Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P517 (03-05-20)
Synopsis
Listen today as Bob addresses the common questions that are still asked today. The practical issues people struggle with today are answered with the message of the totality of the cross, of being made complete in Christ by believing the complete message of the gospel.
There are questions that people in church ask, such as what about the unpardonable sin or falling away after hearing truth, as in an improper understanding of Hebrews, where people think they can lose salvation. There are questions asked, even church-going people, such as whether premarital sex is sin. There are questions people ask about the second coming of Christ, but are getting tripped up over simple things they have heard that are simply not true. People have either not come to Christ in the first place or have not grown in the Lord. Why is that? They do not take the time to allow the Holy Spirit to teach them truth through His word. The only way truth is revealed to men is through the Holy Spirit. Those without the Holy Spirit cannot discern the things of God.
Sadly, many people are hearing a half gospel. If you grew up in a Baptist church, for example, you may have heard a message to come forward to get your sins forgiven. That is not the gospel that the apostle Paul preached. Paul spoke about the totality of the cross, that all the sins of the entire world were taken away from the eyes of God when he shed his blood on a cross. That means that before you were even born, your sins were taken away. But Paul also spoke about the resurrection. Many people, when asked, cannot answer what the meaning of the resurrection is.
Salvation is not getting your sins forgiven, for that was already done. Salvation is the receiving of new life. Without the receiving of life, you remain dead in sin. The only sin attributable to man is the rejection of the Son of God, of what he alone accomplished for you by his death, burial and resurrection, and failing to come to Him for life. The cross was a necessary preparation for life to be given. For if sin was not taken away first, then life could not be given. Because the wages of sin is death, then the next time man sins he would die again.
So man had to be out from under that law of sin and death in order for life to be given, so that life remains in you. Jesus is the only person without sin, and the only person with a life to lay down, and who had the power to be raised to new life. That life that raised him from the dead can raise you and me from the dead. But it necessitates that you come to him to receive the gift of eternal life. Otherwise you remain dead.
You come to Christ for Him, knowing you are a sinner, dead in sin, totally without hope and wretched, and so you come to Him for the only life available to you, and are born again. Born again means the Holy Spirit, the life of Christ Jesus, is permanently placed in you. This is not based on anything you did, but based on what Christ alone did for you, and you believed and received that message of Christ for you, and invited Him in. Bob George wrote a booklet that explains this complete gospel. Check out Be Born Free and read along with your bible, the scriptures he shared.
Now, concerning Hebrews, as in Hebrews 6:1-8, where you read about falling away, and about this raging fire. Many have thought this to mean that somehow you can lose your salvation. They have not understood what the author of Hebrews is really saying. He is saying that if you have been enlightened, have tasted and seen, but have not swallowed, then you have not believed the message of the gospel, and you are no different than Judas Iscariot, who spent quite a number of years with Jesus, hearing but not receiving, hearing but not believing.
The Jew, who the author of Hebrews was addressing, is going back to the day of atonement, sacrificing a bull and a goat to get his sins forgiven, has never repented in the first place. He has not believed what Jesus said when he said, “It is finished?“. You cannot go back to where you have never been. The same can be said of those who go to a confessional booth to get sins forgiven or someone who uses 1 John 1:9 every time he sins as a means to keep short accounts with God. Listen as Bob explains the meaning of Hebrews.
Now, as far as losing salvation, people have their favorite verses they quote on that, but they have not understood the meaning of God’s word. If you have been given eternal life, then it is eternal, meaning it is forever and ever. If you have been born again of the Holy Spirit, where the Holy Spirit is sealed in you for the day of redemption, then you cannot become unsealed. Your salvation never had anything to do with what you do, how well you performed, but on Christ’s performance alone. He died, he was buried and he rose again, and you put your faith in that work of Christ alone for you. God never consulted with any man on what Jesus did for us. Jesus came and he did what he did in order for us to have eternal life. We were all born spiritually dead and in need of life and the only life available to man is the resurrected life of Christ Jesus.
So so someone says that the second coming is when the Holy Spirit comes is just not true. The second coming is about Jesus physical coming. The Holy Spirit never left. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and that Holy Spirit now lives in all those who are born again. That Spirit never leaves a person. It is wise for people to study the word of God. Be like the Bereans, whom Paul commended as those who diligently studied the scriptures to see if what any man said is so.
Now, suppose you are a member of a church, would you recognize false teaching when you hear it. If the church now lets a woman to pastor the church, then you have no business being there any more than being at a church where there is a gay pastor. That is simply not biblical. To grow in Christ, you must allow your mind to be renewed with truth. God’s church, made up of those who are born again, worship in Spirit and in truth. Without truth, what kind of church do you have? Certainly not God’s church. If people choose to be there, that is their business, and let the Lord deal with that. But if you are in Christ and have any discernment, you will leave such places of false teaching and practice.
