Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P447 (6-07-19)
Bob George receives calls from several listeners. Ted called to thank Bob for the bible study material sent while he was deployed in Iraq. Sandra called for advice for her struggle with bitterness. Bob encouraged her to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. John called for clarification on the meaning of the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6 in regards to forgiveness from God when you do not forgive a brother who offended you. Bob explained that Jesus was teaching in accordance with the Old Covenant that the Jews were still currently under. Christ taught under the Old Covenant and buried us under that covenant while speaking about the New Covenant to come. Today, under the New Covenant, we are now instructed to forgive one another as Christ Jesus forgave you. When Jesus died on the cross, he took away the entire sins of the world, never to be remembered any more. So if God forgave all our sins, then that is the motivation for forgiving someone who sinned against you. Mike asked about those who have given themselves over to Satan in order to be rock stars. To the lost world, Satan already has your soul until you are saved. Nevertheless, no one has ever gone too far that they cannot come to salvation. God is the initiator and we respond to him by faith. There are those who will respond to faith, and the more you respond, the deeper your roots go in Christ that you can say like the apostle Paul that nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus your Lord. Bob explained the law of causality. The effect is never greater than the cause. Just as the warmth of the sun is not greater than the sun neither is my salvation greater than my Savior. God produces love in our hearts and flows through us as we respond to His love. Donna asked for advice in how to parent her 18 year old son. He is no longer a child and has turned to pornography and alcohol as a freshman in college. Bob instructed her to talk to him as a friend, reasoning with him in loving concern for his well being. Reason with him and remind him of the love of God and how much God loves him. Tell him that as a parent who loves you, these decisions you are making are going to destroy you if you do not ultimately change your mind and start on a new path.
Ted from Eugene, OR
He got back from deployment in Iraq. He called to thank Bob and all the listeners and those who supported sending books over to him while he was deployed in Iraq. He shared that is was such a blessing to have a bible study with the soldiers, studying “Victory over Depression” and “Classic Christianity”. They were having a good time in those studies. Bob told him to keep in touch and Bob George Ministries will help any way they can. Bob was encouraged to see Ted starting a movement over there. Ted said he loves sharing truth. Ted was engaged to be married and was applying for a job at a fire department in town. Bob said that many were blessed because of Ted’s testimony. Then he commented that those guys continually need to be prayed for. Bob said, “God’s blessing to you”.
Sandra from San Diego, CA
She is struggling with bitterness. She said she has walked with the Lord for over 20 years. “It seems recently that an arrow comes in the middle of the day over an issue.” She seems like bitter root is there. “I am not thinking bitter thoughts but when it comes it is very strong. What do I do scripturally?” She says she is in a battlefield.
When something comes upon you. If bitterness wasn’t in you it wouldn’t come out of you. Circumstances do not cause your nature. They reveal your nature. You cannot store beans in a pot unless beans are in there. Unless you can have the spirit of bitterness in you, you cannot let it out of you. Circumstances just reveal that.
Mark 7:15
Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.
You can have a spirit of bitterness because you are bitter over something. And when you are bitter over something you are hanging onto it too long. If someone insults you, then it is only important as long as you insist on remembering it. You have to let go of these things. They are not important. In light of eternity just how important is it when somebody insults you. It is putting everything in proper perspective. If bitterness is there, all it takes is a little thought and it will get triggered. So just get rid of the bitterness. It is not worth thinking about. Start praying for the person who made you bitter.
Ephesians 4:30-32
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Matthew 5:43-45
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
You may be over this. Satan is activating those thoughts. Bob relates how he had been in a situation where he found it very difficult to forgive. What he had to realize is that he could not forgive in his flesh. What he was trying to do was to manufacture up fleshly forgiveness. The flesh never wants to forgive. There is nothing good in the flesh.
Romans 7:20
Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Romans 8:1-8
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
The flesh never wants to forgive. The Spirit living in me has already forgiven him. This flesh is not going anywhere except the grave. I am in Christ, and I am a spiritual being, and since Christ forgave him so do I. In the Spirit, you forgive. Satan is just triggering your flesh. Satan, you might as well talk to someone else. I am not interested in entertaining that thought anymore. Satan wants you to waste your time and he is the one who is bringing those thoughts back to your mind.
2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
John 10:10
The thief [Satan] comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John from San Diego, CA
Just after where they asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, the Lord’s prayer, where he says if you do not forgive others neither will he forgive you. Can you explain the meaning of that?
Matthew 6:14-15
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
2 Corinthians 5:19
that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.
How can you say “if you do not forgive a brother on earth your Father in heaven will not forgive you” out of one side of your mouth and then out of the other side of your mouth say, “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not counting their sins against them”. Those are two opposite things, contradictory, aren’t they? But the bible cannot contradict itself, so they both must be true. How can both be true? One was Old Covenant and one was New Covenant.
The gospels are the recording of Jesus’ life. The people Jesus was talking to were not under the New Covenant yet. Christ taught under the old Covenant and buried us under that covenant. That is what prepared us for the New Covenant of grace. Under the New Covenant, in Hebrews, Jesus said, “your sins and lawless acts I will remember no more” and “where these have been forgiven there is no more sacrifice for sins”.
Hebrews 10:17-18 (TLB)
17 And then he adds, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.” 18 Now, when sins have once been forever forgiven and forgotten, there is no need to offer more sacrifices to get rid of them.
