Join Bob George as he delves deep into the profound truth of the New Covenant established through Jesus Christ. This episode explores how the life of Jesus, not merely his death, provides true salvation and empowers believers to live fully in God’s grace. Discover the distinction between the forgiveness of sins and living in the resurrection power that guarantees our eternal inheritance.
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 01 :
And so we have to understand our hopeless condition apart from Christ. So all through the Old Testament was a history of man trying desperately to live a life pleasing to God in the energy of his own flesh. That’s what the Old Testament is. That’s what the four Gospels are. When did the New Covenant go into effect? On the day that Jesus what? Died. What are the Gospels about? His life. So when did the new covenant start? At the birth of Christ or the death of Christ? At the death of Christ. And so all through, even the Gospels, what do you see? Men trying to live the Christian life in the energy of their flesh and falling flat on their face just like they did before Jesus ever came. So he said, you can’t do it before I came. You can’t do it when I came. You’re only going to do it when the Spirit of God comes to live within you. Then and then alone are you going to have the power to carry out my life in this world. Only then. Now, just being indwelt by the Spirit of God is not going to do it. The Spirit of God is there now so that you and I have the privilege of participating in that divine nature that lives in us. But I also have the ability to participate in my flesh. I’m indwelt by life. I have life, but I live as if I didn’t. You have people who try to live a life that they do not have. And then you have people who have a life that they do not live. And so you can have this life that you do not live and don’t know it. Or you’ve come to Christ for his forgiveness only and you’ve never been born again of the spirit. You’ve never come to him for life. You just came to him for forgiveness. That’s not salvation. That’s why these people have come along with baptism. You know, it takes away your sins. So, your sins are taken away. That isn’t salvation. Why are you talking and camping on that for? You’re not saved by the death of Christ. You’re saved by the life of Christ. While we were yet enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. That’s when you’re lost. How much more, having been reconciled, shall you be saved by His what? His life. That’s why Paul said, without the resurrection, we’re to be pitied of all people that are still in our sins. Why? Resurrection is what gives life to the dead. Forgiveness doesn’t give life. Forgiveness gives forgiveness. Life gives life. And so there are many times that people have been conned in to come forward and get your sins forgiven, go back to the pew as dead as you came to the altar. So that’s why they call them pews. So many dead people sitting in them. Why? Because they’ve never heard what life is. They’ve been given a false gospel. Come to Jesus and get your sins forgiven. That’s not salvation. It’s come to Jesus to get Jesus. You come to him, come unto me, not come unto my forgiveness. You come unto me. And the Bible says in him, you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So where is the forgiveness that was provided for us then received? in him, in his resurrected life. Quite frankly, folks, that’s why so many people on the face of this earth walking around saying, I saved, I think I saved. Live with doubts all your life, but you don’t want to think about it. I think I’m okay, but I got all these doubts and doubts and doubts because somebody told them when you come forward and get your sins forgiven, you’re saved. There’s no power. You don’t have any more power. It’s not your fault. You have no more power then than the apostles had before the day of Pentecost. Sincere, honest, but they had no power to live a life that they didn’t have. And so this day, this new covenant is a phenomenal plan of God that he put into effect. so that we could be plugged into God eternally and to live the life that he called us to live. And so by calling this new covenant new, he’s made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete is aging and soon disappear. What does that mean about the Old Testament? What’s it say about it? What’s in the Old Testament? The law? No. Is the law all the way through the Old Testament? Or is it just the first five books of Moses? Well, the law is all the way through. First five books of Moses just explained the law that you’re supposed to live on back to Malachi. They were still grunting and groaning in Malachi. He says, you’re going to have to die. You can’t do it. He gave us all those books. That Old Testament’s thick. All those books, which is a life of man desperately trying to live in the energy of his flesh and falling flat on his face and still in the midst of it, showing the faithfulness of God. Isn’t that wonderful? The faithfulness of God. He knew what they were doing. His plan was, I’m going to give you plenty of time to prove to yourself you can’t do it. I’m going to give you a lot of time for that, to show you you can’t do it. And one of these days, you’re going to be prepared for and having long enough experience of showing you can’t do it, and I’m going to come and show you who did. And that’s Jesus. And so for verse 15, for this reason, Christ is a mediator of a new covenant. You have your old covenant. You have your Old Testament. You have your old will. All of those interchangeable. A covenant is a will and a testament. If you have a will and a testament, that’s your will. You’ve prepared it now while you’re alive, but when will it go into effect? When you die