Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P513 (02-20-20)
Synopsis
It is heartbreaking to see the consequences of sin, the condition of death, in the lives of people. Listen as Bob answers a call of someone who is struggling, His wife is on the verge of destroying her life and marriage through addiction to alcohol. Bob applies biblical truth and practical advice to get him the help he needs. He exhorts him to make those decisions, to be firm in confronting her that we are getting help immediately: “I love you too much to see you destroy your life. ” It is heavy stuff this man is going through, and his wife enslaved in this pattern of thinking and behavior.
Is that not the heart of God? Here is God, looking down on His creation, saying, “I love you too much to see you destroyed forever.” He sent His Son to do something for us we could never do for ourselves. It is not a shame to admit you need help, that you need to call upon someone to give you the answer you need, the truth you need to hear, so you can receive new life, and begin a new way of living in true freedom.
Others called in to get answers to basic questions. They had received new life, but were confused in what they were reading in the scriptures, and in applying what they heard. Bob explained the fundamental truth of the unconditional love and acceptance of God and the New Covenant of grace we live in. A favorite passage of scripture he often shared is from John 15, about the parable of the vine and the branches. It is such a clear picture for us, as Jesus explained to his disciples, of how to live in the new life God has given. Jesus often shared about the New Covenant of grace that was to come, when for the first tie in human history, the Holy Spirit comes to permanently dwell within men. That New Covenant of grace is now what we live in on this side of the cross.
Many call in just to say thank you. One person was so moved and grateful, that he gave a little extra to Bob George Ministries. He was just so excited to share what he is experiencing, having come to understand what it means to abide in Christ, letting Christ live His life in and through you. He said it is such a wonderful way to live. Bob was moved by the phone call, and said, “We appreciate that more than you will know.”. Bob was so excited himself that God works through him to see the body of Christ grow in grace and knowledge, and to see that bear fruit in people’s lives. That makes living so worthwhile.
Transcript
Matthew from San Diego, Californioa
Matthew: Hi, Bob. How are you doing?
Bob: Doing good, Matthew. Thank you.
Matthew: I ordered the New Covenant tape series. I cannot wait to get it in a week or so. I look forward to that. I listened to you talk about, in our devotionals in the Lord, to focus. We are not under law any more. We are under grace, in the New Testament. I am in the New Testament now. Is there any value in the Old Testament? Does the Old Testament hold any value for me in my daily walk with the Lord, as I search the scriptures?
Bob: Matthew, what you have is this. The Old Covenant is no longer in effect. It has been replaced by the New Covenant, which was ushered in with Christ Jesus. That does not mean that the word of God cannot be profitable in teaching in the old. But it is not relevant in the way you live your life today. There is nothing in the Old Testament about Jesus living His life in and through us. You certainly have information in the Old, such as Genesis of how man came into existence. You have the history of people of God, of the early formation of mankind. You certainly have a lot of stories that were told. I believe the Old Testament is really a testament of man’s failure and God’s faithfulness through the entire historical part of that testament. Certainly there are things you can read in Psalms and Proverbs. Wisdom is there. In the final analysis, we are told that God has become our wisdom. I think about that sometimes.
1 Corinthians 1:30
30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
Bob: It is because of Him we are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us our wisdom, our everything in essence. You can rely on the wisdom of Solomon but Jesus has become our wisdom.
Matthew: Amen
Bob: It is not the case it is not relevant. It was certainly relevant in regard to the history of the formation of what we know today as Christianity. It came from all of that. The protection of the bloodline of the Messiah down through ages was vitally important. The way we live our lives is in the New Covenant we live in today. It is a covenant of grace.
Matthew: So many times the message is, when I read the Old Covenant, I get confused. Not that I cannot get out of it. A lot of people have not seen it that way yet and still teaching things. I did not know what to do with the information. The other day someone shared something from Proverbs about a generous man who gives to others will himself be refreshed. I just did not know how to handle that.
Proverbs 11:25
25 A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.
Bob: You certainly do not have to go back to that to learn that. You can read about that from Paul in how to give in.
