In this episode of Classic Christianity Radio, Bob George delves into the depths of scripture, exploring how Jesus Christ fulfilled the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. Bob challenges traditional views by emphasizing that the Old Testament served as a symbolic foundation for the ultimate reality manifested in Christ’s resurrection. We are urged to live not by the old proclamations but through the fulfilled promise of Christ’s sacrifice and grace.
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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Turn with me for just a moment back to the last chapter of Luke. You remember that in this passage, and it’s not up here yet, so you’re going to have to look at your Bibles, and that’s terrible. It says in the 45th verse that he opened their minds… He said, first of all, he said, this is what I told you while I was with you. So this resurrection was not something that just was new. He had told them that he, and it was recorded in the Scripture that he was going to die and be raised from the dead. So he said that this is what I told you when I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. Now, guys… In the prophets, the law of Moses is the first five books of the Bible. It’s called the law, the Pentateuch. You have the prophets and you have the Psalms. That’s how the Old Testament was divided. The Psalms, the prophets, and the law. And he says to them a very interesting thing here that we, for some reason, don’t seem to get a hold of. This is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything. Now when somebody says everything, what does it mean? Does it mean some things or everything? Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. Now I want to ask you a question. was everything fulfilled that was written about him now when something has been proclaimed and it’s been fulfilled what do you live by now the proclamation of the fulfillment or the fulfillment it’s like sitting around and me saying well i’ve got some pictures of amy and so instead of going and talking to her i’m just going to sit and look at her pictures You say, well, don’t you want to talk to her? No, I want to look at her pictures. Well, you see, she’s reality. The pictures were pictures. The Old Testament is a picture. It was prophesied about Jesus and Jesus came and he fulfilled the scriptures. Now you don’t live any longer by the Psalms or for the prophets or the law. It’s been fulfilled, guys. Can we get that into our thick skulls? It has been fulfilled. It was proclaiming what Jesus was going to do. And when he came back from the dead, what did he do with the men on the road to Emmaus? We studied that last week. Man, he gave them a Bible lesson about how he fit into everything in the Psalms and the prophets and the law. It’s been done. The proclamation that was being made about the coming Messiah has been made. It’s been done. It’s finished. It’s finished. Now do we live now, not by the proclamation, not sitting around looking at the picture, but we live in the reality of a human being. I enjoy the presence of Amy. I don’t have to sit around and look at her pictures. I enjoy her. I talk to her. She talks too much to me. Oh, no, I’m sorry. I kid her a lot. No, no more. No, you’re right, brother. I see you’ve been there. Okay. So it’s reality now. And we have to grab a hold of these things, guys. It’s now reality. So he goes ahead, he said, then he opened up their minds. Our minds need to be opened up. We need to be willing to be opened up and forget all of this tradition stuff and all the things that we’ve learned that is tradition. It’s not in the Bible. It’s tradition. And to have an appreciation for what truth is. And guys, tradition is not truth. Tradition is tradition. This is truth. If it says it here, it’s truth. If it’s something added to it, it’s not truth. Period. And what does it say truth will do? Set you free. Free from what? All the stupid air that is out there in religious works today. And so he opened their minds. And our minds need to be open. We need to have open minds, not closed minds. What’s a closed mind? I don’t care what the Bible says. My church says this. That’s a closed mind. I don’t care that there ain’t anything in there about this. This is our tradition. That’s a closed mind. Well, I don’t care that the church I go to preaches a little law and a little grace. You know, it doesn’t hurt anybody. That’s a closed mind. It’s also a pretty dumb mind because here’s what the Scripture says about that, guys, and that’s why I’m as insistent as I am in what I teach. A little leaven spoils the whole loaf. How much did it say leaven spoils it? Just a little leaven. You put a speck of leaven, it spoils the whole thing. You put a speck of the law into grace and you have ruined grace. Grace is either total or it’s not. Paul said, my grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient for me. He didn’t say my grace and a little law sprinkled in is sufficient. He said his grace is totally sufficient for me. Is it for you? Or do you still want your tradition? You see, we have to make up our mind