In this enlightening episode, Bob George delves into the intricate purpose of the Ten Commandments and their relevance for lost souls needing salvation. He discusses the spiritual implications of relying on religious practices without understanding the core of faith in Jesus Christ. Through personal anecdotes and scriptural insights, he illustrates how people often mistake religion for faith and how this misunderstanding leaves them spiritually wanting.
00:00:12 Introduction to Classic Christianity Radio
00:00:29 Understanding the Purpose of the Ten Commandments
00:19:21 Why Righteousness Cannot be Earned by Law
00:27:10 Concluding Message and Listener Encouragement
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.
SPEAKER 03 :
The Ten Commandments need to be in schools. For who? Lost people. That’s the purpose of the law. How many people are lost? We all are lost until we’re saved. Until. You’re lost until you’re saved. So until you’re saved, you’re lost, and the law is pertinent to you. That’s the reason it was given. It was given to disturb the soul. It was given for the purpose of saying these are God’s standards for you to live without annihilating yourself. And so it was added, it says, until the seed. Now, who’s the seed? That is Jesus. So let’s just translate it. It was added until Jesus, to whom the promise referred, had come. Now this was true in regard to the chronology of the law being added in a point in time in history and then Jesus coming in a point in time in history. But it is also applicable to you and me today. Because the law was added because of my sins until Jesus has been revealed to you and me. And when the law has shown us who we are and what we are, who we are is a sinner, what we are is dead. So the law had two things it had to show to humanity. First of all, you’re a sinner. And secondly, there’s a consequence to sin called death. And you are born dead spiritually. Well, you see, you can’t see spiritual death. You can see spiritual life when you look at a dead person, if you’re alive. You can see death, but you can’t see spiritual death. But spiritual death has manifestations, doesn’t it? In other words, you can’t look at it, but you can see, like the wind, don’t know where it came from, don’t know where it’s going, but you can see the results of it. And so the results of spiritual death are basically some of them, not all of them, but just the basics are what’s contained in the Ten Commandments. That to honor your God with all your heart and soul. What’s a dead man? He doesn’t have any appreciation for God. It’s just a name. That’s what was me for 36 years of my life. Just a name. God, who is he? I don’t know, but I believe in him. Who’s Jesus, son of God? What’s that mean? I don’t know. Maybe God had a baby. I don’t have a clue. Didn’t care. Wasn’t interested in digging in to try to find out. Yeah, it’s there, so let’s leave it alone. Abe Lincoln died in the Ford Theater. I believe that. Let’s move on. Get on with life. That’s the way we are. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. All of these things are for the benefit of society and for as much as we are society to say, if you’re doing these things, it’s evident that something’s wrong. It’s evidence of spiritual death. So I can’t see death, spiritual death, but I can see the evidence of it. And so he gave us this law until, until Jesus came. The scripture declares that the entire world is held a prisoner of sin. Now, guys, when you are a prisoner, you’re behind bars, aren’t you? In other words, you’re locked up until you get out. And so it says when you and I are born into this world, we are locked up. We’re in prison. We’re behind bars, whether we know it or not, spiritually. Right. So you can’t look at that physically because I’m not behind bars physically. But spiritually, it gives this illustration that you could relate to physically. And that is you’re locked up. You’re like behind bars. Now the scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner. The whole world is locked up. How come? So that what was promised… being given through faith in Christ Jesus. In other words, so that the promise to release you from that jail might be fulfilled through Christ Jesus to those who believe in him. So there’s your way to get out of jail. Now, before this faith came, guys, so when you have a before and after or an until, you’ve got a before and an after. So until or before this faith came, When Jesus came to this earth and in your life when you came to Jesus, before the day came when you came to Jesus. Now, guys, that means that there is a day in the point in time in history when you make a decision whether you’re going to come to Jesus or not. No one is born a Christian. Now, how does Satan mess that one up? I’ll tell you how he messes it up. to inoculate people with just enough of the germ that they never catch the real disease. How do you do that? Make you religious. I go to church. You ask people, do