the whole issue is, are you in him? The issue is, have you come to him for him? Have you acknowledged that, God, you took away my sins at the cross? Thank you. You issued in a brand new covenant of grace for me, whereby my sins and lawless acts, I’ll remember no more. You’ll remember no more. And you were raised from the dead in order to give me the only solution to the consequence of sin, which is death, by the gift of God of your life. And I have come to you for life. I was born dead. I don’t care whether you’re born a Baptist or Presbyterian or whatever it is. Don’t become a Christian sitting in church anymore than you become a chicken sitting in a head house. Forget that stuff. You come to Jesus. For his resurrected life. The only solution to my consequence of sin, which is death. Is his resurrected life. I’ve done that. Now again, in as much as I am now in him and he is in me. Am I in Christ? Are you in Christ? Then in him, what do you have? Redemption. Is it faith to ask him for redemption once you’re in him? Would that be faith? Then why… Do you think it’s faith when you ask him to forgive you? Are you in him? What do you have? Redemption? What else do you have? Forgiveness of sins. Is that right or wrong? We’re not speaking Swahili here. I’m not talking out of the Koran. I’m talking right out of here. And I’m talking right out of this passage that if you deny that, it’s an indicator of where you are. You’re lost. You’ve never come to Christ for what he came to do. He didn’t come like a bull and goat to die for some sins. And then cover him until the next time and die and cover him again. He said day after day every priest stands because he never sits because his work was never finished. And performs his religious duties over and over and over again which could never take away sin. But when this priest died one time, he sat down. Why did he sit down? It’s over. It’s finished. You believe that? If you don’t, you’re not saved. I don’t care how nice you act. I don’t care how sweet you think you are. I don’t care what your church attendance is. You’re not saved when you do not believe what Jesus came to do. Jesus did not come to give you partial forgiveness. He came to take away your sins from the eyes of God forever. Forever. There’s no more sacrifice. Do we all agree with that? No more sacrifice. Well, if there’s no more sacrifice, then there’s no more forgiveness. And that means if you’re in Christ, you’re a forgiven person. Oh, you teach that, people are going to go out and live like hell. They do that when you don’t teach it. You’re going to give people a license to sin. I don’t need a license to sin. I sin quite well without a license, don’t you? It’s not the issue. The issue is, are you in Christ or not?
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And if you are, you’re a forgiven person. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
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Put Jesus first in your life and turn your life around.
