Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P496 (12-06-19)
Synopsis
As we live in our present bodies, in this sin-indwelling flesh, none of us are beyond falling into old sinful patterns. Yes, we, who are in Christ, live under the grace of God, but we never want to take advantage of God’s grace and live in sin for which Christ has set us free. So Paul addresses the church in Corinth, for the third time now, and is grieved and humbled to go over these same matters again. He provides firm correction, as we read in 1 Corinthians, about a man who has his father’s wife. The Corinthian church was boasting and should be grieved. The church listened to Paul’s instruction, and the man was put out of fellowship with the church, to be handed over to Satan so his flesh will be destroyed. We read in 2 Corinthians that the discipline of the many was sufficient, and the man went out of his way to clear himself of this matter, having true godly sorrow over sin. The church was then instructed to go out of their way to show their love to him so he is not overcome with grief, otherwise he might never recover. The longer you have been a believer, and you get caught up in sin, it can be quite difficult to overcome.
So we are instructed in God’s word that if you see a brother in sin, confront him on the matter, but do so in humility and gentleness, lest you be tempted yourself, and so that he is restored in right relationship to God. If he is in Christ, God never left him, but in his thinking he left God, and is estranged to God by his behavior. He is like the prodigal son who is still a part of the family but needs to come top his senses. If he does not respond to truth, then he needs to come to his senses. Jesus came full of grace and truth and the truth will set you free.
God calls us to walk in the newness of life. You should not be smoking cigarettes as a believer, nor marijuana or any other substance, to try to meet a need of peace or joy, or whatever you are looking for, that can only be found in Christ. Smoking, and other activities, are just plain stupid. You can quit. It is difficult at first but it can be done. How much more so with the power of Christ living in you. Do you not know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you. Do not destroy your body, whom God wants to live in and through, to produce fruit of His righteousness. We do not produce such fruit in the energy of the flesh, but we rest in Christ. Do you not know the depths of his unconditional love for you? Get to know God through His word. Renew your mind with truth. Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Abide in His love. God wants our minds renewed with truth so we can walk free, in the newness of life He has called us to.
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Now, the church is made of Jews and Gentiles, who are born again of the Spirit. The early church was essentially Jews initially, with the disciples and those Jews at Pentecost. But many Jews were blinded in pride, particularly among the leadership. Then Cornelius and other Gentiles became a part of the body of Christ, as Paul was assigned the task to preach the gospel to the Gentile world. Yet, as prophesied, Jews today have a hardening of heart today until the full number of the Gentiles come in. They do not recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah. Sadly, they are looking for a man of peace, thinking he will be the Messiah. But a man who will bring false peace, who will deceive the Jews into a seven covenant of peace, will come and will be the anti-Christ. That false peace ends in 3 1/2 years as he sits in the temple proclaiming himself to be God. Somewhere in that period of time, believers will be raptured, taken up to meet the Lord in the air. We are in the last hour, the end of the age, as many anti-Christs have already come, Israel is back in its land, already past 70 years now. When you see the fig tree blossom in Israel, you know the end is near, right at the door, as Jesus said. Today, the average Jew is not unlike an agnostic and most Jews do not know the Old Testament or the scriptures. Now there is coming a day, when the last Gentile will come in and all the focus and attention will be on Israel. At the end, all Israel will be saved but not until over 2/3 perish,and are told by Jesus in that day to run to the hills and to a place prepared fro them. Israel, in the end, will recognize the one they had pierced. In the last days of great tribulation, many will hear preaching from 144,000 Jews, hand-picked ministers of God, and the two witnesses, and from angels proclaiming with a loud voice from heaven, warning them to take heed and be saved. Many people will be proud of heart, under a strong delusion, and will not be able to believe. Those who take the mark of the beast, who have sold their souls to Satan, will not be saved.
Transcript
Glen from Newton, KS
Glen: I have a question. I am reading from 2 Corinthians 12:20-21 where Paul is talking about coming back to visit the Corinthian church.
