Bob George teaches from Romans 12 on what true worship really is: presenting our bodies to Christ as living sacrifices and allowing Him to live His life through us. This episode emphasizes salvation by grace alone, the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, surrender over self-effort, renewing the mind with truth, and walking in the gifts God has given without pride or comparison.
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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The 12th chapter of Romans kind of wraps up what we’re going to be talking about today. The Apostle Paul starts out in chapter 12 here is, therefore, and again, what is the therefore, therefore? It’s because of what he had communicated in the first 11 chapters as to the fact that we have been saved by the mercy and the grace of God alone. There’s no works connected to salvation. There’s no man who ever lived who could have done what Jesus did. Do we understand the truth of that? That there’s not a one of us that could have gone to a cross. We could have gone to a cross just like the thieves. And we could have been crucified just like the thieves. But there’s not a one of us who could have gone to the cross and taken upon himself the sins of the entire world And then said, Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing. Not a one of us. Do we understand that? There’s not another human being on the face of the earth that could have accomplished for us what Christ Jesus accomplished. And yet, we in our egotism and in our pride, we want to add to that. We want to add, dunk me in some water. We want to add, speak me in tongues. Or we want to add anything that you can add in order to have a piece of this action. And God is saying there’s not one earthly thing in you capable of saving a human being. Not a thing that you can do. So we have to see the uniqueness of Christ Jesus. He’s the only person who could have brought salvation to the world as he did and accomplished. So therefore, I urge you, brothers… In view of this mercy of God, in view of the mercy of God, I want you to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. In other words, he is saying to us, I have come to save your soul. I have come to enable the invisible part of you, that is the real you, To one of these days be absent from the body and present with the Lord. The body’s going to stay here. It’s a house. Don’t get too hung up on it. It’s a house. And it grows old. And it sags and bags and all the other things that we all, those of us that are older know it takes place in life. You youngsters, why you still think you’re on a 200-year plan. But when you get to be our age, why you know you’re not. But it’s old. It’s going to decay. And it’s ultimately going to go into a grave never to be seen again. But your inside of you, the real you, I’m going to take you to heaven. To all of those who come to me by faith, I’m going to release you from these bodies and I’m going to take you to heaven someday. That’s why our loved ones, guys, when people die and you think of all the things that man has done around death, you think about that. People will dress in black for a year, mourning. What would you mourn? if someone’s in heaven. I mean, what is there to mourn? I hope none of you mourned when we were in Florida. There’s nothing to mourn. The issue is that that’s a day of rejoicing if you know the Lord. That’s the big if. You know the Lord. And yet we get in and we mourn and we weep and we wail and all these other kind of things, which is nonsense if you know where you’re going when you leave this body. And God provided that for you and me. He didn’t have to, but he did. So in order for us to live on this earth, he said, not only am I going to save you, but guys, he didn’t save us to lay on the table and a baby and cry. He saved us so we would grow up, as we’ll learn in Corinthians, grow up and become mature in our knowledge of the Word of God and to be used according to this massive plan that God had put into place of going out and saving people through us, His body. He said, I’m the head, but you are the body. And I’m going to be looking for this body to live in obedience to the head and to reach out to people just like I, in my own body, reached out to people. The difference is, when I was here on earth as Jesus, I was in one location. Now my body is going to be all over the world at the same time. people indwelt by the Spirit of God. And all I’m asking you to do is to make your body, James, available to me so that I can live a life through you, so that I can do in and through you what I did in and through my own body 2,000 years ago. Tell people about the love of God. Tell people that God loves you. Tell people of the fact that I went to a cross and took away the sins of the entire world For God never to see them again. And the only sin attributable to man is the sin of the rejection of the sin of God. The only one is just to come to the point where you drop your pride and say, there’s no way in the world that I could save myself. It’s all you, Jesus. And come to Jesus. That’s all he’s asking us to do. Make our bodies available as a living sacrifice. Not an animal sacrifice, a human living sacrifice. Make our bodies available. And he says that is what is holy and pleasing to God. What is holy and pleasing to God is for you and me to make our bodies available to the living God to live his life