In this episode of Classic Christianity Radio, Bob George delves into the profound mysteries of God’s plan as outlined in the book of Ephesians. With a focus on unity, Bob challenges the conventional understanding of church as a building, instead revealing how God sees the church as a body of people. He illustrates the incredible gift of salvation and how God’s ultimate intent is to bring together both Jew and Gentile into one new man under Christ. This vision challenges age-old divisions, urging believers to perceive their spiritual inheritance as children of God.
00:00:12 Introduction to Classic Christianity Radio
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 :
Let’s turn to the book of Ephesians. The book of Ephesians chapter 2. Guys, here again, we’re talking about Paul explaining this mystery or what’s called a musterion, which is a secret of God that was held in the heart of God until such time that he was ready to reveal it to you and me. We talked about these things over the last few weeks. And this mystery was that God was going to take both the Jew and the Gentile and to make them into one new man called the ecclesia or the church. The church, Amy and I were talking about that this morning. You hear people saying, and it just kind of turns my stomach, welcome to the house of God. Well, I got news for you. This ain’t the house of God. And if you had seen it before we bought it, you’d been glad this wasn’t the house of God. You are the house of God, not this building. But you see, that gives us the idea that I’m going to go visit grandma on Sunday. I’m going to go to grandma’s house and we’re going to spend an hour. And then we’re going to leave. We’re going to leave grandma at home and we’re going to leave grandma’s house at home. That’s how we perceive church. This is the house of God. I’m going to come visit it on Sunday. Maybe see a few people there. But I’m going to visit the house. Folks, nothing could be further from the truth. It makes me sick of my stomach when I hear this stuff. Because it’s wrong. This is not a house of God. This is a building. This is a building that can be destroyed. What happens when a house of God burns down? Gets destroyed. This is a place where God’s body comes, where God’s body gathers. But this is the building where it gathers. Thank God it’s paid for. That’s wonderful because it enables us to continue a ministry to people. But my friends, the ministry to people isn’t saying this is the place, guys. Come to the church. I heard testimonies today of this, to come to church. The church, the church, that’s what the church did, the church did. I got so tired of going out and visiting and going to lunch with people and hearing about the church and the church and the church, the church, the church, meaning the building. And I feel, what happened to people? God didn’t come to save churches. He came to make people born again. And we lose that when we put our emphasis in a building or in an organization. God didn’t come to save organizations. He didn’t come to save America. He came to save people. And we put the emphasis away from people and on organizations, and we lose the whole dynamic of what God’s about. And so Paul is trying to get our minds straight in regard to these truths. And so he says, starting in verse chapter two, verse 11, therefore, remember, he’s wanting us to remember, especially right now is addressing the Gentile world. Now, guys, before we go on, I want to repeat again from God’s category. He divides humanity up in three divisions. Not all the divisions we divide people up in. He could care less what color you are. He could care less how old you are. Thank goodness. He could care less about all those things. He just divides you up by Gentile, Jew, and Ecclesia. Ecclesia meaning church. That doesn’t mean a building. It means people. People who are what? Born again. Jews… Gentiles and born again Jews and Gentiles. The Jew and Gentile is our natural heritage. This is what we got from mom and dad. I will always be a Gentile. You cannot make me into a Jew and a Jew will always be a Jew. You can’t make them into a Gentile. That is their natural heritage. It can be a Jew born in Russia and you’re called a Russian Jew. You can be a Jew born in America and you’re an American Jew. You can be a Jew born in Japan, a Japanese Jew. You can be a Gentile born in Japan, a Gentile person, a Japanese Gentile, a German Gentile, a French Gentile. But you’re a Gentile. And I will always be naturally a Gentile. God says, I got a better birth for you than that. That’s what you got from mommy and daddy. I got a better birth for you. It’s called a new birth. It’s a birth that comes not from human passion and plan, but a birth that comes from God. You can’t create it, sir. You cannot earn it, ma’am. This is a gift of God that comes from God as a result of grace. And when you come to Christ and you understand the truth of the gospel, and you understand this truth that I can’t, I can’t earn salvation, I can’t buy salvation. People tried. It’s recorded in the book of Acts. People tried to buy it. People tried to do anything with it. It’s a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no man can ever boast. So salvation comes when we put our faith in Jesus. Now, guys, there’s a difference between believing and putting faith in. I can