on these things, guys, because I tell you, it will affect every aspect of the way you live. You know, we try to separate church from government and everything else. Guys, you cannot separate God from one day of your life, the way you live it. But what your concept of God is, is going to ultimately determine every single thing that you do in your life. And that’s why we have the ability to know him. And that’s why if we have the ability to know him, he wants us to know him. And so to these men, he said, this is what was written, that Christ must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. And repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning in Jerusalem. Now again, repentance. What are we told we’re to repent of? Repent of all your sins. Well, the first time I heard that, that was the first evangelistic message, quite frankly, that I remember ever hearing in my life. I was in my early, early 30s, maybe late 20s at that time. And the only thing I’d ever heard is, repent of your sins. And when I heard that, it was out of Billy Graham crusade. And I don’t know whether he said that or not. I’m telling you, I just know what I heard. But you know, what you say and what’s heard are two different things. So I’m not saying. But what I heard was, come forward and repent of your sins and accept Jesus. And I sat there and said, I’ve got about 30 some years of broken New Year’s resolution to prove that I can repent of my sins. And I’m not going to go down forward and be a phony and say, Lord, I’ll never do this again. When I know the next day I’ll be back in the bars with my buddies. And so I sat in my seat. Felt bad about it for years. That why couldn’t I go forward? And I knew the reason because I wasn’t going to be a phony. What I didn’t understand is that’s not what you repent of. You see, there’s only one thing you repent of when you come to Christ. It’s your unbelief in Jesus. Jesus said the world’s sin, singular, was what? Unbelief in me. Your sins, I don’t care what you’ve done. Or I don’t care what you will do. Your sins have been placed on the cross of Christ Jesus, were they not? And what did he do there? Cover some of them? Or take them away? And how many did he take away? All of them. Now, I didn’t deserve that, did you? And I sure didn’t earn it. It’s what God had to do for me. You see, guys, the problem wasn’t God’s law. The problem is us. And that’s precisely why Paul said, There’s nothing wrong with the law. It’s good and holy, but it flows through me. It kills me. why I can’t do it. God’s standards, folks, is 100%. I mean, if this is true righteousness, how close do you have to get to that to be perfectly righteous? He said, it doesn’t matter how close you get to it, you ain’t going to get there. And so he had to do something for me to enable me to go into the presence of a holy God, because I’m not holy. Well, you don’t have to be that emphatic about what I just… But you see, that’s the truth, isn’t it? I had no hope at all of ever entering into the presence of God in my own holiness or my own righteousness. I just don’t have any. You might have maybe some for a couple of minutes a day. But you see, the problem is, is we look at our righteousness and our holiness up next to one another. And then because we can’t do what God told us to do, which is love one another, because that’s all he said. The only thing that counts to me is faith expressed in itself through love. That’s all it counts to me. And you say, well, that’s nice, Lord, but I can’t do that. So I’m going to substitute. I go to church and I’m going to substitute. I’ve been baptized. And I’ve been through confirmation. And I’ve been over here. And I’ve been here. And I’ve been here. I’m sorry. That isn’t going to get it. Because salvation isn’t predicated on what you and I do. It’s predicated solely on what he did. And why did he do what he did? Because I can’t do it. And if he didn’t do it for me, I would never go into the presence of God. Do you realize that, guys? We would die in our sins in the uncircumcision of our sinful nature. Never again. So the life would be over. I mean, when we die, that’s it. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die. If we don’t understand that God looked down on you and me in compassion and In love, in mercy, and in kindness said, I’m going to do something to save my creation. Satan thought he had him. And so Jesus is saying that we are, that this forgiveness, this message is to be preached to all nations beginning in Jerusalem. And he said, you are witnesses of these things to the apostles. You saw these things. And I’m going to send you what my father has promised. Now what had the Father promised to us? The Holy Spirit. And he said, but stay in the city until you’ve been clothed from power on high. So now, we can put our faith in Jesus, or believe in Jesus, but until we have received power from on high, We still do not have what it takes to live the Christian life. How many of you have tried to live the Christian life? How many of you failed? Yeah. More hands than went up. That’s pretty good. More failures than even tried. That’s good.