you know the Lord? Oh, yeah, I go to church. No, I didn’t ask you if you went to church. I asked you, do you know Jesus? Oh, yeah, I know about him. If you had asked me prior to July of 19, whenever it was, so long ago I can’t remember, 1969, do you know Jesus? Well, yeah, I know about him. Do I know him? What do you mean do I know him? What do you mean do you know him? How do you know somebody that lived 2,000 years ago? That would have been my reply. You see, folks, we inoculate people with religion. I’d rather deal with a person that didn’t know anything about religion than a person who grew up with a bunch of religion. And all you know about your religion, but you don’t know anything about Jesus. I’d rather have a heathen, like me, who didn’t know anything. When I came to Christ and opened the Bible, it cracked. It had never been opened. Had no clue what was in it. Made fools out of myself trying to talk to people. about maybe a subject, a religious subject that I didn’t have a clue what it was about. I knew nothing about it. I’d sat in church for 36 years of my life, but I’d never heard the gospel. I knew nothing about Jesus. I knew a lot about religion. So what does religion do? It inoculates you. It gives you enough information to make you think you’re okay when the fact of the matter is you’re not okay. What are you plugged into? I know some people who are religiously plugged in to spiritual experiences. They’re not plugged into Jesus. They’re plugged into spiritual experiences. I will go to church and get a spiritual experience. You ever know people like that? I will go get a spiritual experience. Do you want Jesus? Forget him. I want a spiritual experience. I want to feel good. I want my emotions to get tickled. I want to sing praise songs and I want to go through the emotion of things. I want to get excited. I saw a whole bunch of people excited. We went to a concert the other night. What is it, El Divo? Is that the name of it, El Divo? Have you ever heard of those guys? Four tenors. Have you heard of those? Beautiful singers. You know what? I had to say, for some reason, if I was to judge women by going to that concert, I’d think you were all absolutely stark raving crazy. I’ve never seen so much idiotic stuff going on in my life. Grown women, hee, voting, groaning, up there pointing, come to me, come to me. I thought, are these women crazy? You couldn’t even hear them singing for the screaming. It sounded like a Sinatra contest. They’re just screaming, but they’re having an emotional experience. It wasn’t spiritual, but it was an emotional experience, I’ll guarantee you. And we do the same thing in church. Give me an emotional experience. What are they plugged into? Emotional experience. It’s a religious one. It’s not El Devo or not somebody like that. It’s in a church setting, but it’s an emotional experience. You’re plugged into it. Some people are plugged into just Bible reading. Don’t know the Lord from a spook, but I study the Bible. Plugged into that. You can get plugged into a lot of things, but folks, in that lineup of plugs, there’s one plug there that’s called Jesus. And if you’re not plugged into him, you’re not plugged into anything that counts. Because those emotional experiences are going to go by the wayside when your guts are hanging out. Aren’t they? And all of this other stuff, this activity, I’m plugged into activity. But it’s church activity. It’s religious activity. I’m plugged into there. It ain’t going to help you a bit when your guts are hanging out or your wife has left you or your husband has left you or abused you. It ain’t going to help a bit. You know what is going to help? Jesus. Jesus. It’s not what is going to help. It’s who is going to help. And his name is Jesus. And so, folks, until this Jesus is revealed to you, you’re locked up until that faith should be revealed. So it says that the law was put in charge for the purpose of leading you to Christ. There is a purpose for everything that God does. He saved you and me so that we won’t be locked up by the law. He saved us because if you’re under the law, you cannot separate the law from the punishment of the law. Are we together? I had a lady yesterday at the conference saying, well, now we’re Christian, but aren’t we supposed to obey the law? I said, lady, didn’t you just hear what I said? No one can obey the law. How do you think you’re going to improve on the apostle Paul? Who said the things I want to do, which is obey the law, I can’t do. And the things I can’t do, I do them anyway. How do you think you’re going to improve on him? You’ve got to die to the law. The law kills you. If you’re under the law, you cannot put the punishment of the law over here and the law over here. They go together. You can’t separate the law from the wages of sin. Under the law is what? Death. You can’t separate it. If you’re under the law, you’re dead spiritually. Locked up until faith can be revealed. Are we together?