and not a day sooner. Same thing with Jesus. That the Old Testament went away and the new one, we placed it on the day of his death. Because why? Because everything that he needed to do had been accomplished for you and me. He took away our sins. He was raised from the dead and he said, in 50 days I’m going to give you life. And when I give you life, it’s all done. It’s over. You’ve got everything that you need now for life and godliness. So for this reason, Christ is the mediator of this new covenant. That those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. Now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. In case of a will, we’re told, it’s necessary to prove the death of the one who made it. Why? Well, because a will is enforced only when someone has died. It never takes effect while the one who has made it is living. We all know that, don’t we, in regard to our wills. And that’s why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. In other words, without a forfeiture of life. The difference was, it wasn’t our life, it was the life of an animal. But an animal sacrifice can’t handle it. The forfeiture of an animal on our behalf could cover sin, but the forfeiture of an animal on our behalf could never take away sins from the eyes of God. It took a living sacrifice for that. And the living sacrifice was none of us. It only had to be Him. So when Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all of the people, he took the blood of calves together with water and scarlet wool and branches of hyssop and sprinkled the scroll on all the people. And he said, this is the blood of the covenant. This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you to keep. Uh-oh. This is the covenant that I commanded you to keep. Now, where did the problem develop? Right there. This is a covenant that I command you to keep. What did man find out about that? He can’t keep it. Did God, do you think that shocked him? I don’t think God said, ooh, golly, I thought they would. This is the covenant which I’m commanding you to keep. Paul said this, guys, there’s nothing wrong with the law. It’s holy and it’s good. But when it flows through me, what does it do? It kills me. Nothing wrong. It’s holy. It’s good. But I cannot keep it. I’m trying like crazy. But I cannot keep it. Well, what happens to people like that when you keep raising the bar? You get over this bar, what do you do? You raise it. You get up to this point, you raise it. Now, with me, it’s only a curb. but when I was younger it might have been a little higher in a curb but now I’m getting over curbs about as good as I can do so don’t raise it above a curb for me but the issue is that you keep raising the bar and what happens when it gets to the point where you just can’t get over it well you become frustrated why because someone’s saying get over it get over it you ought to be able to do that your faith isn’t big enough Get some bigger faith and you can jump higher. And you know what happens to people? We bug out. We say, I can’t do it. God is commanding me to do it. He wants me to do it and I can’t do it. So I’m out of here. Adios, God. If I ever see you, I’ll see you in heaven. But I’ll take care of the earth. I’ll do it my way, just like Sinatra. I’ll do it my way because I can’t do it your way. It’s not even necessarily that I want to do it my way, but I can’t do it yours. So the only one I have left is me. So I’ll just do it my way. And that’s what we have in the world today. People attempting to do it their way and falling flat on their face. But at least that’s better than suffering the condemnation of God saying you can’t do it. And that’s what people rebel against, folks. People aren’t rebelling against Jesus. People don’t know Jesus exists. And if they do, they don’t know what Jesus came to do. He came to love the daylights out of you. How in the world can you rebel against someone who loves you to death? So you’re not really rebelling against Jesus. You’re rebelling against religion. You’re rebelling against a religion that says, I demand that you keep it. And I can’t do it. So I give up. I’ve told many people, you’re a good rebel. You’re a good rebel. They come in and say, I hate religion. Good, I do too. I do too. You’re a good rebel. You ought to be rebelling against religion. You’ve got good company. Jesus, the apostles, all the early Christians rebelled against religion. Jesus didn’t come to give us religion. He came to give us a life. You don’t live by principles. You don’t live by law. You don’t live by promises. You live by a life, and it’s not yours. It’s his. It’s no longer I who live, but it’s Christ who lives in me. So when Christ, who is your life, appears, you will appear with him. It’s no longer you. It’s him. And so he said, here’s the covenant which God has commanded you to keep. Now, in the same way he said he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood. And guys, mark your Bible or check it. Without the shedding of blood, there is how much forgiveness? None. Now, how many of you believe that? How many of you don’t believe that? Well, don’t have any hands there. Then how many do believe that? Well, okay, that’s better. All right. Without the shedding of blood, how much forgiveness is there? None. I’m going to ask you another question. Is Jesus going to shed his blood again? How many times did he shed his blood? And for how many people? How many people? For how long? You mean every person that’s ever been born and every person who will be born again? He died for them. Okay, now, without the shedding of blood, there’s no forgiveness and there’s no more shedding of blood. What do you have to conclude about the one time that he did shed his blood? What do you have to conclude about that? It’s finished.