2 Corinthians 9:7
7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Bob: There are things that can amplify some deals. If you are going to live as a vine and a branch (John 15), the relationship between vine and branch, where Jesus is the vine and we are the branch, you will not find that in the Old Testament. Again, we have to realize, too. We fail to realize sometimes, Matthew, that the entire work of scripture was headed to a cross. The focal point of the entirety of scripture was the death, burial and resurrection of Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Everything written in the bible, from Genesis forward, was written to prepare us for that cross. So all of that is preparatory. All of Jesus work prior to the cross was preparatory. His work was not encouraging if you stop and think about it. I do not think his teaching was particularly encouraging to any of us. The law says do not commit adultery, but I say “if you lust at somebody you already committed adultery”. I do not think that is particularly encouraging to most guys walking around. “The law says do not murder, but I say to you if you have anger at somebody, it is the same as murder”. I do not think that is encouraging to anybody. It was not meant to be. It was to show us our condition under the law, that we are dead in our sin, in the uncircumcision of the sinful nature, and to prepare us for the cross.
Colossians 2:13
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
Matthew: There are times when I read in the New Testament, that I struggle at times. It talks about, for instance, that if you judge your brother. There are some things, I realize, was he talking to them at that moment in time or does that apply for today?
Bob: I think what you have in the New Testament is that not to judge your brother. Who are we to judge. We are not the master of each other. Christ is our master.
Matthew: Thank you, Bob, showing me as I continue to grow in the New Covenant, that Christ is life, not to put saints or any story above the other. It is all about Him and His faithfulness and his care and concern despite man’s failures. So, thank you very much for reminding me what the word of God is really all about.
Bob: You are sure welcome, Matthew. Thank you for your call, brother.
<h4<>Will from Syuracuse, New YorkWill: Hi Bob. How are you doing?
Bob: Doing good, Will. Thank you.
Will: I am preaching about the love of Jesus Christ to my friends at work. But every time I preach to them they are confused. They tell me, how do you know the bible you are reading is the real bible? They tell me. The Jehovah Witnesses have got their own bible. So which one is the real true, and I do not know how to answer them. There is only one word of God, but man has confused people. Religion has confused people. How do I tell them which bible to read, so there is not going to be any doubts in their mind?
Bob: Will, as far as, we talk about the bible. The bible is a collection of individual books written in the New Testament. We have books of Philippians, Colossians, Galatians, and they were all individual books. They recompiled and put together into what is called the canon. The Old Testament canon was in place by the time Jesus came. It had already been translated into the Septuagint, which was translating the Old Testament Hebrew into Greek. So in Jesus day, he taught out of the Septuagint, or out of the original Hebrew or Septuagint. That bible was already in place. When I say bible, it was the compiling of the different books that we call the Old Testament now. Jesus never went back and said that any of those books were wrong or what was said in them was wrong. Not only did he not say that, but he quoted out of them. If Jesus is God and there was any error at all in those original Old Testament manuscripts, he would have corrected it, for he as God wouldn’t have allowed error. There was no indication he ever tried to correct. Instead, he quoted out of it. As far as the Old Testament, we know full well from the fact Jesus read from it and quoted from them that God knew it was true, as the word of God.
Bob: As far as the New Testament is concerned, he told the apostles that everything I said to you I will cause to come back to your memory.
John 14:26
26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Bob: He promised that to the apostles. That is exactly why the New Testament books could only be written by an apostle or an emisserant of an apostle. An emisserant is a scribe or a person who sits down and takes dictation. Luke was probably written by an emisserant of Paul, in many instances. So in order to have your book in the New Testament canon, it had to be written by an apostle. An apostle had to have been with Jesus in the beginning, witnessing his baptism, death, burial and resurrection in order to be qualified to have a book to be contained in what we call the bible today, or the canon.
2 Peter 1:21
21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Bob: So you have a perfect thing to say to them without question.
Will: Alright. That was my question.
Bob: Let me go ahead with these. In Jehovah Witnesses, as an example, they would have a translation. They would have translations all over, in German, Japanese, French, English, whatever it might be. But they have taken those translations and put their own interpretation on it. They change what the Greek said and put in their own. So you do not need to mess with those. That is adding and subtracting from the word of God and you cannot depend on that. So as far as the Catholic bible, I do not think any difference in that.
Will: They have more books.
Bob: Luther did not want it in the canon. So in retaliation to Luther they put it in. They have what is called the Apocrypha, but that was not entered in until 500 or more years later into the Catholic faith. They did that in retaliation to Luther. Nobody in their right mind ever thought the Apocrypha was scripture. You can read it and know it is not scripture.
Bob: Does that handle it for you?
Will: Yes, it did Bob. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.
