Join Bob George as he delves into the profound truths of Christianity, focusing on the misconceptions surrounding the grace of God and the nature of true salvation. In this episode, Bob dissects the narrative of Gnosticism and the misinterpretation of religious teachings, urging listeners to embrace a personal relationship with Jesus Christ rather than a return to religious bondage. Through passionate discourse, he communicates the essence of Jesus’ sacrifice, reinforcing the importance of understanding grace not as a license for immorality but as a divine gift to nurture a righteous life. Explore the concept of sanctification and discover what
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 02 :
Well, let’s turn to Jude. That’s right before Revelation. Revelation is right before the Da Vinci Code. So you will know where to find that. Speaking of the… Da Vinci Code and some of the things that are taught, this obviously is not a true story. Many people who don’t know one end of the Bible from the other would probably put more confidence in a book such as this than they would the Bible, and as much as you never read the Bible. But a lot of the teaching that is in that movie came out of what we’re talking about here in Jude, and that is Gnosticism. And a lot of the teachings and a lot of what is in that fictional book was taken from some of the Gnostic teachings. As we explained when we opened up this book, that Gnosticism was something that was very prevalent in the first century church. People began to get an idea that they had a spatial knowledge You know, the human spirit is something. We’re not satisfied with just reading what God did and putting our faith in it. We think we have to add to it and get all mystical and ooshy-gooshy and everything else that comes down the pike. Instead of just taking this as what it is, Jesus wasn’t playing games when he went to a cross. He went to a cross and suffered and died unmercifully for you and me. And there it says, he who knew no sin became sin for us. So that in him and his resurrected life, we could become the righteousness of God in him. That was an act that was done by God. And it was not a flimsy, funny thing. It was a sacrifice that had to be made by God the Son in order to satisfy God the Father, that a sacrifice had been made that was of such value that it could take away the sins of the entire world. And so it isn’t something, it isn’t a plaything, it’s a reality. It was suffering, suffering, like no man, we’re told, that he was beaten as no man. And Jesus did that volitionally for us. He saw our condition of our lostness, and he provided the way whereby you and I could be saved from the consequence of sin, which is death, by the only solution to death, which is life, and the only life available to us is the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. We’ve made religion a God instead of Jesus, and therefore one religion fights against another religion. But I want to tell you, folks, Jesus didn’t come to form a religion. He came to form a relationship. And so when you’re talking about religions, the definition of religion is a return to bondage. Religion is always teaching what you and I should not be doing and what we should be doing and the consequence when we’re not doing. It’s a do-do thing. And we have to recognize the truth of that. Christ Jesus didn’t come to give us a religion. He came to make a relationship whereby you and I could know God personally. Whereby we could walk in a newness of life that is ours through Christ Jesus, through the indwelling of Jesus living in us, which is our only hope of glory. And so many, many people to this day are up against this. It’s amazing to me what you see going on in this world, isn’t it? How many of you saw back in Oregon, at the University of Oregon, where the newspaper, the Oregon University newspaper, had printed all these pictures of Jesus, these literally like pornography pictures of Jesus hanging on a cross, and in nudity and showing him with another man. And they allow that to take place on the university. And that’s supposed to be our place of higher education. That’s a place where people have parties with strippers and get drunk, and we call it higher education. But the issue is that we’ve got a very strange viewpoint of morality, don’t we? And it’s strange to me how we allow that to take place. I want to tell you something. If some university did something like that toward Allah, you’d see the biggest uprising that you ever saw in your life. But you can do it with Jesus all day long and very few people say a word about it. So people have always been anti-Jesus. People aren’t anti-Christian. You can go say, I believe in God, and everybody, all praise God, we all believe in God. But I want to tell you, you start mentioning the name Jesus, and people start gagging. And I’ll tell you another thing. Before you knew Jesus, you gagged if you mentioned Jesus, except in profanity, didn’t you? And so the issue is that the dividing line, and where it says that you and I are separated… You and I are sanctified, set apart. We’re told that you’re set apart by the Word of God. And sanctification means to be set apart. It means to be set apart for the intelligent purpose for which God created you. It’s not a big religious word where you say, I’m sanctified and I carry my Bible under my arm, tilt my head to the side, look sick of my stomach as I walk down the street. That’s not sanctified. That’s stupidity. Sanctified is a very practical term. I’m using and sanctifying my glasses right now. They were made to see through, and I’m