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You can’t live the Christian life. It’s impossible to live the Christian life. It’s impossible to do. You can’t, but He did. And so the reason that we can hold up our hands is because we were trying to live the Christian life in the energy of our flesh because I’m a believer. Well, you see, the apostles were believers at this time, but were they born again at this time? Because in order to be born again, you had to be born again of what? The Spirit. And that didn’t happen to them until the day of Pentecost. And so even though they had traveled with Jesus, heard all of the teachings of Jesus, saw the kindness of Jesus, saw the goodness of Jesus, they didn’t have what it took to be like Jesus. In other words, to think like him, to have our minds renewed like him. You didn’t have the power to do so. And so he says that he led them out to a vicinity in Bethany, lifted up his hands and blessed them. And he said while he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple praising God. Waiting on what? The Holy Spirit of God. Now folks, many times we have denominations And I’m not being critical of denominations. I’m just saying we have denominations that are scared to death to talk about the Holy Spirit. Sounds too mystical. There are some people that just don’t believe in that. There are teachers on radio, a good friend of mine, that doesn’t believe you’re indwelled by the Spirit. That what it means to have the Spirit lives in you is like your wife going on a trip and say, I’ll be with you in spirit. And yet, he’s supposed to be an authority on the Bible. So the issue is that we have to realize that according to the Scripture, there was no power in the Old Testament. There was no power for us in the Gospels. And the new covenant did not go into effect until what? The end of the Gospels. Jesus didn’t teach under the new covenant. It wasn’t there yet. A covenant is a will. Are we together? A will. And when does your will go into effect? The day you die. So obviously the Gospels aren’t in New Testament because he hadn’t died yet. So in essence, when did the New Testament begin? In Matthew or the book of Acts? In the book of Acts. How come? He didn’t like it? No, it wasn’t there yet. He proclaimed the new and Paul explained the new, but it didn’t go into effect until the day that the Spirit of God came to indwell us, giving us the ability to understand the meaning of what the new covenant’s all about. So it gives you the power to do so. Can you see how this whole plan has unfolded and is unfolding? Okay, now… We want to pick up now in the first chapter of the book of Acts. This is written by the same author as Luke, and that’s Dr. Luke, was a follower of Christ Jesus who wrote the gospel of Luke and now wrote the book of Acts, a historical account of what took place in the early Christian church. He starts off by saying, in my former book, Theophilus… So he basically was directing this to a man. I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until… Now when you have an until, you have a before and after. In my old book, I wrote about what he did and taught until the day he was taken up into heaven. We just read about that. After giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen… And after his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proof that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days. After his resurrection, he appeared to his apostles at various times over a 40-day period and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion while he was eating with them, who’s the them? The apostles. He gave them, who’s the them? The apostles. It isn’t a whole house full of people. It’s the men that he was entrusting to get the gospel out. Do you realize that when Jesus left this earth that he was saying of 12 guys… That one of them had denied him three times. The other didn’t believe in him. I mean, you talk about a mess of scoundrels. That’s who he left this thing with and said, I’m going to use you guys to go out and to spread this message all over the world. And those 12 started this whole movement that you and I are in today of coming to Christ by faith. And so he appeared to them over a period of time, and on one occasion when he was eating with them, he gave them this command, Don’t leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but… Now, when you have a but, what’s it mean? I’m not talking about physical. I’m talking about when you have a contrasting of buts. what are you dealing with here John baptized with water but what does that mean a contrast right there’s a before and after so John baptized with water but something new is going to take place here but in a few days you’ll be baptized with the Holy Spirit so he’s saying a contrast John was dunking people in water In a few days, the Spirit of God is going to baptize you into the body of Christ. Now, what is