2 Corinthians 12:20-21
20 For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. 21 I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.
Glen: He says that when I come again God will humble me. I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of their impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they indulged. Can you explain that a little bit? Why is he talking about sin and repentance?
Bob: Because those things are going on. What he is saying there, beginning in verse 20, is this. In other words, what is God’s goal for us? It is certainly not to live a life of lasciviousness, but a life of faith in Christ Jesus, allowing Him to lead us into paths of righteousness not unrighteousness.
2 Corinthians 12:20
you may not find me as you want me to be
Bob: In other words, I am going to point these things out to you. I fear there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander and gossip. Sounds like a good old day in church.
Glen: I am sorry I have to agree with you. I wish I didn’t.
Bob: So he says, I am afraid this is what I am going to find. So when I come again, my God will humble me before you. I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.
Bob: The humbleness he is talking about there is Paul came to the Corinthians. He ministered to the Corinthians. He gave them the truth from God, and in essence, they are still not following Him. It is quite a humbling experience to realize that you have done everything that you can and a person is still not following the ways of God. He says he is going to be grieved over that.
Bob: You have to realize Corinth, Glen, was the most carnal church, that has probably ever been on the face of the earth. In the midst of that unbelievable sinful debauchery that took place in that city, that, in came Paul, with a message of God’s love and grace. It was taken advantage of, and in some cases grace was misunderstood, such as when a guy was having intercourse with his father’s wife and they were proud of it. They were boasting, “This grace is wonderful.”
1 Corinthians 5:1-8
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? 3 For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. 4 So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch – as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
All of those type of things. Everything you can imagine is taking place in Corinth during that period of time. He is just merely saying, “I am going to be grieved over the fact that you people have gone right back to impurity, sexual sin, debauchery, in which they have indulged.” That sexual sin, debauchery and impurity was the lifestyle of the Corinthian. They just went right back to that same old lifestyle.
Glen: In other words, they never repented to start with?
Bob: They may have changed their actions for awhile. A man comes to Christ and says he quit smoking, but then they started up again. So they went right back. It is like a dog returning to his vomit. They returned right back to the vomit they were in before.
Proverbs 26:11
11 As a dog returns to its vomit,
so fools repeat their folly.
Bob: When you have done that and you are a child of God, it is going to be harder to pull back than it was at the initial time of salvation. The best time in the world to turn back on your old lifestyle is when you are first saved. If you are saved and then you get back into the pits, so to speak, sin begins to become your master again. You are still a child of God but sin becomes a master.
Romans 6:14
14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Bob: Quite frankly, it is harder to get rid of it at that time, but not impossible. So it would have taken Paul there to have realized that coming back to somebody’s third visit that here I am again, I am humbled because we have been here before, and you are right back into the same old pit again.
Glen: I have been reading in the New Testament. I have not been reading much in the book of Revelation. Should I go ahead and do that too?
Bob: You can if you want to. I think, quite frankly, that there are some parts of Revelation that are very understandable, and others, as far as I am concerned, it is like reading some kind of space novel. I know it is scripture but I know that when it happens, and I am here on earth, I will understand it. To be real honest with you, there is a lot I do not understand at all in the book of Revelation. That would be the last book I would read. I do not spend much time in it either. I think you are on solid grand there, okay.
Doug from Grand Prairie, TX
Doug: Over the years, I have heard you talk about how you worked with people that are involved with alcohol or drug abuse and that sort of thing. A situation has come up where I would like to read some of your resources and do some counseling and try to help a situation. As I talk with these folks, I wonder if you would just address that a little bit. What is available from your ministries and how you would go about steering people to God’s word or other understandings that can help them?
Bob: When you are dealing with drug addiction, I have to first of all see that there is an identity crisis some place down the line. I also want to make sure the person has not lost hope. When hope is gone there is no motivation for getting better. But a person who has gotten into drugs, and it starts with marijuana. These idiots that say marijuana is not addicting, they need to go into a mental hospital themselves. Marijuana use does lead to higher drug usage. It is what is called cumulative, which means after awhile you cannot get the same effect by the same amount of marijuana. You have to increase the quantity in order to get the same fix, and when that does not work, you ultimately you have to go to stronger mind-altering drugs.