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SPEAKER 01 :
What did Jesus cry out from the cross? It’s finished. He didn’t mean, guys, your crucifixion is about to work. He meant my work is completed. There he who knew no sin became sin for you and me, so that we who are in Christ Jesus could become the righteousness of God in him. It’s finished. It’s done. Do you believe that? I know we do. But I want to tell you something, my friends. The average teaching in Christianity today does not know that. Here’s the irony of all this. We teach people that you’re saved by getting your sins forgiven, but we don’t believe we got our sins forgiven. Now, if you believe that you got your sins forgiven, why would you be asking for what you say, I believe, already occurred? You answer that question. Did he finish it or didn’t he? If it is over and finished and without the shedding of blood, there’s no forgiveness and there’s no more shedding of blood, that means there’s no more forgiveness. Why isn’t there any more forgiveness? Because he’s already done it. And when he did it, he said, it is what? Finished. Now, you want to walk by faith, you want to walk by presumption, or you want to walk by tradition. If you want to walk by tradition, keep going back to the confession booth. If you want to walk by tradition, keep keeping short accounts with God. You know, that’s the only way that you’re going to be in fellowship. There’s only one problem with that statement. There is no such thing in the Bible as being in and out of fellowship. You’re either in the fellowship saved or out of the fellowship lost. Fellowship is two fellows in the same ship. There’s no such thing as in and out of fellowship. You’re either out of the fellowship lost or in the fellowship saved. And so every time you sin, well, you know, God can’t look on sin. So that means he can’t look on you. So he spins around and then you confess and he turns around. So he’s up there spinning. Can you imagine how much spinning he would have to do just in this room alone? And this isn’t that big of a room. Think what it’d be at Prestonwood. Guys, that is nonsensical teaching. Jesus took away the sins of the world from the eyes of God. And so we’re taught every time you sin, then you got to clear the deck. And so you’re taught, keep short accounts with God. And so we desperately, I did that, keep short accounts with God. Don’t let any unconfessed sin, remember, remain in your life. It’s okay to sin, just not unconfessed. And so what are we thinking about every day of your life if you’re like me? Sin. Any of you in here sinless? Any of you been sinless just today? You see, folks, when you’re preoccupied with sin, you’re preoccupied with it all day long, if you’re normal. Right? And so what he’s saying to us is, I took away that issue, and until you deal with that truth, you’re not ready to deal with what I came to give you, and that’s life. You’re not ready for it. That’s why people remain immature babies, babies in Christ, all of their life, just keeping their sins confessed. You ever experience life? You ever experience Jesus living in you and guiding you? No, no, but I got my sins confessed. Well, good for you. Good for you. So did the Jews have their sins confessed when we went back to the Day of Atonement. Folks, until we finalize the cross in your heart, you are never going to realize the resurrection. Peter said, If you want to grow and mature, he said the reason people aren’t growing and maturing is because they’re blind indeed and have forgotten that they have been cleansed of all of their past sins. That’s why you don’t grow. You can’t grow when I’m denying what Jesus said is true. If you cannot agree with him in regard to what he accomplished at the cross, you can’t agree with him about anything. So you never get to know him. You never get that vital relationship with him. You never get to experience his love because fear casts out love. Just like perfect love casts away all fear, what does fear cast away? Love. I want to tell you something. If I don’t know I am a forgiven person, I’d be one fearful person. How about you? Why? Because with the wages of sin’s death, I figured that one out. And that means when I sin, God probably zapped me. You see, I don’t care whether you think you’re out of fellowship or out of relationship. In either case, you’re going to have to figure out how to get back. Fear. Perfect love casts away all fear. Why? Because fear has to do with punishment. What was God’s punishment for sin? Death. And a man who fears cannot be what? Perfected in what? Love. You can’t be perfected in love when you’re still fearful. And so this legalistic teaching doesn’t do anything except create