baptism? Outside baptism, it was the dyeing of cloth. They use that term. You put a cloth in red dye, it comes out a red cloth. It’s submerging yourself into something. And so John the Baptist’s baptism was a cleansing baptism. There’s nothing new about baptism in Jewish circles. They had ceremonial baths all over the place. And that was just an outward ceremonial washing or cleansing that took place. And John the Baptist was the first one, obviously, to say, come and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. Not a bull or a goat, but come and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. He’s the one that’s going to take away your sins. and be identified with jesus but he said the one coming after him christ jesus the one is pointing to is gonna baptize you with the spirit gonna place you into a permanent identification with christ jesus and folks quite frankly when you and i come to christ you come to Christ, the Spirit of God comes to live within you at that particular moment in time, doesn’t it? And that’s why the Bible says if the Spirit of God doesn’t live in you, you don’t belong to Him. Again, you’re not saved by going to church. You’re not saved by being a good person. You’re saved when you recognize that you’re dead and you need life and you come to Jesus for life. That’s when you’re born again. So the Spirit now comes to live in you and then the Spirit places or baptizes you into the body of Christ. So, Ellen, you have the Spirit of God living in you and you have the Spirit of God living in you and you have the Spirit of God living in you and everybody in here that’s born again has the Spirit of God living in them. So who do we belong to? To Him and to who else? Each other. We’re all called brothers and sisters. And probably you get along better than you do with your real brothers and sisters sometimes. But you’re brothers and sisters. Why? You’ve been placed into his body. And it says, although the body, just like your physical body, has many parts… It’s only one body. My body here has many parts. It has arms and legs and fingers and toes and all kinds of things just like yours. And yet all those parts have different functions, don’t they? And what is the purpose of its function? To serve the body. To serve the body. And so that’s what it means to be baptized by the Spirit is the Spirit is going to come permanently to indwell you And then he’s going to place you into the body of Christ and you’re going to be the body of Christ. Now, didn’t that what Jesus said? It’s good for you that I go away for what I do. I’m going to send my spirit to live in you and you’re going to be my body. Two thousand years ago, if you were to look for the body of Christ, you’d had to go back to Jerusalem and find Jesus of Nazareth. There you’d have found his body and that’s the body of Christ. But he said, I’m going away. How’s this message going to get spread if you go away? Well, very simply, I’m going to send my spirit to come and live in you and you and you and you and you, and you’re going to be my body. So all over the world, they go to Korea, you go to Africa, you can go to Jerusalem, you can go here, you can go any place in the world and find born-again people. And when you do, you find a communication of spirit with each other. Brothers and sisters, a love for one another. Doesn’t make a difference what color you are, what creed you are. There’s a love for one another. That is supernatural. And so that’s what God said he would do for us. And he said, don’t leave Jerusalem because that had not happened ever in the world before that day of Pentecost, guys. In the Old Testament… the Spirit of God would come upon people as it did for divine service. You remember that in the Old Testament. And then it would leave. And that’s why in, I think, the 22nd Psalm, David prays, Lord, don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Well, would you pray that today, knowing what you know? What did God tell us about the Holy Spirit that lives in you? It’s with you forever. Never, ever leave you, forsake you. So if I was praying as a born-again Christian today, please don’t take your spirit from me. I’d just say, well, you haven’t exercised faith yet because if you have the spirit living in you, he’s there forever, whether you like it or not. Say, well, can’t you walk away from God? No, he walks with you. Walks with you. Well, I want to draw closer to God. How are you going to draw closer to God when he lives in you? So all that talk is nonsense. So the whole issue is, has that event taken place in your life? There’s the whole issue. Not how good I’ve been or how bad I’ve been, but did you recognize how dead you’ve been? And recognize that as a dead person I need life and there’s only one source of life available to me and that’s Christ Jesus.
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Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