Bob: And so, if you see a young person, especially getting started with that marijuana, I do not care if you have to sit on his head to keep him at home, do whatever you have to do to get that young person off of that marijuana. And do not listen to this garbage the world has to tell you that it is okay. It is not okay. Anybody who has gotten themselves addicted on marijuana will tell you that very thing. It is very dangerous.
Colossians 3:22-4
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
John 8:32
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Bob: What has happened, Doug, what I see the ultimate is, is that people have substituted something else for meaning and purpose for life. All of us have a need for meaning and purpose to life. It is as strong as horse radish. We have a need for unconditional love. We have a need for unconditional acceptance, God made us that way. But He made us with that need in order for Him and Him alone to be able to fill that need.
Philippians 4:19
19 And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
Bob: In other words, it is a vacuum that can only be filled by Him when we refuse to come to God for our meaning and purpose to life, to come to God for our fulfillment, to come to God for our joy. I do not have to go to get a happy pill for joy. I have to laugh at the bars, happy hour. That just shows how miserable you are until you get the happy hour. There is joy and there is happy. And God came to give us joy. When we refuse to go to Him for joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness, all the things that is called the fruit of the Spirit, then you instead are trying to achieve that through drugs.
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Bob: When you refuse to go to God, you are going to be forced to go some place, to look some place, because it is a vacuum that is not filled. So, what I have to do in our counseling, unlike secular counseling that has none of this available to them, is to show a child or an adult the fact there is a need they have, and it is very strong, but they are looking to fill it in the wrong place. They have to get their mind and their eyes off a substance and onto the one who came to fill that need, and that is Christ Jesus. That gets back to ministering again to people out of the word of God. It is not a mystery. It is not a complicated issue. It is the case that we were made by God to have fellowship with God and when we do not know about that, or do not know how to do it, we are forced to find it some place else. Somebody needs to get you back on the right track. That is what we are there to do.
Galatians 6:1
1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.
Bob: Our depression series, “Victory Over Depression” is very helpful on that. Also the series we have done on identity, “How to have a Proper Self Image” or “A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ”. Those are probably the main things we use for counseling in the area of overcoming addiction.
Doug: Thank you very much.
Bob: I hope that helps, Doug.
Doug: Yes, it does. I remembered listening to this tape series in the past. I was talking about guys that were involved in drugs and things, and then coming back to the knowledge that they are a child of God. It is just stupid to be involved in those things. That is what I remembered, but I just could not remember the names of the series.
Bob: It is just plain not profitable. Neither is smoking profitable. Smoking also is a killer. Neither is indulging in too much alcohol profitable. It is a killer. My daughter said she has never seen a family broken up drinking cokes. There are things out there that are being marketed that are killers. Satan is behind it. We have to see the truth of that. For people to continue puffing smoke down their lungs, knowing full well that they are a child of God, that he never made you to be puffing smoke down your lungs. You need to quit.
1 Corinthians 6:19
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
Bob: I am not saying like somebody has never done it. I have done it. You need to quit. It is going to kill you. Why are you going to continue to do what is killing you? It is stupid. You talk about being a moron. That is a moron. So all of these things are moronic, going out and taking marijuana and smoking marijuana. What is the difference between smoking a cigarette and marijuana? It is only the substance. You are teaching children to smoke if you are smoking. So the issue is you need to stop. You need to quit those things.
Bob: Recognize that you, as a child of God, has a lifestyle that God has called us to, that is far superior than the lifestyle of the world. I do not want to be involved in the things of the world. There is an issue. Cut it out. Quit it. I know it is not easy, but it can be done. Then move on with your life and walk in the newness of life. That is what God has for us.
Romans 6:4
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Bob: Okay, Doug. We have to take a break. I appreciate your call. I hope you call again.