believe that that chair will hold me, and I can believe that. And I can walk over here and say, that chair will hold me. And you say, no, it won’t. And you say, yes, it will. And I say, no, it’ll hold me. Are you sure? Absolutely sure. And I walk away. What have I done? Well, I’ve said, it’ll hold me, but have I put faith in it? Nope. I pull this sucker out, and I hope it stands, and I sit in it. Now what have I done? I have put my faith in what I said I believe. Now, there are many people who are believers, but they have never put their faith in what they say they believe. In order to come to God, you must believe, first of all, that he is. But then you also have to believe that he’s a rewarder of those things, the ones who seek him. So faith is an absolute ingredient of salvation, not just a belief system, but faith. I don’t know about you, but I believed in Jesus about all my life. You’ll hear people who say, oh, I’ve been a Christian all my life. No, you haven’t. No, you haven’t. Nobody’s been a Christian all their life. There’s come a point in time when you put your faith in your belief system. You didn’t come out of the mother’s womb saying praise Jesus. You’re not born spiritually alive. You’re born spiritually dead. And if you’re dead to God, you need life. And so there had to come a time in your life when you became cognizant of your lost condition, and you became cognizant of the fact that Jesus came to correct that lost condition through his resurrected life, and that you, by faith, put your faith in what he accomplished for you at the cross, taking away eternally the cause of spiritual death, which is sin, and to then offering you life resurrected. that resurrected life that jesus had is now passed on to you and me so that we’re born again of the spirit i came that you might have life why do we need life because we’re dead i’m the way and the truth and the life why do we need life because we’re dead he who has the son has life he who does not have the son of god does not have life if you don’t have life what are you dead Don’t have to be a genius to figure this out. But the whole issue of salvation is not getting your sins forgiven. The issue of salvation is receiving the consequence of sin, which is life over death. But in order to get that life, he had to eternally take away the cause of death. And what caused spiritual death? Sin. And the reason that you and I have eternal life, my friends, is because of the eternal consequence of the cross. where there he who knew no sin became sin for me, so that I could become what? The righteousness of God in him. Folks, this message doesn’t have anything to do with a building. It doesn’t have anything to do with a building. It doesn’t have anything to do with lights and walls and carpet and tables. It has to do with a person who has seen his condition of lostness and come to Christ for salvation. Now, so he said, remember… Remember the formerly you who are Gentiles by birth. Now that’s your birth, Gentiles by birth, natural birth. You were called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision. That done in the body by the hands of men. The Jews, part of their law had to be circumcised. And that was one way that you could spot a Jew, if you wanted to look that deeply. Now what happened with the women, I don’t know. but I do know the men. And so they called Gentiles the uncircumcised, and they called themselves the circumcised. Remember that at that time, you as a Gentile, we’d be talking to us, most of us in this room today, were separate from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants, had no idea about the covenants, had no idea about the old covenant, had no idea about the new covenant, didn’t even know anything about any of them. The covenants of the promise, you were without hope. You were without God in this world. So he’s saying you were lost. But now, now there’s the contrast before and after. But now, Jesus Christ, who you once were far away from, you have been brought near through what, guys? The blood of Christ. You have been brought near to God by the fact that your sins have been taken away, enabling you to walk boldly into the throne of grace, calling him what? Daddy, father, the most intimate of terms. It talks about that in regard to the curtain in the temple. And only once a year, the high priest could go into the holy of holies on his own. When he went in, they had a rope around his ankle so that in the event that he had a heart attack or died, that they could pull him out because no one else could go in. Now, that Holy of Holies was a place only for the high priest. When Jesus died, what happened to that curtain? It was torn. Was it torn from the bottom up? or was it torn from the top down? Now, guys, that was a high curtain, so there isn’t any of us tall enough to reach it. God had to do the tearing, and he ripped that curtain from top to bottom, enabling now all people to enter into the Holy of Holies, the place that is only available to the high priest, and call him what? Daddy, Father. Abba, Father. If you go over to Israel today, you’ll hear the little kids saying to their father, Daddy, Abba, Abba, Daddy, Daddy. The most intimate of terms. No longer this barrier, but to be able to go boldly, boldly into the throne of grace and calling him Daddy, Father. Isn’t that something?