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
SPEAKER 03 :
We said, no, no, I want to commingle it. How are we going to keep all you guys together if we don’t have the law? Well, have you read? It says the grace of God teaches you to say no to unrighteousness. We try to use the law of God that kills you. It says in the Bible that the power of sin is where? In the law. And we try to use the power of sin to make you holy. I’m going to use the power of sin to shape you up. It says, no, it’s the grace of God. It’s the goodness of God. It’s the mercy of God. It’s the love of God that draws a man’s heart to the heart of God and makes him want to be like him. Like him. To say, God, if you love me so much to do what you’ve done for me, how do I get to know what makes you tick? How do I get to know why you think the way you think? Because do you and I think that way? If I was God, there wouldn’t be Muslims. There wouldn’t be anybody. I’d blow them off the face of the earth, wouldn’t you? Maybe some of you are kinder than I am. But I wouldn’t put up with them. But God? Would you put up for thousands of years with the Jews rumbling in the desert and grumbling in the desert and rebelling? Well, you wouldn’t put up with them five minutes. Do we put up with our mates like that? Just let your mate do something wrong, brother. I’m out of here. That shows us what we’re like. You can disagree with me for a while, but you better not disagree. There’s going to come a point in a very short period of time when that line is crossed, brother, and I’m gone. Is that right or wrong? That’s our patient level, not God’s. So it says that before faith in Jesus came, you were a prisoner. And you were a prisoner until this faith is revealed. But now the faith has been revealed. I am free from what I was a prisoner of. I’ve been let out of jail. So it concludes, so the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ. How come? So that we might be justified or let out of jail by what? Faith. Are we together? What’s the law powerless to do? Well, the law can’t make you righteous. And folks, I want us to think this is not just a Jewish situation. Like I say, you go over to Israel and incidentally, I’m kind of glad we got out of there when we did. I mean, we were sitting there looking at sites that are getting blown up today. That’s a horrible situation going on over there. But I want to ask you a question. How would you like it if Mexico and the leaders of Mexico openly declared that my goal for Mexico is to wipe the United States off of the face of the earth? And Canada… All of the governments of Canada said, my goal is to wipe the United States off of the face of the earth. How do you think we’d respond if someone bombed us? Folks, there’s that little country with all the land around it, just this little tiny country carved out called Israel. A little tiny country called Israel. And around it, surrounded. Lebanon in the north, all the way around it. Except the ocean. The ocean is the only thing that doesn’t want to destroy them. Or the sea. Saying, my goal is to wipe them off of the face of the earth. Now you think you’re going to sit there and say, we need to negotiate. We need to be sweet. I got news for you. You’re talking to thugs. who want to wipe them and you as a Christian off of the face of the earth. This isn’t militants. That’s the religion. That’s not militants. That’s the religion. It’s a religion that was based upon believe or die. If you don’t believe that, just go back and read. Believe or die. That’s how the Muslim religion got started and was sustained. Believe or your throat is slit. You’re not talking about friendly things. You’re not talking about religion. You’re talking about a desire to wipe some people off of the face of the earth and to gain world domination where everyone becomes a Muslim. You ladies here get rid of your clothes and you put robes on and you cover your faces and you live like a secondary citizen. That’s what’s going to happen if that was ever accomplished. So those are laws. That’s what the law ultimately does. You’ve got law, and then you’ve got to get more law. That’s law over here. We’ve got a law here as well. You’ve got it in churches. It’s not just Jewish. It’s in our churches. We’ve grabbed a hold of the law of Moses that God says to die to, and we’ve said, uh-uh, you don’t understand God. I’m going to bring it in to my so-called Christian religion, and we’re going to commingle it. We’re going to talk about grace, but the law is the real thing. That’s the real issue. Grace is sprinkled. Grace is salt. I’m going to sprinkle a little grace on my law doing. And that’s what we have today. Now, Paul says that I don’t set aside the grace of God. If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. What he is saying there is if you’re trying to use the law for your righteousness, Christ should have stayed at home. Now, guys, I didn’t say this. This is God’s word. So if anyone’s going to rebel against it, don’t rebel against me. I’m just a messenger boy. I didn’t create this message. We’ve just been called to proclaim it. And Paul said that if this law that you’re so fond of could be gained, if righteousness, your righteousness could be gained through your obedience to the