in and through. Are we together? Now he says this is your spiritual act of worshiping. Now what do we do? Now what’s he saying here guys? I have saved you internally. I’ve given you everything that you need for life and godliness. Inside, you’re complete. Outside, that’s another issue. But inside, you’re complete. Now all I’m asking you to do is to make your body available to me. to live my life in and through you. That’s all I’m asking you to do. And that, and that alone, is your spiritual act of what? Of worship. So what is our spiritual act of worship? Every day, getting up and being available to God. To do what? Whatever He wants to. You see, well, we plan it for Him. You know, God, I’m going to plan your day. I know that you need all of my deep planning. And I’m going to plan your day for you. No, no, that’s not what you do. You live in what is called surrender. And the attitude of surrender is different than an attitude of commitment. You know, we get all this, come and commit your life to Christ. And then you got people recommitting your life to Christ, which is saying, I’ll never sin again. I’ll never do that one again. How long does that last? Until you leave the auditorium. Commitment is what you’re doing. It has no meaning at all to God. It’s just another thing of God saying, I’ve heard that before. You may as well quit saying it. I’ve heard it before, and you ain’t going to pull it off. You surrender to God. You don’t commit. You surrender. It’s the attitude of the heart that says, God, I can’t, but you can. God, you are, but I’m not. But with you, I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. And that is the good news of the gospel. It’s all he’s asking for us to do is be available to me. Be available. That’s your act of worship. Now, what have we done? Well, we’ve created worship services. Now, wouldn’t that be sad to think that the only time you worship God is for an hour to worship service? The rest of the days, you’re on your own, guys. But boy, come and praise God with us and be spiritual with us. That isn’t what worship is. Worship isn’t singing songs. That’s praise. Worship isn’t lifting your hands up or putting them in your lap. Doesn’t matter if you didn’t have arms, how important that would be. Worship isn’t whether you’re speaking in English, you’re speaking in tongues. How important would that be if you didn’t have a tongue? That’s just how quick those things go by the wayside, guys. What if you didn’t have one of those? What if you didn’t have a tongue? How important would speaking in tongues be? What if you didn’t have arms? How important would be raising arms or lowering arms if you didn’t have them? That’s how important that stuff is, guys. It’s an outward act that means nothing to God. We have a lady that said, oh, I came to Jesus on my knees. I said, I came to him on the rear end. That was on the radio too, but we’re still there. Who in the world cares? What do you think? God’s up there looking, Jim, you’re sitting down. I can’t do anything through you when you’re on your rear seat. Get on your knees. How many of you have heard that? Oh, we’re so proud. I’m on my knees. Well, guys, all of that’s us getting in the action. All of that is us saying, boy, I want something. I want to be able to brag on something. So I tell everybody I came Christ on my knees. You see how crazy we are? We are so crazy that a focus immediately gets off of him and onto me and what I’m doing. And God doesn’t give a flip about that. All God wants you and me to do is to make our bodies available to him. We’ve given bodies. I want you to make your body available to me to live my life in and through you. Period. Are we together? That is your reasonable act of worship. That’s what worship is. Now I want to ask you a question. Can a lost person who does not have the spirit of God living in him make his body available to the living Christ to live his life in and through it? No. Can a lost person sing praise songs? Can you get goosebumps doing it? Can you lift your arms up? Can you put them in your ears? Whatever else you want to do. Do all that stuff. You don’t have to be saved to do that. Can you go to church lost? Can you give lost? You can do all those things lost, all the things that are so important. Everyone could do as a lost person. Satan could join any church in town. You believe in Jesus? Yeah, absolutely. Believe he died on a cross? Yeah, unfortunately I was there. Think he was raised from the dead? Yeah, I saw that one too. You think he’s seated at the right hand of God? Yeah, I go zoom up there and try to accuse you of saints to him all the time. Man, you’re in. Give him a tithing envelopes and you’re in. Join a church in town. But you can’t join Jesus that way. There’s only one way that you join yourself to Jesus. You can join a church by just coming and accepting membership or being baptized or but there’s only one way that you’re joined to Jesus and that’s by faith in Jesus and when you have faith in Jesus you can’t have faith in Jesus and me too so there’s anything you can do it is accepting the death burial and resurrection of Christ Jesus alone he came no other man no other man on the face that ever lived could ever have accomplished what Jesus did for you and me he’s the only one He’s the only man who ever had a life to lay down for you and me. He’s the only one who had a life to lay down. We’re born dead. He was born alive.
