Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P426 (3-28-19)
Bob George received calls from people across the country. Many thank him for sharing the truth that he shared so clearly from God’s word. Cecilia called and was very appreciative of Bob’s clear teaching. She was very enthusiastic of sharing all that the Lord taught her. She had been sharing with her friends about the finality of the cross and God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. Bob and Cecilia encouraged each other in the Lord. For the sake of the listeners on the air, Bob shared again what Cecilia already knew from the Spirit, that we are responders to God’s love through his finished work of the cross. We do not go to God asking for forgiveness every time we sin. We simply say “thank you” for His eternal sacrifice for sin that He performed once and for all. When Jesus shed His blood on the cross, he took away all the sins of the world; past, present and future sins. Indeed, all our sins were future when he died. Since his death, Jesus will never again shed his blood for his sacrifice was eternally sufficient to pay for the just requirement of death for all the sins of mankind. And without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. So then, if you are in Christ, walk in faith, believing what Jesus said, “It is finished”.
There were some other callers who had questions on subjects that really were not of great significance and we will not know all the answers to certain types of questions until we meet the Lord in heaven. But we do know that God’s word is sufficient for men to come to know God and believe in Him for eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Another caller did call about a topic that enslaves the people of God, and that is this false teaching of sowing your seed to get a return from God. In many churches today, a preacher will tell his congregation to sow financially and God will reward you back ten fold. In essence, they are the false teachers mentioned in 1 Timothy that are using godliness as a means to financial gain, and are of a perverted mind. They are robbed of the truth, have a corrupt mind, conceited, and understand nothing. The believer who loves the Lord gives out of gratitude to the Lord, not even thinking or expecting anything in return. Yes, you can never out-give God and God is faithful to provide all our needs in Christ Jesus. God will meet our needs and not our greed. Those who truly give to others do so out of pure love so their giving is truly out of a desire to bless people. Whatever you do, do unto the Lord, because it is an expression of God’s love in your heart.
Cecilia
Recently at church, people would talk about forgiveness, saying “We have to go to God for forgiveness”. She is having to correct them and telling them “God died for us once and for all.” So she called to thank Bob for his teaching.
We are responders. God made us to be a responder not an initiator. No one initiated forgiveness at the cross. No one initiated creation and not one of us initiated salvation. All of that was done by God and we are responders to the work of God.
1 John 4:19
We love because he first loved us.
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The way we respond is a direct indicator of the way we believe or think we believe in what he initiated. If I am responding to God thinking I have to seek forgiveness, it is because I don’t know He has forgiven me. I am merely responding in accordance with my lack of knowledge as to what Jesus did. I am responding to what someone has told me, that Jesus died for my sins but that I must keep asking him for forgiveness. This is often from a misinterpretation and twisted preaching of 1 John 1:9 from many pulpits today. How many of you heard a preacher say we should keep short accounts with God or there is positional forgiveness and experiential forgiveness. None of that teaching is from God and His word. There is no where in the bible, in the New Covenant, telling people to ask God to forgive them. It has already taken place.
2 Corinthians 5:18-20
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.
Since God sent Jesus into this world, and Jesus completed the work God sent him to do, which was to die on the cross and be raised to new life, is He counting our sins against us? No. Why not? When Jesus died on the cross, how many sins did he take away? The sins of the entire world!
1 John 2:2
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Propitiation means that God was completely satisfied, that the sacrifice of Jesus’ shed blood was all sufficient to take away the sins of the entire world. So if sins are no longer taken into account, what then keeps anyone from coming to Jesus Christ for life? The only sin that keeps someone from coming to God for life is the sin of unbelief in God’s all sufficient sacrifice for sin and provision for life in His Son, Jesus Christ.
John 16:9
The world’s sin is unbelief in me.
Acts 10:43
All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
Ephesians 1:7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
So forgiveness is received at new spiritual birth, when the Spirit of God comes to dwell in you forever. Jesus redeemed us back to God by his shed blood. He already provided forgiveness of sins through his death on the cross but forgiveness provided then must be received in Him. So your sins from God’s vantage point have already been forgiven at the cross. God reconciled you to Himself through Christ’s death. Now you be reconciled to God through the life of Christ. When you come to Christ for life, then you have become a forgiven person, a part of your identity along with everything else that is Christ’s, including His righteousness and holiness.