Hans from
Hans: I am reading the letters of Paul. Every time I read I find something that catches my eye. I can read this so many times and there is something new all the time. This is one thing that my eye. In 1 Timothy 1:17, he says now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God.
1 Timothy 1:17
17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Hans: What does the word “invisible” mean? I think it means you do not see something. How am I supposed to understand that?
Bob: Just what it says, Hans. God is Spirit. Jesus said no one has ever seen God except the one and only Son who was at the Father’s side has made him known. So we are told that God is Spirit and you must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
John 1:18
18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
John 4:24
24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.
Bob: As far as seeing the fullness of an invisible God, a spiritual God, we will never be able to comprehend that until we are into His presence. Sometimes, Hans, it is like observing animals. You observe a dog. Sometimes you will see him in the back yard, with his nose in the air. They are hearing things we do not hear. And, there are sounds that you and I know that dogs hear that humans do not hear. I think it is the same thing. When we enter into that heavenly realm, that everything becomes new. I do not think we can even begin to comprehend it here at all. We try to, but we can’t. But when we enter into that realm, then we will be able to see whatever eyes God gives us to be able to see God.
Hans: There will be a knowing?
Bob: Absolutely. We can know God now through His Son Jesus Christ and that was God’s plan for knowing full well that man could never be able to grasp the complexities of God. He sent His Son and clothed him in human essence so that you and I can comprehend who God is and what he is all about.
Hebrews 1:3
3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
Hans: The more I read, the more I realize I have got a long way to go.
Bob: So true. You know Hans, that is the beauty of studying the scriptures. You can never exhaust the end of it.
Hans: It is incredible.
Bob: No way to exhaust it. It is too great. That is why you can hear the same thing over and over and every time get something new out of it. I can give a sermon to a hundred people. To one person it means one thing, and to another, another, and yet to another, another.
Hans: Right
Bob: So you just never get to the bottom of it.
Hans: Something akin to that in Galatians 4:9. He also talks about now that you know God, or rather known by God. In my own mind, God knows all of us. We do not all of a sudden become something in His awareness. We are rather known by God has to have some other meaning?
Galatians 4:9
9 But now that you know God – or rather are known by God – how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
Bob: When we are known by God, we know we are known by God from day one, but now when we come into a relationship so we know God as well. But again, the emphasis goes back to this simple fact. It is not that we loved God, but He loved us first. The emphasis goes back to the fact that I was known by God long before I knew God.
1 John 4:19
19 We love because he first loved us.
Hans: Thanks so much. You guys keep up the good work. Thanks for letting me talk with you.
Bob: You are sure welcome, Hans. I appreciate your call, my brother. God bless you, pal.
Hans: Thank you. Bye
Rich from Denver, CO
Rich: I am afraid I am going to lose my signal. Can you explain to me why did the Jewish people believe that they got a different covenant through salvation other than Jesus Christ?
Bob: They just never believed in Jesus, period, Rich. That has been since day one. Obviously all the early Christians on the day of Pentecost and the disciples were all Jewish. That is why I had to laugh when people say the “Passion of Christ” film with Mel Gibson is anti-Semitic. How can it be anti-Semitic when Jesus was a Jew? And all of his disciples were Jews? So I do not know where anti-Semitism came into that.
Bob: Jesus was of the Jewish people. Paul would be speaking to the Jews. He was addressing the leaders of the Jews. They were mean as hornets, legalistic, under the law, hypocrites, as Jesus said, white washed sepulcher. No wonder they did not like Jesus. I probably would not have liked him either if he was calling me that. But it was true.
Matthew 2:18
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?”
Matthew 23:27
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.”
If that was true, you would have to take it as it is. If the shoe fits, you wear it. But the issue is that those were the leaders. So they have never believed in Jesus. The Jews were also looking for a reigning Messiah, Rich. In the scriptures, you have both the suffering Messiah and a reigning Messiah. That is precisely why John the Baptist said, “Is this the one or should we look for another?” He knew Jesus was the Messiah, but is there another one who is going to be the reigning Messiah? He was confused on that issue until it was straightened out.