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And so it’s all him. There’s nothing added to Jesus. It’s only the fact of this. Jesus, you said that I’m a sinner. I agree with you. That was one thing I had no argument with God over. I’m a sinner. I agree with you. I can tell you all about it. And the consequence of sin is death. There’s a wage to sin. It’s called death. I didn’t know that until you heard the scripture. The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is life. And there’s a consequence to your being a sinner called spiritual death. And a person who is spiritually dead needs only one thing. Spiritual life. And I came that you might have what? Life. And have it abundantly. I’m the way. I’m the truth. And I’m the life. And you come to me and me alone for the life that I came to give you And you are going to be born again of the Spirit. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. You can sit in church all your life and never be saved. I was in church for 36 years, never saved. Heard but didn’t hear. How many of you ever witnessed that type of thing where you hear but you don’t hear? That’s why Jesus said, if you have ears, listen. He knew we had ears. Almost pulled one of them off. It’s easy. He knew he had ears. But he’s saying, if you’ve got ears, listen, because there’s a difference between having ears and listening. So he said, if you have ears, listen. And so he’s saying, don’t conform any longer to the pattern of this world. What is the pattern of this world to believe everything that comes along? We believe anything anyone tells us. I don’t mean to speak disrespectfully, but think for a moment of the confidence that that we have in doctors. You know, I’ve never met a man that went to a bad doctor. Every man that I ever talked to, he’s always said, my doctor’s the best. You ever heard that? My doctor’s the best. He’s the number one specialist in his field. He said, ooh, do you know what a doctor knows that prescribes medicine to you? What the drug salesman told him. Am I right or wrong, doc? So a good druggist Could be a good doctor. And yet we act like they’re God. And some think they are. Hope there aren’t any doctors in here. And I’m not saying this disrespectfully. I’m just saying it. Honestly, you can say it’s saying there are pastors. Because a lot of them think they’re gods too. But the issue is that don’t you wish you had the same confidence in Jesus that you have in another man, in a doctor? I mean, he tells you to take these pills. Those pills may kill you. There’s evidence all over the place about them killing you. We should give them to you. Right or wrong? So I wish we had the same confidence in Jesus that we did in man. But we don’t. I’ll tell you another one. Lawyer. I don’t even need to talk about that when I don’t think… Don’t be conformed to the world, to the pattern of this world. You know what the world does to us? Lies to us. Everything you see advertised, it’s just hype, isn’t it? And isn’t it interesting? Eat Cheerios. They may help your cholesterol. Well, they may not as well. But you see, you’re safe by saying they may do it. That’s all deception, isn’t it, guys? It’s all a part of this world’s deception. So you don’t have to eat Cheerios. But he said, don’t be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It doesn’t say by the altering of your mind. There’s no place in the Bible where it says you’ve got problems, alter your mind. That’s why they call them mind-altering drugs. It’s because they’re there to alter your mind. I don’t want my mind altered. I want my mind renewed. And I want it renewed on truth. And there’s only one place that I can go to find truth. And it ain’t in a doctor’s office. It’s in this Bible. The man who created you wrote this Bible. I think he probably knows a little bit more about you than another you. What do you guys think? And so if I’m going to live on this earth, I’m not going to conform to the world that says turn from God. Forget about getting your mind renewed on truth. This isn’t truth. This old fashioned stuff. This is old. We’re in modern day America. This is old stuff. Is it really? I don’t think so. This is called truth. And you know what it said truth would do for us? Set us free. Set us free from what? All the stupid thinking that our heads are full of. Just think about the attitudes that you and I have sometimes. I look at it and I think, am I real? Am I normal? Because you can come up with all kinds of goofy things, can’t you? And the issue is, it says, don’t be conformed to the world, but be transformed by what? The renewing of the mind. The renewing of the mind. Renewed on what? What? Truth that will do what? According to God. Set you free. If that’s not true, pitch the whole book away, guys. If that statement right there is not true, throw this thing in a wastebasket and eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die. If truth does not set you free, pitch it. And when the Son has set you free, you shall be what? Free indeed. Free to be yourself. Free to trust the Spirit of God who lives in you now to guide you into all truth. See, guys, this is the beauty of this. As God said, I’m going to come live in you. And that’s me living in you. That’s not an it. It’s me living in you. And I’m going to guide you into all truth. Do we, Letty? I’ll tell you guys, we have been so programmed. not to listen to the voice of God. And I’ll