law, Christ died for nothing. You don’t even ignore the fact that he even existed because he has no meaning at all to you in your life. None at all. Just forget him. if you think that your obedience to the law is going to make you righteous. The law can’t justify you. Know that a man is not justified by observing the law. Now, here it’s talking about observing the law. Now, guys, your mind would say, well, come on, doesn’t God want us to observe these laws? Yeah, yeah, if you’re lost. He wants you to see that these laws are what are necessary to keep chaos from occurring in you and in your country and in your nation, wherever you are. But in so doing, to realize you can’t do it. So guys, there’s two ways, there’s two forms of motivation that God has for man. One is the law, motivating people through the law. And in order to do that, you have to motivate them through what? Fear. Through fear. That’s all you can do. Under the law, you must motivate people through fear. Under grace, you motivate people through what? Love. Perfect love casts away what? All what? Fear. So you’ve got two forms of motivation. Fear and love. Now, what God is saying to us is until grace has come and the love of God has come to invade your heart, you are in bondage to this law that creates fear. That’s your form of motivation. But when faith has come in Jesus, now you leave that fear behind because it says perfect love casts away all fear. So God isn’t real fond of fear. God doesn’t use fear as a motivation. He uses love as a motivation. But you see, if I don’t know how to motivate by love, I’m going to go back to motivating by fear. If I don’t know how to get people to give out of their hearts, I’m going to go back to the law and scare the daylights out of them. And if you don’t tithe, God’s going to zap you. Right or wrong? Those are the only two options that you have on motivation, love and fear. And so he’s saying to us, a man is not justified by observing the law. It ain’t going to justify you. But by faith in Christ Jesus. So he says because of that fact. You see, and when you’re saying because of this fact, you have to know that that is a fact. In other words, Paul has come to a fact of recognizing the truth that these things are true. That you’re no longer under the law as a Christian. As a lost person, you’re still under it. It hadn’t done its work yet. But as a saved person, you’re in Christ. Now you leave the law behind. It’s done its work in order to walk freely in the newness of life, which is in Christ Jesus. Right or wrong? And now you leave the motivation of fear behind, and you now are motivated by love. Under the law, if I don’t do it, God’s going to zap me, so I better do it. Don’t want to do it. Can’t stand doing it. I’m going to do it because I don’t want to get zapped. Under grace, Jesus loved me. Jesus gave himself for me. God loved me. God forgave me. Therefore, forgive one another. It’s your motivation. Totally different. So we’ve put our faith now. Now that we understand those truths, we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus. How come? So that we too may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law. Why? Because by observing the law, no one will be justified. Now, how many people do you think are included in that no one? What do you suppose no one means? It means no one. Well, not even good people? No one. What about Mahatma Gandhi? No one. No one. What about these people who walk around, they’re just looking so peaceful?
SPEAKER 1 :
No one.
SPEAKER 03 :
And they got robes on, so they must be peaceful. And they smile, and they’re so quiet and so peaceful. They probably took a pretty good drug this morning. No one. No one is justified before God by the law. No one. No one. Jew, Gentile, slave or free, no one will ever be or ever has been justified before God through the law. If you can declare yourself as righteous in the sight of God, it’s because you have put your faith in the righteous one. Apart from that, you have no righteousness. We can sit around and act righteous and talk righteous and go to churches where people are righteous. But apart from being imputed the righteousness from God, you are never going to experience what righteousness is. Right or wrong? The righteous, if you’ve been declared righteous by Jesus… How do you live now? You live by what? By faith in who? Jesus, the one who loved you and gave himself for you. Now, if I’m going to live by faith in Jesus, then I want us to turn for just a moment as we close the fifth chapter of Ephesians. beginning in the eighth verse, Ephesians 5, 8. Don’t live by the law, that’s motivated by fear. You live by faith in Jesus Christ, that’s called grace, motivated by love. Verse 8, once you’re in darkness… That is the condition of every lost person who is called a prisoner. You’re in darkness. No one who is lost is in the light, guys. And if you’re not in the light, you can’t see very well. And that’s why we have what you have going on in the world today. People who are in darkness who don’t see very clearly.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord. Find more information online at bobgeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.
SPEAKER 02 :
Put Jesus first in your life and turn your life around.