For the Jew under a New Covenant, Jesus says to put aside the day of atonement. Today, say to Catholics, “you should never have gotten a confession booth, but now that you have, put it away, if you understand this truth”. To the evangelical that has to keep going back to ask for forgiveness, say, “stop and quit doing what Christ has completed”. The Lord’s prayer is really not a prayer, but the Lord is teaching you how to pray under an Old Covenant. Under the Old Covenant, forgiveness was conditional. How did you get forgiven under the Old Covenant? You went to the day of atonement and sacrificed a bull and a goat. In the New Covenant, there is no more sacrifice for sins, Jesus being the propitiation, or complete satisfaction of God’s wrath against sin. The sins of the entire world – past, present and future – have been paid in full by Christ’s shed blood on a cross.
John said that he ministers to inmates in the prison system. John said, “They are the ones that bring this up about forgiveness. Forgiveness is a huge issue for them. You cannot say that if you have unforgiveness in your heart against a brother, you still have not reconciled that somehow?”
No, there is nothing to reconcile. If you have to reconcile then you are still under the law. Today, under the New Covenant, it says “forgive one another as Christ Jesus forgave you. Under the Old Covenant, if you do not forgive your brother who sins against you, your Father in heaven will not forgive you”. See the difference in the two covenants? If God forgave you, then why should I not forgive you? There is your motivation.
John replied, “If I sin and I think God is mad at me, then that keeps me from approaching God in confidence.” That is correct, and God freed us from that so we can boldly approach the throne of grace.
Hebrews 4:16
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Mike from Portersville, CA
What do you say in regards to a person could sell their soul and return and become good guitar player?
To the lost world, Satan already has your soul until you are saved. The meaning of that is that “I am giving everything I have to you and let you do with my life what you would”. Now we say that to God in salvation but someone could say that to Satan. Satan offered Jesus the world and evidently he had them or he would not be offering them.
Matthew 4:8-11
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him
The lost have riches and everything the world has to offer. Madelaine Murray O’Hare or a person boasting of being head of the atheist party, is a person sold out to the devil. The unpardonable sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which is really rejecting the life of Christ. Could a person at the last moment change and come to Christ? Yes, that is possible but not likely for he has lived in such a hardness of heart for so long. He is denying Jesus and not accepting the life of Christ. I do not think there is a man who has ever gone too far that he can escape salvation.
Mike recalled that at age 10, he prayed to God, with thoughts that he did not want to be like what he saw among adults, to be innocent of what he saw in others. But he also wanted to love others. He would rather want to love others than have all the money in the world.
Bob replied. It is not that we loved God but he loved us first.
1 John 4:10
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
God is the initiator of all things. We live under the law of causality on this earth. The effect of something is never greater than the cause of something. The warmth of the sun is not greater than the sun. My salvation is not greater than my Savior. We live by that law of causality. The same thing is true with God. If the effect of something is greater than the cause of something then you are greater than God. If I can cause God to do something, then I am greater than God. God is the initiator and we respond to him by faith. There are those who will respond to him by faith. That love you are talking about, the perfect love of God was initiated to you by Christ Jesus. The more you respond to that, the deeper it becomes to the point you can say like the apostle Paul, that you are persuaded that nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus your Lord.
Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I do not deserve it and I cannot earn it. Nothing can separate from the love of God. If I understand that is how much God loves me how can I not respond in any other way except to love Him. The love of God flows out of you. God loves me. I love Him. God loves the world. So go let me love through you to them. We allow the Agape love of God to flow in and through us because we cannot conjure it up and initiate it on our own.
Donna from Nashville, TN
She was a first time caller. She called to get guidance in how to parent her 18 year old son. He is making bad decisions in relations, and she has evidence he is visiting porn sites, and has confronted him about that. She was trying to speak truth in love and not provoke wrath in him. She is having a hard time in transitioning in parenting him as a young adult and not as a child.
When a child is that old, a freshman in college, if he does not have a foundation now, then he has to get his own foundation somehow. He may have to fall on his face to get a foundation. Today, so many young men get into college and get caught up in wild living and drinking, going down to those beaches, and especially men acting like morons and idiots. It is strange to think these young men are the hope of the world acting like that and yet getting interviews upon graduation. These were the guys drunk on a beach. It is a good thing God has to get a hold of us sooner or later. You are in college to get educated but what you really need educated on is how to live.
Bob asked, “Are all of you Christians? Does he know the Lord?” Yes, she said. This is the advice Bob told her. Son, look, you have got choices as a child of God to make any decisions you make, but when you choose to get in to alcohol that alters the mind and destroys the body, those are poor decisions. I come to you as a friend not as a parent for you are beyond parenting now. For your own good, let us reason together. As a parent who loves you, these decisions you are making are going to destroy you if you do not ultimately change your mind and start on a new path.
Bob then asks Donna how long has this behavior been going on. She tells Bob that in high school he was a little rebellious at 16 but at 17 he got more rebellious. When you let kids have liberty in high school then they have a place to come home to. In high school, you have a place to learn these things of life. Let your kids have enough liberty that when they fall on their face, then there is a safe place to come home to and receive guidance as well as unconditional love.
Bob then encourages her in reaching her son, and a suggestion to her of what to say. “There is no one going to love you any more than your mom. I am not coming here to chastise you. I am not parenting you anymore. You are beyond that. You seem like you are lost and like you do not know where you are going. I want to talk to you as a friend. I am talking to you as a friend who cares for you.” Do not get shocked by it. Just keep talking to him about the love of God and how much He loves him.
Matthew 7:24-27
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Psalm 119:11
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Ephesians 2:3-5
3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.
Romans 13:14
Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.
Galatians 5:16
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
1 John 3:1
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