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
Do you think, and you look back on the presidents of the United States, that’s a pretty powerful office, getting weaker by the day, but it’s powerful. Do you think that Obama’s kids are going to have to go through a security guard to get in to the president’s office? Think you’re going to have to say now before you come in, you little squirts, do you have any unconfessed sin in your life? Have you done everything necessary to come in here? You say, well, I thought as your child, I thought that would be what I did necessary. I was born your child. No, no, not your behavior. You think so? No, no. No, I’ll guarantee you they, just like John Kennedy’s young John John and kids, just walk boldly into the throne of grace, into the Oval Office, the most powerful office in the world, and say, Daddy, Daddy. Why? Because they’re his kids. And you say, well, you dumb kid, don’t you know this? The president of the United States of America? Yeah, I know, but he’s my dad. Because he’s my daddy, I have access to the throne room. Now, folks, that is precisely what God did for you and me. He took the curtain and ripped it open and said, now, as a child, walk in. My pride is not in the fact that I was born a Gentile. And I hope your pride isn’t the fact that you were born a Jew. That’s putting the importance down here. God said, I got something better for you than a natural inheritance. It’s called a spiritual inheritance. I’m going to call you a child of God. You see, don’t we take that away when this is the house of God? You see? No, no, it’s children. You’re a child of the living God. that God has called you my child and we can call him my daddy. It sounds almost ludicrous, isn’t it, to think that the God of this universe that made this universe and the vastness of it, which our heads can’t even comprehend, is big enough to make the universe and then small enough to live in our hearts and say, call me daddy. That’s really unbelievable, isn’t it? But that’s what he said. And so he says that we were without hope, but now in Jesus Christ, you were once far away, have been bought near through the blood of Christ. For, listen to this guy, look at this, for he himself is our peace. Now we can have the Peace Corps and we can have peace signings and we can go on and on and on. You can go negotiate peace. Or you can not negotiate. But I want to tell you something. There is never going to be peace in this world until the Prince of Peace comes back and every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is our peace. Peace is not something that happens. Peace is a person. Peace is Christ. There is no peace in the world until you have peace in your heart. And believe me, there is no such thing as peace in your heart until you have the Prince of Peace in your heart. So he’s our peace. Now look what he did. He has made the two, who are the two guys? The Jew and Gentile into one, into one new man. We should be glorying in that. Not that I was born a Jew or I was born a Gentile. Who cares? You’ve got people on there arguing whether the Jews are this or whether they’re that. Who cares? You’re lost. You’ve got lost Jews and you’ve got lost Gentiles. And you’ve got saved Jews and you’ve got saved Gentiles. Who cares about the history of the Jew or the history of the Gentile? People want to get involved in all that. Just get all prideful. Who cares? The issue is you’re here. And the issue is you’re lost. Lost. And the issue is if you’re lost, do you want to remain lost or do you want to be saved? There’s the issue. I don’t care what your background is. We make big deals out of that. Sit there and study our backgrounds. Well, I don’t know. I don’t want to go very far back into my background. And aren’t you glad that people don’t know enough about you to really tell what you’re like? I’ll not go any further into that. He is our peace. He made the two, Gentile and Jew, one. One person that we call what? To as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become what, guys? A child of God. Not a Jewish Christian. Not a Gentile Christian. A Christian. A child of God. Not a Jewish child. Not a Gentile child. A child of God. A born again from above child of God. Made the two one. And he has destroyed, guys, the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. Now, guys, what is hostility? When you’re hostile towards somebody, it’s an enemy, isn’t it? And you have hostility toward one another. There’s a fear of one another. There’s hostile feelings toward one another. You’re not together. When you have a hostile relationship with your mate, you ain’t getting along too well. And so it says here that he destroyed this