So we should be thanking God for that forgiveness rather than seeking what we already have in Jesus Christ. That is not faith.
Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God.
We have people who think they are so pleasing to God, making their ascension into heaven, because they keep short accounts with God. Their erroneous thinking is this: “Sinning is not the issue but be sure to ask God to forgive, to get it off your plate, so you can do it again.” That has been promoted for centuries. Indeed scripture testifies of the world’s way of becoming right with God.
Colossians 2:20
20 Since you died, as it were, with Christ and this has set you free from following the world’s ideas of how to be saved — by doing good and obeying various rules
That is been carried in Catholicism where they do not believe in the finality of the cross. For if they did then they would not being going to the priest to be absolved of sin. That was carried over into Protestantism, where they boast about not having to go to a priest when they can go directly to God. Both are in serious error in their thinking. What do you think Jesus did at the cross when He took the sins of the entire world?
2 Corinthians 5:18-20
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
So God initiated by sending Christ into the world to die on a cross. God reconciled the world to Himself through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. God has reconciled you, by taking away sin, the cause of death. The wrath of God against sin was poured onto Christ so that we can freely come to God to receive new life. So the appeal to men is to be reconciled to God. Come to Him by faith in Christ’s all sufficient work. Come to Him with empty hands and simply put your trust in Him. God was raised from the dead so that believing in Him you too can be raised to new life in His righteousness.
Romans 5:17
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
All of these are things God did for you and me. The only way to intelligently respond to those truths if you are going to walk by faith, is to simply say “thank you”. Yet we are still begging Him to do for us, that in Him, has already been accomplished. That is not faith. It is presumption. It is an atrocity, and in essence is spitting in the face of Jesus, treating as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified you and insulting the Spirit of grace.
Hebrews 10:29
How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
That is what we are doing when we are consistently doing what God says is over. What is the difference between us continually asking God to forgive us and a Jew going back to the day of atonement to obtain forgiveness by sacrificing a bull and a goat? Nothing at all. What we are doing is denying the grace of God that has been extended to us in Christ Jesus and saying we have our own religious system. By doing so, we are saying, “I am not interested in pleasing God but pleasing man when they can look at me and say, ‘how wonderful I am in keeping short accounts with God'”. When He says it is finished, and it is finished, and it is offered as a gift then all you need to do is say “thank you”.
Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this [salvation] is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Cecilia listened to Bob as he shared what she also believed. She shared that she has been on the phone over an hour with her friends explaining this truth to her friends. The only sin God is dealing with us now is with the sin of unbelief. She tells her friends to start over again on talking about the basics, the concept of what born again means and the issue of death and life. She then thanks Bob again for helping her to speak truth to help others understand and accept this truth. When you share truth, they may not respond immediately, but the word is planted for them so they can go back to the word of God and check it out. She tells her friends to go back and check it out for themselves just as she had learned from Bob’s example. She has a boldness and a delight in sharing truth to other people. She likes speaking about the God she loves. She says she keeps learning and so she tells Bob to keep teaching too.
Jason from British Columbia
Jason had a question marriage with close relatives. When Adam and Eve had kids, did their kids marry each other?
Bob answers what he knows, but not all these things can be known or even that important to know. Simple logic and reasoning tells you it had to start out that way.
It had to start out that way. The only way I could figure it out. There was nobody else to have children then. It went for a period of time. But it took a lot of years before you could get away from inter-marriage with close relatives, possibly to the first or third cousin.
Jason then asked, “How did all the races of different colors come about?” An entire nation wiped out at the flood. So whatever happened in Adam and Eve started all over again with Noah. Bob has no idea. It happened and we know we are here. We know Jesus came to tell the truth to us and he never dealt with those issues, for they are insignificant in terms of new spiritual life that man needs. God gives to us what we are able to handle and takes us where we are to where he wants us to be so He can lavish His grace on us. This is what Jesus spoke to his disciples, who had not yet received the Holy Spirit, since he had not yet risen from the dead.
