In this enlightening episode, Bob George unpacks the transformative power of grace over the binding constraints of the law. Explore how the grace of God, rather than the law, draws us closer to Him, guiding us to live a life of righteousness motivated by love and gratitude. Through personal anecdotes and biblical references, Bob appeals to listeners to embrace the freedom that comes from faith in Christ, leaving behind the fear-driven motivations of legalism. Dive deep into the essence of Christian faith as we dissect the key difference between living under the law and living in the light of
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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How are you going to keep all you guys together if we don’t have the law? Well, have you read? It says the grace of God teaches you to say no to unrighteousness. We try to use the law of God that kills you. It says in the Bible that the power of sin is where? In the law. And we try to use the power of sin to make you holy. I’m going to use the power of sin to shape you up. It says, no, it’s the grace of God. It’s the goodness of God. It’s the mercy of God. It’s the love of God that draws a man’s heart to the heart of God and makes him want to be like him. Like him. To say, God, if you love me so much to do what you’ve done for me, how do I get to know what makes you tick? How do I get to know why you think the way you think? Because do you and I think that way? If I was God, there wouldn’t be any Muslims. There wouldn’t be anybody. I’d blow them off the face of the earth, wouldn’t you? Maybe some of you are kinder than I am. But I wouldn’t put up with them. But God? Would you put up for thousands of years with the Jews rumbling in the desert and grumbling in the desert and rebelling? Well, you wouldn’t put up with them five minutes. Do we put up with our mates like that? Just let your mate do something wrong, brother. I’m out of here. That shows us what we’re like. You can disagree with me for a while, but you better not disagree. There’s going to come a point in a very short period of time when that line is crossed, brother, and I’m gone. Is that right or wrong? That’s our patient level, not God’s. So it says that before faith in Jesus came, you were a prisoner. And you were a prisoner until this faith is revealed. But now the faith has been revealed. I am free from what I was a prisoner of. I’ve been let out of jail. So it concludes, so the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ. How come? So that we might be justified or let out of jail by what? Faith. Are we together? What’s the law powerless to do? Well, the law can’t make you righteous. And, folks, I want us to think this is not just a Jewish situation. Like I say, you go over to Israel, and incidentally, I’m kind of glad we got out of there when we did. I mean, we were sitting there looking at sites that are getting blown up today. That’s a horrible situation going on over there. But I want to ask you a question. How would you like it if Mexico and the leaders of Mexico openly declared that my goal for Mexico is to wipe the United States off of the face of the earth? And Canada… All of the governments of Canada said, my goal is to wipe the United States off of the face of the earth. How do you think we’d respond if someone bombed us? Folks, there’s that little country with all the land around it, just this little tiny country carved out called Israel. A little tiny country called Israel. And around it, surrounded, Lebanon in the north, all the way around it, except the ocean. The ocean is the only thing that doesn’t want to destroy them, or the sea. Saying, my goal is to wipe them off of the face of the earth. Now you think you’re going to sit there and say, we need to negotiate. We need to be sweet. I’ve got news for you. You’re talking to thugs now. who want to wipe them and you as a Christian off of the face of the earth. This isn’t militants. That’s the religion. That’s not militants. That’s the religion. It’s a religion that was based upon believe or die. If you don’t believe that, just go back and read. Believe or die. That’s how the Muslim religion got started and was sustained. Believe or your throat is slit. You’re not talking about friendly things. You’re not talking about religion. You’re talking about a desire to wipe some people off of the face of the earth and to gain world domination where everyone becomes a Muslim. You ladies here get rid of your clothes and you put robes on and you cover your faces and you live like a secondary citizen. That’s what’s going to happen if that was ever accomplished. So those are laws. That’s what the law ultimately does. You’ve got law, and then you’ve got to get more law. That’s law over here. We’ve got a law here as well. You’ve got it in churches. It’s not just Jewish. It’s in our churches. We’ve grabbed a hold of the law of Moses that God says to die to. And we’ve said, uh-uh, you don’t understand, God. I’m going to bring it in to my so-called Christian religion, and we’re going to commingle it. We’re going to talk about grace, but the law is the real thing. That’s the real issue. Grace is sprinkled. Grace is salt. I’m going to sprinkle a little grace on my law doing. And that’s what we have today. Now, Paul says that I don’t set aside the grace of God. If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. What he is saying there is if you’re trying to