looking through them, and I can see. I’m sanctifying my shoes. My shoes were made to walk in. I’m sanctifying them. I’m using them for the purpose they were created. I could hang them on my ear if I wanted to, but that would not be sanctifying. I could stir my coffee with my glasses, but I wouldn’t be sanctifying my glasses. That’s not what they were made for. They were made to see through. And when I put them on, I’m sanctifying my glasses. So what does it mean when it says sanctify them by the word? Sanctify them by truth. It means that you and I are set apart to be truth tellers. That God created you and me as new creatures for one purpose only. What is your purpose here on this earth? To be available to communicate truth. And that truth sets you apart from the entire world. If you don’t believe that’s true, you’re not in the world. You go out in the world in which you live and start talking about Jesus. And I’ll guarantee you, if you don’t see that you’re separated, something’s wrong with you. Except to those who have also been set apart from Christ. Am I right or wrong, guys? And I want to tell you, the bulk of this world is not Christian. We call ourselves a Christian nation. That’s nonsense. Only people are Christians, not nations. God doesn’t save nations. He saves people. A church is not a Christian church. It depends on whether there’s people in it who are Christians. Because there’s a whole bunch of people who call themselves Christians who don’t know the Lord from an apple tree. Like the letter. Richard was telling me that in this letter… And in this right now denomination, that they had the entire body watching this so that everyone saw it, teaching that Jesus was born with a sin nature. How do you like that one? We’re told in the scripture that he was born sinless. We’re told that he who knew no sin… Means at one time you were sinless. Became sin. That means he took our sin upon himself. And there he who knew no sin. Literally became sin. For who? For us. So that what? In him. You can become the righteousness of God. There is a total movement today. Which has been subtle for years. But wasn’t quite so subtle then. And that is to discredit Jesus and who he is. How many people that you talk to about Jesus will say, oh, he was a good prophet. He was a good teacher. And I say to them, what’s the qualification for being a teacher? To be a liar? Or to be nuts? Is that what qualifies you to be a teacher? Bud was a teacher. Was he crazy? Oh, yeah. That’s why I left teaching. He was crazy for teaching. My goodness, folks, is the qualification for being a good teacher to be crazy or to be a liar? Jesus claimed himself to be God. And you say, no, no, no, no, he’s not God, he’s just a prophet. Well, then he’s a liar. And if he’s a liar and an imposter, does that qualify him for being a good teacher? I don’t think so. And so we’re there, we see in this world this discrediting of Christ Jesus. So The Apostle Jude is dealing with that issue, and we’ll pick up in verse 3 and read back. We’ve gone through this, but in review. Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation that we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith, and that’s the faith in Christ that was once and for all entrusted to the saints. Guys, do you realize our responsibility? We have been made into a child of God. We’ve been made into what the Bible calls a saint. Isn’t that something? And I see so many times how we speak out of both sides of our mouth. In order to be made a saint in Catholicism, a pope to be made a saint, he has to have so many miracles and all that kind of stuff. And yet you drive by the Catholic Church down our street and it says, this is the place of the little saints. Some doesn’t commute. Some doesn’t compute there with me, does it you? Everybody’s little saints, but you’ve got to be named one by miracles. We’re so double-minded, guys. But God loves us anyway. But he’s saying that I have entrusted to you this message. This message has been entrusted. In other words, God has said, I am giving you this message so that you can go give it to the lost people and to people who need to grow in Christ. I’m entrusting you with it. Now, what’s that saying? I’m giving you something and I’m trusting that you will carry on with this message. And each and every one of us have been given that responsibility and entrusted by God to go out into the world and to proclaim the good news of Christ Jesus. We’ve been set apart for that purpose. How is this message going to spread unless we’re spreading it? Say, well, just wait on old Billy to have an evangelistic campaign. It’s okay. That’s his assignment. But each and every one of us are out in the world. Each and every one of us are around our own sphere of influence. We work around people. We live around people. And it says that we should, we’ve been entrusted with the responsibility of being able to communicate that. Now, that doesn’t mean going out and chasing people up and down flagpoles. It means to be willing to talk to people. And you know, there are some people that they don’t want to talk to anybody, but to be willing to talk to people. And what do you do when you’re talking with people? You’re talking with people long enough until you hear a scriptural violation. Then that’s time to start talking. Now, some of us, we don’t give a person a chance to talk. We’re just out there talking. And I really don’t care where you are. I’m going to give you my message. And there are people like that as well. That’s not good communication. If you don’t learn how to listen, you shouldn’t be speaking.