Jacob from Sugar Creek, Missouri
Jacob: Thanks for having me on the air again.
Bob: You are welcome, Jacob
Jacob: I wanted a confirmation on what I heard you guys saying yesterday, about a guy talking about how to take care of his mother, whether to put her in a nursing home or not. I thought the Spirit of God teaching me truth and want to see what you guys thought. Do we serve in the same way we give under the New Covenant, with grace, according to what we do have and not in accordance with what we do not have?
2 Corinthains 9:7
7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Bob: Jacob, we are told that is our freedom.
Galatians 5:13
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
Bob: There are many ways we serve one another in love. Giving is certainly a way of serving the body of Christ in love. Obviously taking care of loved ones is serving people in love. There are many ways we serve people in love. To encourage someone who is down is serving a person in love. It is the simplicity of Jesus.
Luke 6:31
31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Bob: That is really the attitude of servitude we have. Whether giving finances or time or our selves or whatever it might be, all of those are ways we are serving the body of Christ in love. It is a wonderful blessing of us to have the privilege of doing that.
Jacob: I just want to really encourage you guys. I have heard you talk about the life message so much, and acceptance too. Both of those have been in my head. But I have not really experienced much of Christ living His life through me until just recently. It just started happening. I am just so excited about it. It helped with my eating and my working problems. Those are both areas I was weak in. I could never lose weight or work enough. God just is working with me in both those areas. It is so neat. When I heard you talking to that man about his mother, I just felt so accepted by God. It does not matter if I do good enough for Him. He accepts me. It is so wonderful. I just wanted to ask that question and tell you that stuff. I asked for Christ saving life just now. I gave you guys a little bit more today. I am glad to serve you guys in love a little bit.
Bob: Thank you so much, Jacob. We appreciate that more than you will know.
Bob: What you are saying is so true, Jacob. So many people say I am trying but I do not see the Lord working through me. Well, quit trying and He will, in His timing. This is all His work and not ours. If you relax and trust the Lord to do what He said He would do, to complete the work He began in you, I guarantee, you will, sooner or later, in God’s timing, you will experience what it means for Christ to be living His life in and through you. Obviously that is what has taken place in your own life.
Jacob: It is so great.
Bob: It is a wonderful way to live, Jacob. That is for us. Well, brother, we appreciate your call. You call again. Okay, pal. God bless you, Jacob. Bye bye now.
Tom from Boise, Idaho
Tom: How are you doing, Bob?
Bob: Doing good, Tom.
Tom: I wanted to say thank you for your ministry. I picked it up about 10 years ago. I had my 20 year birthday yesterday. I am excited about that.
Bob: Well, happy birthday.
Tom: Thank you.
Bob: I had a question about what you were talking about. I picked up on the radio and I heard about an anger issue. Anyways, I got a situation with my wife who has been drinking and what not. It is a real struggle with me. I have got children. It has gotten out of hand. When talking about just meeting someone on a highway, we get into this short burst of rage. Dealing with it every day, how do you face this daily, in loving somebody, yet not allowing them to continue with what they are doing, possibly causing danger to the family? I heard you talk about the co-dependency thing. I kind of am open to what you have to say.
Bob: First of all, I am sorry you are having to go through that. That is like hell on earth, living with a person who is into heavy drinking such as that, when you have children. It ties into what I am talking about. It creates all kinds of fears in you. Fears of what she is going to do. Fear she is destroying your life. Fear your marriage is going to be destroyed. You have multiplicity of fears that have accumulated over this situation. That brings about that fear you are talking about.
1 John 4:18
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
Bob: But, we are told in scripture that perfect love casts away all fear. Fear has to do with punishment and a man who fears cannot be perfected in love. The issue is, what you have to deal with, is what is the most loving thing to do for my wife in this drinking situation. You look at that and say, “Do I want to continue to be frustrated and to get mad at her every day of my life and live in this kind of fear?” The answer to that is no. So what is the most loving thing to do for my wife?
Bob: I say that you draw a line in the sand and say, “This is over. This gig is up on this deal. We are going to get you help, one way or the other, because I am not going to live with you as a drunk, raising our children as a drunk. That is not what we got married to do and I am not going to continue with that. So you are going to get help or something will happen to our marriage, sooner or later, because we cannot function that way.” You talk about a dysfunctional family. That is a dysfunctional family. You say, “The reason I am doing this is because I love you. I love you from the bottom of my heart, and I know you love the children. But right now you love that booze more than the children or me. You have a terrific misplaced dependency and we have got to get you help.”