use the law for your righteousness, Christ should have stayed at home. Now, guys, I didn’t say this. This is God’s word. So if anyone’s going to rebel against it, don’t rebel against me. I’m just a messenger boy. I didn’t create this message. We’ve just been called to proclaim it. And Paul said that if this law that you’re so fond of could be gained, if righteousness, your righteousness could be gained through your obedience to the law, Christ died for nothing. Ignore the fact that he even existed because he has no meaning at all to you in your life. None at all. Just forget him. if you think that your obedience to the law is going to make you righteous. The law can’t justify you. Know that a man is not justified by observing the law. Now, here it’s talking about observing the law. Now, guys, your mind would say, well, come on, doesn’t God want us to observe these laws? Yeah, yeah, if you’re lost. He wants you to see that these laws are what are necessary to keep chaos from occurring in you and in your country and in your nation, wherever you are. But in so doing, to realize you can’t do it. So guys, there’s two ways, there’s two forms of motivation that God has for man. One is the law, motivating people through the law. And in order to do that, you have to motivate them through what? Fear. Through fear. That’s all you can do. Under the law, you must motivate people through fear. Under grace, you motivate people through what? Love. Perfect love casts away what? All what? Fear. So you’ve got two forms of motivation. Fear and love. Now what God is saying to us is until grace has come and the love of God has come to invade your heart, you are in bondage to this law that creates fear. That’s your form of motivation. But when faith has come in Jesus, now you leave that fear behind because it says perfect love casts away all fear. So God isn’t real fond of fear. God doesn’t use fear as a motivation. He uses love as a motivation. But you see, if I don’t know how to motivate by love, I’m going to go back to motivating by fear. If I don’t know how to get people to give out of their hearts, I’m going to go back to the law and scare the daylights out of them. And if you don’t tithe, God’s going to zap you. Right or wrong? Those are the only two options that you have on motivation, love and fear. And so he’s saying to us, a man is not justified by observing the law. It ain’t going to justify you. But by faith in Christ Jesus. So he says because of that fact. You see, and when you’re saying because of this fact, you have to know that that is a fact. In other words, Paul has come to a fact of recognizing the truth that these things are true. That you’re no longer under the law as a Christian. As a lost person, you’re still under it. It hadn’t done its work yet. But as a saved person, you’re in Christ. Now you leave the law behind. It’s done its work in order to walk freely in the newness of life, which is in Christ Jesus. Right or wrong? And now you leave the motivation of fear behind, and you now are motivated by love. Under the law, if I don’t do it, God’s going to zap me, so I better do it. Don’t want to do it. Can’t stand doing it. I’m going to do it because I don’t want to get zapped. Under grace, Jesus loved me. Jesus gave himself for me. God loved me. God forgave me. Therefore, forgive one another. It’s your motivation. Totally different. So we’ve put our faith now. Now that we understand those truths, we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus. How come? So that we too may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law. Why? Because by observing the law, no one will be justified. Now, how many people do you think are included in that no one? What do you suppose no one means? It means no one. Well, not even good people? No one. What about Mahatma Gandhi? No one. No one. What about these people who walk around, they’re just looking so peaceful? And they got robes on, so they must be peaceful. And they smile, and they’re so quiet and so peaceful. They probably took a pretty good drug this morning. No one. No one is justified before God by the law. No one. No one. Jew, Gentile, slave or free, no one will ever be or ever has been justified before God through the law. If you can declare yourself as righteous in the sight of God, it’s because you have put your faith in the righteous one. Apart from that, you have no righteousness. We can sit around and act righteous and talk righteous and go to churches where people are righteous. But apart from being imputed the righteousness from God, you are never going to experience what righteousness is. Right or wrong? The righteous, if you’ve been declared righteous by Jesus… How do you live now? You live by what? By faith in who? Jesus, the one who loved you and gave himself for you. Now, if I’m going to live by faith in Jesus, then I want us to turn for just a moment as we close the fifth chapter of Ephesians. beginning in the eighth verse, Ephesians 5, 8. Don’t live by the law, that’s motivated by fear. You live by faith in Jesus Christ, that’s called grace, motivated by love. Verse 8, once you’re in darkness… That is the condition of every lost person who is called a prisoner. You’re in darkness. No one who is lost is in the light, guys. And if you’re not in the light, you can’t see very well. And that’s why we have what you have going on in the world today. People who are in darkness who don’t see very clearly.