fear in the hearts of man that keeps them from growing. Satan’s plan for your life. Keep you from ever growing. We sit here day and week after week and teach the depths of the Word of God. And you got some that… Folks, I want to tell you something. If you’re not interested in growing in the depth of the Word of God, there’s something wrong with you. There is something deeply wrong. This whole idea, well, I’ll be here today and next week, well, maybe, oh, listen, that ain’t going to hack it. You’ve got too much bombarding you and so do I all week long. If you don’t come to get refreshed some way or some place where the truth is going to refresh you, you’re going to get wiped out. Am I right or wrong? Don’t take this for granted. This is not something to be taken for granted. It isn’t something you have to do. It’s something that if you want to grow and if you don’t want to live a defeated life, you must keep learning and learning and learning about the depth of God. It’s not the shallowness. It’s the depth. Every day of your life that you learn more about Jesus, it just keeps getting deeper and deeper and deeper. People ask me sometimes, don’t you get tired of teaching the same thing all the time? No, because it’s never the same thing. It may be the same thing to you, but it’s not to me. It’s always new. It’s always fresh. Why? Because it’s Jesus, and he never gets old. Now, the law requires that everything be cleansed with blood. Remember that. Grab a hold of it. If you’ve never finalized that, guys, do it today. There’s no more forgiveness for your sins. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. There’s no more shedding of blood. There’s no more forgiveness. Therefore, if you’re in Christ, who are you? A forgiven person. Oh, you teach that and people go out and sin. They’re sinning pretty well without teaching that. That’s not the issue. The issue is that’s truth. What I do with that truth is between me and God, but that doesn’t negate the truth. It was necessary then, it says, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices. But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these… For Jesus did not enter a man-made sanctuary. He didn’t enter in the one we built. That was only a copy of the true one, which is the one in heaven. He entered heaven itself now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again the way the high priest enters the most holy place every year with blood that’s not his own. In other words, he wasn’t going in with someone else’s blood, right? Pretty easy to go in and sacrifice somebody else’s blood. He went in with a sacrifice of his own. He didn’t go into a man-made sanctuary where it talks about every priest has to stand and perform his religious duties over and over and over and over and over again, which can never do what? Take away sin. He entered once and he offered himself one time. He said, if Jesus entered into heaven, the heavenly sanctuary, to offer himself again and again and again, then Christ, in order to do that, would have to suffer many times since the creation of the world. What does that mean? He’d have to die again. Because without the shedding of blood, there’s what? No forgiveness of sins. But now, he has appeared how many times, guys? Once for all at the end of the ages to do what? do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now, did that mean that he came to do away with your sin? Is your sin done away with? In whose eyes? How about your eyes? Anybody’s sin been done away with? I just don’t know what sin is anymore. I used to remember what sin was before I was born again. But I’m just a holy now. I can hardly remember what sin was. What does it mean to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself? It meant that he took away the sins of the world from the eyes of God. for eternity, period. Is that right or wrong? That sacrifice, what was a priest for? To represent man to God. Here’s the sacrifice, God. God says, okay, what did this priest do? Offered himself and said, this is for the sins of the whole world throughout all eternity. And God says, propitiation has taken place. I am satisfied. So he appeared once at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now just as a man is destined to die once and after that to face the judgment. What is the judgment? What is the only judgment that is left? What did you do with my son? There will never be judgment for anybody except just what did you do with my son? Is your name in the book of life? There it is. Enter in. If your book isn’t there, you’re going to enter into another place. It’s going to be worse than Texas. It’ll be hot.
SPEAKER 03 :
Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