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 02 :
And so we need to listen to people. And we listen to people long enough until we hear, where’s your heartache? And now you’re prepared to give Jesus as the answer to that heartache. But we’ve been given, it says, and entrusted this message. How come? How come he’s trusted us with that message? For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They’re godless men who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ as our only sovereign and Lord. Now, folks, that becomes a misunderstanding of the grace of God. When you turn the grace of God into a license for immorality, you’re denying Jesus Christ is your Lord. Because Christ Jesus lives in us, does he not? And so if Christ lives in us, is he there leading us into a life of immorality? No. No. So when you and I get engaged in immoral things, is that when we say, oh, well, praise God for God’s grace? Or do we say that I acted like a nitwit following my own desires instead of the desires of Christ Jesus who lives in me? You see, the grace of God is there. The grace of God is what provided Jesus to go to a cross to take away your and my sins. That cannot be denied. But you see, the fact that I sinned and think that I can get forgiven, or I sin and there is no such thing as forgiveness, or Jesus took away my sin 2,000 years ago, doesn’t stop you from sinning, does it? You see, what the Bible teaches is that Christ took away the sins of the entire world. There’s no sin that will cause any of you to ever go to hell. No man will ever go to hell because of his sins. None. Nobody will. There’s no sins that have not been placed upon Christ Jesus. Is that true or not? Or did he lie when he said it’s finished? Because you’ve got to answer that question. A person who thinks that you still get forgiveness is going to have to look in the face of Jesus and say, you are a liar when you cried out from the cross, it’s finished. That isn’t something that you argue with because the Baptists say this and the Presbyterians say that. I don’t care what Baptists say or Presbyterians. What does the Word say is what I’m interested in. And the Word said that God was in Christ reconciling the whole world unto Himself, not counting your sins against you. That is either true or false. If you think it’s false, you’re denying Jesus. You’re not playing Baptist or Presbyterian. You’re denying the Lord Jesus. And you’re looking straight in His face who hung on a cross and suffered and died and said, You didn’t do enough. You need to suffer a little more. You forgot one. Did He forget one? Did He forget any of your sins that you’ve ever committed? Well, I realize that He died for all my past sins, but what about my future sins? How many of your sins were in the future when Jesus died for them 2,000 years ago? I don’t think any of you are that old. There is no such thing as past and future. He just took them away. He took them away from the eyes of God so that he could give us what he called eternal life. Now, guys, how could someone say that eternal life is temporal life? You see, guys, we live in this day and age where everyone wants to be, well, everything’s relative. Isn’t that true? Nothing’s absolute. Guys, nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus absolutely took away your sins. He didn’t take away some of them. Or did he? Did he forget one? Was his memory bad that day? Or did he take them all away? Now, guys, which is it? He took them all. Now, if that is true, and why we’re so confused is no one spends any time to find out what he did. We’re just told what we ought to be doing. What good is it for you and me to know what we should be doing if we don’t know what he did? Now, if that is true, That Jesus Christ took away the sins of the entire world, which means he took away every sin that you and I have or do or will ever commit. Is that true or isn’t it? Get in our heads. Is it true or isn’t it? It is true. How do I know it’s true? The Bible says it’s true. He took away all of our sins. