Join the journey to a deeper understanding of faith through an examination of the new covenant brought forth by Jesus and the importance of Pentecost. Uncover how acknowledging the full extent of Jesus’s sacrifice can free believers from the bonds of law and sin, empowering them to live in the freedom of God’s love. This episode invites listeners to reflect on their beliefs and encourages them to embrace the true essence of redemption and salvation.
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Put Jesus first in your life.
SPEAKER 01 :
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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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, inasmuch 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? And if you are, you’re a forgiven person.
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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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And if you are, you don’t walk by faith by asking God to do what he’s already done. You mean, tell me, Bob, you never asked God to forgive you? No. I thank him every day. For his forgiveness. But to ask him to do what he’s already done is to negate what he did. And to insult him in what he did. And that’s precisely what this verse is talking about. Now let’s go through it. There’s no sacrifice for sins left. You may as well put up your day of atonement. To the Catholics, put up your confession booth. To the evangelical self-righteous Christians, put up your 1 John 1-9s. It’s not to you anyway. It’s to the lost. Put up your ways of keeping yourself forgiven, your baptisms and coming forward. Man, I’ll tell you one thing. The teaching of Christianity was good for me. I used to be in a carpet business. You could replace carpet about every three weeks in most churches for all the people coming forward. Every week, every week to recommit their lives to Christ. How many of you have done it? Just recommit and recommit and recommit. Well, you see, if your commitment meant anything, you don’t have to do it once. There’s no sacrifice for sins left. There’s nothing you can do. Nothing. It’s all been done. And if you’re not going to believe that, And I don’t mean just give an intellectual belief to it. I’m talking about giving your heart to it. This is it. You don’t have anything to look forward to except a fearful expectation of judgment and the raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves, doesn’t say he will, but deserves to be punished? Who’s done what, guys? What are you doing when you keep asking God to do what he’s already done? Trampling the Son of God underfoot and treating as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him and insulted the Spirit of grace. Yeah, Jesus, you came and did it, but you don’t understand how dedicated I am to keeping short accounts with God. And folks, some of the best schools and places in a country teach that you’ve got to keep short accounts with God. Well, you know what that’s doing? Treating it as an unholy thing. What he did. We come to Christ, just stick a box of tithing envelopes in your hand and say, stick them for Jesus. Go do something for God. And we don’t take time to learn what God has done for us. God has taken away your sins. And the Bible says if you don’t believe that, and you keep your sacrificial system going, or you keep your confession booth going, or you keep thinking you’re keeping yourself cleansed before God, you’re trampling what he did underfoot. You’re substituting what you’re doing for what he did. You’re insulting the spirit of grace. You didn’t have anything to do with this. It’s all him. We know him who said it’s mine to avenge, I’ll repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It’s a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Now, folks, the reason I’m camping on this is is because the Bible tells us, check yourself out. I worked in churches. And I worked and I saw young people flooding down the aisles and all the other young people putting their arms around them and everybody sitting there crying and saying, oh boy, old Charlie’s been saved. And he goes back to the pew as dead as he went to the altar. I know many of those people. When my daughter… was in the choir. Sweet kids. About nine of them are dead of AIDS today. They all went to Christian schools. All attended evangelical churches. But they never got beyond the cross. And because they never got beyond the cross, they never had power to live his life. Come to Jesus and go out and live the life and the energy of your own flesh? That’s Galatianism. Foolish Galatians. Christ gave his life for you so that he can give his life to you, so that he can live his life through you. And when you refuse to allow the Christ who lives in you to live his life through you, you’re saying, Jesus, thanks for my salvation, but I’m going to go grind it out in the energy of my flesh. And you know what God says? Go ahead, give it a whack. When your tongue’s hanging down to your knees, and you’ve fallen on your face before God and man, here I am. Come unto me, and I’ll give you rest for your soul. You don’t have to do that. You can either come by Christ, by faith, or by experience. You can try it. Try to live the Christian life in the edge of your flesh. Sorry, you can’t do it. Do you have a heart of mercy? If you don’t have a heart of mercy, you ought to check your heart. You see, Jesus said, I didn’t come to judge the world, but to save the world. And I say, if Jesus is living in me, what am I doing judging the world? What am I doing judging the world? Jesus said, I didn’t come to judge it. I came to save it. What are we doing judging it? See, we get all these legalistic thoughts. We get down and we judge people. Oh, did you see what he did? Folks, there’s only two attitudes that we really have that shows you where you’re walking. One is, man, I thank God that I’m not a sinner like him. And the other is, there for the grace of God, go I. There for the grace of God, go I. Which attitude of the heart do you have when you see someone mess up? It’ll tell you where you’re walking. Just those two attitudes alone will tell you precisely where you’re walking. There for the grace of God, go I. Person becomes an alcoholic, there for the grace of God, go I. Religious man falls, there for the grace of God, go I. Instead of, oh, I thank God that I’m not a sinner like they are. Which way do you stand? If you’ve got a heart of mercy, you’re going to put behind love covers, love trays to build. Is your attitude to go condemn? No. Or is there an attitude to go restore? Is it an attitude to forgive? Or to hold self-righteous grudges? All these things, guys, will show us where we’re walking. And I’m going to ask as we start this New Year’s that we just end in prayer today. And I want you to examine your heart. I’m going to examine mine. I’m going to find out where we are. Let God reveal where we are. How do we perceive people around us? Judging them? Condemning them? Or loving them as Christ Jesus did? Let’s pray together. Father, you said that there’s sins and lawless acts. I will remember no more. And where these have been, not will be, but have been forgiven, there’s no longer any sacrifice for sins. This is either true or it isn’t. And I have taken away the sins of the entire world never to see them again. It’s either true or it isn’t. If that’s true, our only thing is how do I respond to that? Do I respond by trying to add to what you have accomplished? Or do I respond by saying thank you and to live with an attitude of humility and gratefulness that you have come to save our souls? And Father, we thank you for that. It’s not a one of us in this room or in the sound of my voice that could have any chance at all of ever entering into your holy presence, apart but in a miraculous way, you made us holy yourself. And we thank you for that. Not complicated, not a religion, just very practical. We’re dead and we need life. And you said, I came that we might have life. You said, I am the resurrection and the life. And whosoever believes in me, though he were dead spiritually, yet shall he live spiritually. And whosoever lives and believes in me will never die. We’re told he who has the Son has life. And he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. The question is, do you have life? And if you do not, if you’ve still been in the process of that or possibly have never heard this message before, will you at this moment just be able to say, not through words, but your heart that’s crying out to know you. Say, Lord Jesus, thank you for taking away my sins. Never to see them again from the eyes of God. And thank you that through your resurrection, That you entered into my spiritual death with me. So that I could enter into your resurrection with you. And I ask you right now to come and to live in my heart. To be my God. To be my Savior. And to be my very, very best friend. Thank you, Lord Jesus. When that decision is made, we have become children of God. We haven’t become Baptists or Presbyterians or Methodists. We become children of God. To as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become a child of God. We thank you for that. To live eternally from this day forth in the presence of the living God. I pray all these things and thank you for them. In Jesus’ wonderful name.
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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.