Bob: I do not know whether you tried to do that or not or whether she would be receptive to that. If she isn’t, I think to continue to allow a person to engage in that type of sinful behavior without a consequence, then all you are doing is feeding their behavior. There has to be a consequence, sooner or later, to choices we make. Those consequences, what you can do is eliminate the severity of the consequences to what can happen to her if she continues in this, for she is going to destroy her life.
Tom: It is heavy.
Bob: Yes, it is heavy.
Bob: They call that tough love. I do not know if it is tough love or not. You would not do that if you did not love her. You would just boot her out of the house.
Tom: I was going to say that just a few years ago. She was into some type of substance abuse. So here goes another dependency. We did get past that and she has been good with that. For a long time, all you guys listening out there, a lot of battle going on. I did not even understand what was going on. I was very ignorant to what the deception and the deceit in all these things.
Bob: You mean on her part?
Tom: Yes. I learned quite a bit. It seems like a kind of an attitude. It seems like another person comes into the room in that body.
Bob: It is a downward spiral on this type of thing. The person involved in that will start looking like they are crazy and will deceive like crazy. It reminds me of Romans 7 that Paul went through.
Romans 7:14-20
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. 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.
Bob: The things I want to do I don’t do and the things I hate to do, I do anyway. When you see that scripture, you see a person struggling with life. I wonder, sometimes, if this person, your wife, if she had a strong religious background in her life.
Tom: No.
Bob: Does she reel against it?
Tom: I think so.
Bob: Do you know the Lord, personally?
Tom: I sure hope so. Yes, I do know the Lord.
Bob: Are you sure of that?
Tom: Yes, and He knows me.
Bob: I know He knows you. Do you know Him?
Tom: Yes. Thank you.
Bob: You are sure welcome. Now, what about her?
Tom: I sometimes wonder. She makes reference to Him, but you won’t find her reading the word.
Bob: Was she ever?
Tom: Her brother is a believer and she had mentioned to him before that he reads her something. I have been married 7 years and I have never seen her read the bible.
Bob: She is looking for something she is never going to find. She has misplaced dependency. She is depending on alcohol to do for her what only Christ Jesus can do. Basically, she is going to have to come to her senses and she has to come to truth, and that truth will set her free. Tom, I will tell you this. There are some people we know in Boise, Idaho, that if she would be interested in talking with them, they would be more than happy to talk and counsel with her to see where she is in relation to the Lord and explain to her why she goes to booze is because she is looking to escape some place. It is a misplaced dependency. Maybe that would be a help to get face to face talk with somebody who knows what they are talking about? Do you think she would be open to talking to somebody?
Tom: I told her yesterday when we got into a riff. I did mention that we need outside help here. So, you know I have been becoming more and more less tolerable of what is going on, so I find myself leaving more often. Just as a human, I am having a hard time, even being around her now. It hurts.
Bob: Again, to her, that is more rejection. It is just a spiral. The two of you need to sit down and have a heart to heart talk, Tom. As the head of the home, you have to set the pattern there. I would do that. You say to her, “This marriage is not going to last. You are not going to be able to take care of your children with the pathway you are going. You are in the process of destroying your entire life and I love you too much to let you do that. We are going to take steps to get you fixed.”
Bob: If she does not think she is sick. When I say sick, she has a sickness of a misplaced dependency. Remember what Jesus said.
Mark 7:15
15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”
Bob: Jesus said, “it is not what a person puts in his mouth that defiles a person, but what a person puts in their heart.” She does not have a drinking problem. She has a heart problem. That heart problem can only be solved by Christ Jesus. We keep looking at the fruit instead of the root. It is not what you put in your mouth that defiles you. It is what you put in your heart It is a heart problem that needs to be dealt with.
Bob: If you need any help, you let us know. I would be glad to put you on hold and see if I can get you in touch with people in the Boise area, or for you to call back if she would call us. Just get her help, Tom. She needs help and she needs it now. You are going to have to say, “if you do not get help, we are out of here.”
Tom: I would like that help. Hopefully, if you have contacts.
Bob: I will put you on hold and get some contacts for you. Give the operator your telephone number because we may even have contacts here to contact you back. Give me her phone number and we will get back.
Bob: God bless you, Tom.