John 16:12-13
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
There are things that God has decided not to write down for us in His word, minor things really, and that he will explain to us some day.
John 21:25
25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
Rudy from Corpus Christi Texas
Rudy had hear teaching about sowing a seed to get blessed. So he asked Bob, “We are not under the law of tithing but scripture does mention about sowing sparingly and reaping sparingly. Is there any teaching on giving to God that you will be blessed by God?”
When He blesses you, what blessing are we talking about, being blessed financially or something else? It is always wise and good to read an entire passage to discern God’s meaning in context.
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 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. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:
“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Does that mean you are going to sow more money so as to reap more money? Or, does it mean, as it says in verse 10, to increase your store of seed that will enlarge the harvest of righteousness. What does God produce in and through you? Is it not His work of love poured in your heart that overflows in thanksgiving to God. From that internal attitude of receiving from God there is this overflow of love to your fellow man.
So the passage is not talking about being blessed with money but blessed with a harvest of righteousness that results in thanksgiving to God.
Then Rudy asked, “You will be blessed through giving. Does it mean you give so you will be given something back?”
You give out of the attitude that is in your heart without expecting anything in return. You give because it is an expression of God’s love in your heart.
Not to get more money but to be blessed by that, the attitude in the heart.
1 Timothy 6:2-10
These are the things you are to teach and insist on. 3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
So these false teachers are teaching godliness as a means to financial gain. Such false teachers are robbed of the, have a corrupt mind, are conceited, and understand nothing. That is certainly not a qualification of a minister. So the passage in 2 Corinthians 9 is definitely not a means to financial gain. Nor is it your righteousness as a means to financial gain.
Then Rudy asked, “If I am going to trust the Lord that if i give so and so then I am to trust God to meet my need.
Is that a proper way of thinking?”
You cannot out-give God. Blessing needs to be appropriate to the need. It is also not how much but to whom. I would not give anything to a legalistic church. But I would give my heart to teaching the grace of God. I would not give to anyone co-mingling law and grace, who has violated the law of God, who said we are to be minsters of New Covenant, not of the letter of the law that kills.
2 Corinthians 3:6
He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Instead of being a minister of grace they are co-mingling law and grace. I am blessed in my heart by doing so and what I get back is totally irrelevant but my experience has been that you cannot out-give God. I have never seen God fail me. Whenever I gave there has always been enough to meet my needs and not my greed.
Rudy then shares his experience in this world of false teaching. Almost every Christian channel talks about sowing your seed.
Bob agrees with Rudy ‘s assessment. False teaching is not about sowing your seed for a harvest of righteousness. False teaching says, “It is giving to me. If you give to me, God will give you back tenfold.” Bob would say to such a false teacher, “It appears to me, pastor, you need more money worse than I do so why don’t you give me the $1000 and I give you the $100. I have never found anyone take me up on that offer.”
Tonya from Salinas, CA
Tonya asks Bob, “What is your opinion of the importance of water. In the beginning there was the face of the deep with the spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters. Bodies depleted of water going into dehydration.”
Tonya, in essence was reading too much into the scripture, trying to discern something spiritual that is simply an explanation of God’s creation.
From science, we know the body is 70% water and 70% of the earth is water. That is a physical description. As far as spiritual significance, there is no spiritual significance at all. He was merely hovering over the waters He created. Being born of water means being born in a sac of water. That is what Jesus was saying in regards to physical birth when speaking with Nicodemus in John 3.
Virgil from Corps Christi, Texas
Virgil shared a praise report from a previous conversation he had with Bob concerning a friend. Bob rejoiced with him in the praise of God for a saved marriage. Virgil described a praise to God for a breakthrough for a friend of his who was thinking that he had to divorce wife from second marriage based on adultery. His friend was really sincere in doing what the Lord wanted him to do. In great consternation, he was considering separation but in prayer, the Lord wanted him to stay in that marriage and make the second marriage to work as to what the first marriage should have been. God was totally at work. He listened to the voice of the Lord and obeyed.