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Once you were in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. If you’re a child of God, and He is your head, and you have become a part of his body, we are called a light in the Lord. Well, what do you do? Live as children of light. If you are light, live as light. If you’re a light bulb, put out light. That’s what a light bulb is for. Put out light. If you’re a water fountain, put out water. Not complicated, is it? For the fruit of light consists of this. Goodness. Righteousness. The truth. Righteousness and truth. And find out what pleases God. Now guys, find out what pleases God. What does the Bible tell us pleases God? Faith. The righteous will live by what? Faith. So what pleases God? Faith. Faith. Apart from faith, it’s impossible to do what? Please God. It doesn’t say apart from works. It says apart from faith. Now, if faith in God tells you to go work, to do something, that’s what you do. But you don’t go do it in order to get the glory of God surrounding you. So if you’re in the light, walk in the light… And the fruit of the byproduct of walking in the light is goodness, righteousness, and truth, and find out what pleases the Lord. And we know what that? Walk by faith. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness? Rather, expose them. In other words, it isn’t going around saying, hey, I caught you. It ain’t loving that. But exposing what is right and wrong. It’s having the boldness to say that something is not an alternate lifestyle. It’s homosexuality. That going and sleeping with someone out of marriage is not shacking up. It’s called adultery or fornication. That’s exposing truth for what truth is. And if someone is a drunk, they’re not an alcoholic. They’re a drunk. If you’re lost… It’s not that you’re unsaved. That’s a nicer word than lost. They’re just unsaved. Is that anything like an un-cola? You know, what do you mean unsaved? You’re lost. And that’s what he’s saying here is expose sin for what sin is. Call it what it is. Quit pussyfooting around with these names that we’ve come up with. Call it what it is. He says it’s shameful to even mention what the disobedient do in secret. That’s true. But everything exposed by light becomes visible, for it’s the light that makes everything visible. And that’s why it said, wake up, O sleeper. Wake up, people. Wake up. God has called you and me to be a light in this world, to be a light for Jesus. The world is dark. Everyone you run into that doesn’t need Jesus is dark. Their minds are darkened, and they need light. In order to see. And God has called us to be instruments of righteousness. God has called us to be instruments of light. Instruments to be able to go out into the world that’s full of darkness and be able to say to people that there’s a better way. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Be careful then how you live. Not as unwise but wise. making the most out of every opportunity because the days are evil. In other words, quit looking at being a procrastinator. I’ll do it tomorrow. He said, if you’ve got something to do, do it today. You know, I have to fight that like crazy because I love to do tomorrow what I can do today. It’s just kind of a natural instinct of mine. Make the bed. I’ll make it next month. Or maybe next year. Make the best of an opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore, don’t be foolish. It says, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. What is it about don’t be foolish? Why? Because alcohol makes you foolish. Have you ever been around a guy or a person that’s drunk? Aren’t they intelligent? Now, we think we are. Man, I never so smart in my life when I was drunk. We think we know everything, but you’re a fool. You’re sitting there slobbering all over yourself, looking as simple as a mule, but you think you’re smart. He says, don’t do that. That’s not the way a child of God lives. It’s not for you. That’s for the lost world. You can’t criticize the lost world for what they do. They don’t know any better. They’re in darkness, but you’re saved now. And that’s all that’s saying is, guys, put aside this stuff. Wake up. Wake up. Rise from the dead. You were dead. Those are the things that dead people do. Now, wake up and to begin getting a brand new attitude toward life and the way you live your life and the way you think about life. Because if you don’t think properly, your actions are not going to be proper. So he says, don’t do that. It’s stupid. Especially for a child of God, it’s idiotic to go and to alter your mind instead of renew your mind. Now, there’s many sins, but these are just things that really mess you up. Don’t get drunk with wine. It leads to debauchery. So in other words, it’s going to lead to something other than drunkenness. Have you ever known a real drunk that wasn’t a liar? There’s no such thing because you have to lie. That’s just part of it. That’s part of anything that you’ve got to lie about. It means you really shouldn’t be doing it if I’ve got to lie about it. It’s one good way of knowing whether you’re doing right or wrong. If I have to lie about it, it’s wrong. Don’t get drunk with wine. It leads to debauchery. Instead, it says to be filled or controlled with the Spirit. And we both, we’ve gone into that before. It means to be controlled by love. Controlled by love. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord. Always, in all things, giving thanks to God, the Father, for how much? What’s it say? Everything. Everything. Giving thanks. Remember the passage? Give thanks in how much? All things for this is what? The will of God concerning you. You want to know the will of God? That’s one of the ways you know. Be a thankful person, giving thanks in all things. How many times do we spend our life grumbling? Do you know, guys, that every bad thing that ever happens to you… has been filtered through God, and he is not going to stop the will of somebody that wants to impose wrong on you, but he says, I’ll tell you one thing, I will cause it to work together for your good. We don’t know what is for our good. We don’t know. We absolutely have no way of knowing what was our good. We can sit down and plan, now if this wouldn’t happen, man, I would be this, and I’d be this, and I’d be this, and we’d be this, and God’s saying, you don’t know what you’d be. You’d probably be an egotistical idiot. And so the issue is whatever God, whatever you have gone through, if you will think properly, you’re going to understand something that God doesn’t make bad good, but I’ll cause it to work together for your good. To those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. That’s a promise of God, guys. Give thanks in everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and submit to one another after reverence to Christ. There’s a big one, submission. How are you going to submit when I went my own way? How are we going to be submission if I think that I am always right and I have to always be right? Please don’t ever tell me I’m wrong about anything. There’s only two ways to go, the wrong way and my way. And we live like that. Well, that’s not an attitude of submission. How many times do we just sit back to listen to see, could it be that maybe I’m not thinking properly in an area? So it’s getting back to the fact, folks, that if we’re going to walk by faith, we’re going to have to walk by faith in Jesus, and we’re going to have to walk by faith in him renewing our minds with truth. And letting that truth do what he said it would do, and that’s set you free. Going through some tough times right now? Going through some hard times? It says, give thanks. Give thanks. Don’t get hardened by the hard times. But let God build you in the hard times. He will do so. He’ll build you in the hard times. That’s his promise to you and me. Let’s pray together. Father, hard times can make us either bitter or better. I can get bitter over things or I can allow you to make me better because of them. It’s very hard to do when we’ve been offended. It’s very hard to do when we’ve been betrayed in one form or another. But in the final analysis, if we will see that none of these things have ever taken you by surprise. And you do look down on our heartaches with compassion. There’s no question about that. But in the midst of that, to say, trust me. Believe in me. And I will cause it to work together for your good. So to anyone in this room or in the sound of my voice through the internet. Who are going through trials and tribulation in one form or another. That you really have come to the end of your own self-sufficiency. Look at that as a blessing. Because now God can take over. And to do what he said he would do, and that is to cause it to work together for your good. The way he does that, and it seems to me, is that you work in our attitudes. There are many people who have an attitude from little on that the only thing that’s ever going to make them happy is be a millionaire. And then you find out, I don’t think I’m going to make that. That’s what God wants you to see. If you never intended to be a millionaire, you’d probably ruin your life. But I do want you to be responsible. And God begins to work in our hearts to change our minds and our attitudes so that we become thankful people. So, Father, we thank you in all things. And we thank you for your love toward us, your mercy toward us, and the fact that these promises are ours as your children. And so let’s begin to rejoice. And let’s begin to, not artificially, but to rejoice and to give thanks. And to experience the joy of the Lord in the midst of the hardships that we’re going through. And we’re going to praise you in Jesus’ name and for his sake. Amen.
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Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.
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Put Jesus first in your life and turn your life around.