barrier. So there was a barrier between Jew and Gentile. And it was a dividing wall of hostility. In other words, it divided Jews. what God wanted to do, and that was to bring the Jew and Gentile under one head. And instead of that, enmity was there between the Jew and the Gentile. Well, what caused the enmity between the Jewish world and the Gentile world that God had to destroy? It was a law. And it goes ahead to say by abolishing. Now, guys, when you abolish something, the dictionary says it’s to destroy it and to do away with it and to make it void. Are we clear on that issue? He abolished, he destroyed, he did away with, he voided out the law. Is that what it says? Do you believe it? Why are we still teaching the law? Why are we still commingling law and grace in our so-called Christian teaching? The Bible told us as ministers that we’re to be ministers of the new covenant. Not of the old that kills. Why? The old covenant kills. The law kills. The only thing the law can do for you is kill you. Law can’t give you life. Law can’t make you righteous. Law can’t make you holy. All the law can do is kill you. That’s what it’s there to show you. It’s there to show you you’re a sinner and that you’re dead. That’s what it’s for. Has the law… In all of your lives, done its work already? If you’re saved, it has. What did it do? Showed you you’re a sinner. Showed you there’s a consequence to sin called death. And you’re dead. And God says, yeah, but there’s a solution to that. And that’s my resurrected life. And we have come to him for what he came to give us, the solution to the wages of sin, which is death, which is life. You’re received by faith that life and are born again. Free from now what we were in bondage. So he abolished, did away with in his flesh, the law with its commandments and regulations. Now, guys, is there anything wrong with the commandments and regulations? Are they holy? Paul said they were. Said nothing wrong with the law. It’s good and holy. But what’s the problem? When it flows through me, what does it do? It kills me. Nothing wrong with the law. I’m the problem. I’m the problem. God forbid, we’re the problem. And so he said that abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. Nothing wrong with them, but as long as they’re there, it kills you. So what was his purpose in all this? Well, it says his purpose was to create in himself one new man. Out of what? The two. One new man, new man out of a Jew and a Gentile. That’s to take the Jew and make him a child of God and to take the Gentile and make him a child of God. Now, does it sound like that we’re supposed to go around now bragging on our natural heritage? I don’t see it. I don’t see it. He said, I came to make one new man. A new man. Till your glory will be in the new man. That whether I was born a Jew or whether I was born a Gentile. That I am a child of the living God. And we are brothers and sisters. Whether you’re a Jew or Gentile, irrelevant. We’re brothers and sisters. Why? We got a new heritage. Any man is in Christ, he’s what? A new creation. Old things have passed away. And behold, all things have become new. Got a new relationship with my Gentile brothers. I got a new relationship with my Jewish brothers. We’re brothers in Christ. Before, we were separated, alienated, hostile toward one another. Because of this law. To the Jewish people back in those days and to a degree in some segments, although it’s been watered down. There wasn’t the different kinds of Jews back in those days, there was only the. The Jew that performed everything, the people that wore clothes a certain way, people that had all these Jewish regulations, Orthodox Jew. Orthodoxy was the Jewish faith. That separated them terrifically from the Gentile world, just as it does today. You go over in Israel today, and to the conservative Jew, they don’t like the Orthodox. They think they’re really out to lunch. And you know what? They are. They still walk around and they’ll still shuttle and walk like this so they won’t lust. If they’re married, there’s a sheet between them. I won’t go into the detail of that. Not allowed to touch. There’s a Shabbat elevator that you can’t push the button to get up to your floor. You can’t have milk and meat at the same time. All of these regulations, what does it say? With its commandments and regulations, that was against us. So all of those are still in effect and it separates them from the whole world and the whole world from them.
SPEAKER 01 :
Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
This episode challenges listeners to examine their beliefs about forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. Bob George questions prevalent misconceptions,…