Isaiah 53:1-5
1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.4
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
1 Chronicles 22:10
10 He is the one who will build a house for my Name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.
Luke 1:32-34
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
Bob: They have nothing to do with the suffering Messiah since they were only looking for the reigning Messiah. Any so-called evangelical Jew, if you want to call someone that, or conservative, will tell you that when we see the man coming and he brings peace to Israel, that will be the Messiah. That is a sitting duck for the anti-Christ. They are a sitting duck just waiting for the anti-Christ to show up.
Daniel 8:25
25 He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power.
Daniel 9:27
27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’[week – seven year covenant] In the middle of the ‘seven’[3 1/2 years] he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.
Bob: Israel will embrace him. And so, they have all looked, even though the first early church was all Jewish. It was another eighteen years later until Cornelius was saved and then other Gentiles. Paul took the message into the Gentile world. The Gentiles became Christians. But prior to that it was the Jews. Then in the early church it was Jews and Gentiles worshiping together, the same God.
Bob: Then it got to the point where the gospel spread into the West and that was mostly Gentile. It became a separation between Jew and Gentile. Today the average Jew thinks the opposite of a Jew as a Christian rather than a Gentile. You will talk to them and explain that to them and they will turn right around and talk about the Christian and the Jew. So there is going to be a blindness there, Rich, until the Lord comes back.
Romans 11:25
25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in
Rich: I heard you say a few moments ago, and I am a little confused on this. Is the anti-Christ? I thought the spirit of anti-Christ has been in the earth since Adam’s sin.?
Bob: The spirit of Anti-Christ has always been but the anti-Christ will be at the end times. There will be a man who is the anti-Christ, but the spirit of anti-Christ has been in the world forever, since the fall of man.
1 John 2:18
18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
Rich: I know very little about the Jewish people. I am trying to learn more. I am trying to learn in a wise way and not just because someone says so. What is the state of Israel morally? Are they a fairly pure society?
Bob: No difference than ours. You have the orthodox branch and they appear to be moral but they are not. That is all outward appearance. You have to realize there is not one righteous. You can act righteous if you want to, but you cannot fool God. God said there is no one righteous.
Romans 3:10
10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;”
Bob: You have the orthodox Jew, who walk around in black suits and curly cues, and that type of thing, and who wail at the wailing wall. You have your conservative Jew here in America and I imagine that is so in other parts of the world. So you have different, what you would call denominations, among Jewish people. You have the orthodox, then the not so orthodox, and then you have somewhere in between. Jews are all over the place. (Since the time of Bob George, even larger number of Jews have moved into Israel, in accordance with prophecy).
Isaiah 11:12
12 He will raise a banner for the nations
and gather the exiles of Israel;
he will assemble the scattered people of Judah
from the four quarters of the earth.
Bob: If you look at the average Jew in America, at least, he would have to be in the category of being an agnostic, saying in essence “I do not know if there is a God for sure.” That is where they are. They know nothing about their heritage. They do their holidays but as far as having any knowledge of the Old Testament and scriptures, they do not have any. That is the average Jew.
Rich: I do not know. I just assumed that this generation of Jews, people were something different.
Bob: No, not at all. Just normal people. In Israel, Jewish population is conservative. In America, average Jew is liberal.
Rich: Really?
Bob: Absolutely.
Rich: That really takes me back. I never would have guessed that. I am trying to learn a little more. Seems church is turning away from them.
Bob: I am glad we support Israel. As long as I have breath, I will be supporting Israel as a nation. Our Messiah came from there. Our Messiah was Jewish. We are told to bless the Jews. I think what happens to you when you come to Christ, I do not know how that happens. I can testify that it happened to me, that there is a supernatural love for the Jew that you have. I cannot explain that but it is certainly there. I thank God that America, and our president, is staunch in the support of Israel. Whenever the day comes, when the politics of this country stops supporting Israel, we may as well kiss it goodbye. We are on our way down.
Genesis 12:3
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