tell you one of the ways that we’ve done that, it’s happened in the church. Where, you remember, if you know anything about the history of the church, the early church, they wrote the Bible, they had it translated from the Greek into Roman, into Latin, and they said, that’s your Bible. That’s the organized church. That’s your Bible. Well, it’s a nice Bible, but I don’t read Latin. I don’t care. You don’t need to. You come to me and I’ll tell you what it says. And I’ll tell you what it means. And you better not go someplace else. And if you go out and you grab one of those Wycliffe deals, I’m going to burn you at the stake. Now, right or wrong, did that happen or didn’t? It’s the history of the church, a good old church. And so what happens is all of the emphasis came is we’ll tell you what to believe. Well, if I have convinced you or a pastor has convinced you that I will tell you what to believe, are you going to have any confidence at all in the Spirit telling you what to believe? No, better check it out with the pastor. Guys, I cannot tell you the number of times when we’ve taught 1 John 1.9. The very first thing someone said, I’m going back to my pastor to see what he has to say. Well, you don’t need to go back. He’s as dumb as you are. He’ll say exactly what he’s been saying for years and years and years and what he was taught. But have you thought it through? How in the world can you be thinking it through when you’ve got double talk on your hands? You’re totally forgiven, but. Old billy goat Christianity, but, but, but. But that’s what they do. I’ll go back and check with the pastor. You’ll have to check with the pastor. If you’re saved, the Holy Spirit lives in you. The Holy Spirit teaches you. That’s what he’s there to do. He’s your teacher. Thank God for that. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you’ll be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good and pleasing and perfect will for you and me. That’s his desire for you and me, is to show you and me his will. By the grace given me, I say to every one of you, don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought, but rather think of yourself in sober judgment. I want to see a little trick here. It doesn’t say don’t think highly of yourself. It says don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought. But it doesn’t say to sit around thinking lowly about yourself. you know there’s a lot of people that what Christianity is is I’m just no worm just no sinner saved by grace is that what God calls you he calls you a saint created in the image of God for good works we call ourselves old sinners saved by grace I say you look like one no it says don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought guys we are children of God we have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Now, God had to think something of us in order to do that. In other words, for him to want to save us, he had to say they’re worth saving. Not in the condition we were in, but in the condition I’m going to make them in. Because I’m not through with you yet. I’m just getting started. But guys, don’t walk around thinking lowly of yourself. You’re a child of the living God. Now, I’m not better than anybody, but I’m better off than someone who’s not saved. I’ll guarantee you that. I’m not better than they are, but I’m better off. And so are you. And so there’s two things that we can do with these kind of passages. We can walk around all puffed up. And what he’s getting at here is because I’m going to give you gifts. And we’ll talk about that in a moment if we ever get to it. I’m going to give you gifts for the purpose of carrying out my purpose here on this earth. I got a purpose for you. In other words, I didn’t just save you for you to sit around and praise that God had been saved for 100 years. And so you are a 50-year-old Christian talking about your salvation experience. I didn’t save you for that. I saved you to do something with that salvation. And I’m going to give you gifts to carry out that function. And I don’t want you to be thinking more highly of yourself than you ought because of your gift. I want you to think with sober judgment, it says. Think soberly. Praise God for what I have done for you. But if I’m going to give you a gift, don’t be bragging about your gift. I’m the one who gave it to you. Well, what do we have today? Well, we’ve got people so proud of their gifts, you can’t even stand it. In fact, they come down and say, if you don’t have that gift, you’re not even saved. Now, how ridiculous is that? If you don’t have this particular gift or this particular gift, you’re not saved. Are you saved by gifts? I thought you were saved by a person. But he said to think in sober judgment according to the measure of faith God has given you. Do you realize that God has given every man on the measure of faith to be a believer? Some people will say, some theologies say that the elect, you know, they’re the ones who are given the gift of faith, but the non-elect weren’t. Because no one has the faith to come to Christ. That’s nonsense. It says in the scripture very, very clearly that we’ve all been given the same measure of faith that God has given us. God has given all of us a measure of faith. Whether we use it or not is a different thing, isn’t it?
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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.