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not counting their sins against him. He not only died for our sins, but the sins of the whole world. If that’s true, then what is the only conclusion that you can make about you in regard to forgiveness of sins? What’s the only conclusion you can make from that? If he took away all your sins, what does that tell you about you? Only got a few voices. What’s it say? That we are what? Forgiven people. Does that in and of itself make you want to quit sinning? We all know that. Have any of you quit sinning? It’s going to take something more than knowing your forgiveness to deal with sin. He just cleared the deck for the divine action of now offering you his life. Jesus in you, your hope of glory. Now, if Jesus is alive living in me, is that a motivation enough? To live a life of righteousness. Because the righteous one lives in you. You see we’ve dealt only with sin. And so we come up with all this. The Jews have their day of atonement. Catholics have their confession booth. And we have our first John 1 nines. And we all have developed these little systems to what? Keep ourselves forgiven. Is that right or wrong? Right. And if I am keeping myself forgiven, that means I am doing something to cause God to react to me. We right or wrong? If I confess, then I’m the confessor and he now has got to respond to me. I’ve gone to the confession booth. Now he has got to respond to me. I went to the day of atonement. Now he, God, has got to respond to me. I want to ask you a question. Is God a responder or is he an initiator? If I can cause God to respond to me, I’m greater than God. I can cause God to do what I want him to do. I can cause him to respond to me anytime I want to. I just flash up my confession and he’s obligated to respond to me. Is that true? Is that true? No, it isn’t true. Is it taught? You better believe it. And we say, oh, well, it isn’t going to hurt anybody. It isn’t going to hurt anybody to keep asking God to forgive them. It makes you feel good. So, in other words, in order for you to feel good, you’re going to crucify Jesus on the cross again. Because if there was any further forgiveness to be executed on your behalf, what would Jesus have to do? He’d have to come die again. Is that what you want? Beat him half to death so that you’ll feel good? Well, how do you think it makes you feel to know that you’re already forgiven? I don’t know about you. That makes me feel plum good. But you see, that’s not just the issue. That was what prepared us for salvation. Get that into our heads. The cross prepared you for salvation. It is not in and of itself salvation. It prepared you for salvation. While we were yet enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His cross. What does that mean? What does it mean you are an enemy of God? It means you’re lost. Lost. When you were lost, you were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. That’s a past action done. Now, how much more, having been reconciled, shall you be saved by what? His life, His resurrected life. You’re not saved by the death of Christ. You’re saved by the life of Christ. Well, then why are we streaming people down aisles to get your sins forgiven? If I were to ask you right now, I want you to come forward and get your sins forgiven. What should you say to me? They’re already forgiven. Well, then, if you’re going to come forward, what are you going to come forward to get? Yeah, life. Come to Jesus. What did he say? Come unto my forgiveness, all ye who labor and heavy laden. Or did he say, come unto me? I’m the resurrection and the life, and whosoever believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in me will never die. Promise of Jesus. And so, guys… That’s truth. If you want to argue with that, you’re going to have to argue with truth. And yet people will say, you’re teaching people to have a license. So in other words, teaching people truth is giving them a license to sin? I mean, guys, again, is what I just said to you truth or is it not truth? Truth. Be honest. If you don’t think it’s true, hold up your hand. Is it true or not? It’s true. Then how is truth going to cause you to live immoral? To give you a license. So you see, you’ve got to be pretty perverted to believe that. That the grace of God is wonderful. That’s what happened in Corinthians. This young man was having relations with his father’s wife. And it says they were proud about it. They were proud. You can just hear them. Isn’t the grace of God wonderful? I can just go out and do anything I want to do and the grace of God covers it.
SPEAKER 01 :
Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
