Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P432 (4-18-19)
Bob George received a call from Jim who simply asked if love is more important than faith. Bob answered from scripture that love indeed is greater than faith because love is from God and God is love. God initiated love to us and we respond to that love in faith. So faith is man’s response to love. Do we accept his love or do we reject it? Do we even understand that love? Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love.
Bob George also received a call from a young college lady, Lynn, who had found herself in an unwanted situation. She had committed fornication and is now pregnant. She wanted to know if abortion was wrong. Bob graciously shared truth with her, that abortion indeed is the sin of murder. Bob graciously provided practical advice and explained the truth of God’s unconditional love toward her. He shared such practical wisdom to help her make choices in line with who she is as a born again believer. God created life and this child she has was a life God intended to live. So if the life of Christ is in you then he would want you to keep the child. She was in agreement with everything Bob shared and was receiving truth as God would want all of us do when we are caught in sin. There is nothing that can separate any of us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. He will cause all things to happen for the good for those who love him. All of us are capable of sinning any sin which is why scripture instructs us by saying that if anyone thinks he is standing firm then he should take heed lest he fall.
Bob also received a call from Joe. Joe was not on the air but the question was such a common question yet critical to understanding the sin of unbelief and what God’s provision for the complete forgiveness of sin. A common question that is asked is in regard to Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10. Many a Christian have become so fearful that somehow they have sinned that they can lose their salvation. Much of this is due to a misinterpretation of Hebrews 6 and 10 due to the wording that makes the meaning unclear to them. But a deeper question needs to be answered that pertains to the proper understanding of the complete forgiveness of sins and the sin of unbelief. Bob addresses this topic while explaining the meaning of Hebrews 6 and 10. What the passages in Hebrews are really speaking to are those people who have never repented in the first place, who sinned against the knowledge of truth by going back to the day of atonement for the forgiveness of sin. When God says his work is finished and he will remember our sins no more, then how can you go back to repentance of the sin of unbelief when you never believed in the finished work of Jesus Christ in the first place.
Bob also addressed what many religious people do today. The Jews, the Catholics and the evangelicals or protestants, have formed their own sacrificial system for the forgiveness of sin that indicates they never repented of the sin of unbelief in Jesus. In Hebrews, scripture clearly states that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. Jesus shed his blood once and only once, never to be repeated again, to take away the sins of the world. What is confession? To say the same thing God said. What did God say? It is finished, paid in full by his blood. The Jew says, “No. I still got a bull and a goat for the atonement of sin”. The Catholic says, “No, I got to go back to a priest for forgiveness, do penance, and say a rosary.” The evangelical says, “No. I go direct to God to get forgiveness. I keep short accounts with God.” In all those cases, you are sinning against the knowledge of the truth, making a mockery of the grace of God that took away the sins of the entire world. It is time we start understanding that we agree with what God says or we are going to agree with God when we die and are going to a place He does not want us to go.
Jim from Little Falls, NY
Jim asked a question in regards to 1 Corinthians 13. There are three things, faith, hope and love, but the greatest is love. Scripture also states that you can have faith to move mountains. Is love more important than faith?
1 Corinthians 13:!3
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 John 4:7
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
1 Corinthians 13:2
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
Love from the bible comes from God. Faith comes from us. Love is greater than faith. This falls in the subject of initiator and responder. We are not made to be independent people. We were made to be dependent on our Father. He is the initiator of cause and effect, the dynamic of his own action in creation. The love of God came from heaven, from God Himself. Faith is how we respond to that love and enter in our salvation relationship. Love is on his part. Faith is on our part. Love is greater than faith. Our faith can fade, can be feeble, and can be misplaced. Nothing can separate us from God. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. We are never going to express ourselves through love unless we have faith in the initiator, the love of God.
1 John 3:16
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Lynn from New Orleans, LA
Lynn, a young college girl, was wondering what the bible says about abortion. Bob drew her out to find out her reason for asking. She had committed the sin of fornication. Bob gently talked to her in a Spirit of grace, providing her needed instruction and encouragement to make right choices. She is a believer and like all of us, we are all susceptible to committing any sin. God unconditionally loves her and will cause all things to happen for the good. She will be facing difficult times ahead but God will always be with her.
Abortion is taking the life of a baby. So it is in the same category as murder. When a person destroys a child with potential to spring into life you took the life away God intended to live. Is that a sin that was placed on Jesus on the cross? Yes. It is a sin forgiven on the cross. Are you referring to yourself or someone else? Just lie all of us, when we are ashamed of our sin, we want ot hide, possibly out of fear of how others will respond to that sin. Her answer was, “Sort of.” Bob persisted, “It is either yourself or someone else. There is no sort of. She admitted she is a college student, that she is a Christian and is now pregnant.
That baby did not get formed in there by osmosis. There was a sin of fornication that took place. Can a Christian commit fornication? Yes. Can a Christian commit adultery? Yes. Christians can be subject to any sin out there.
1 Corinthians 10:12-13
12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.
It is so important for you to recognize that those sins you commit and will commit had been placed on the back of God never to see them again, from His standpoint. He came to give you life. The Gospel is not getting your sins forgiven. That is part of the gospel but it is only a bridge you cross over so you can have eternal life. Salvation is receiving life.
John 10:10b
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 11:25a
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.
1 John 5:12
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
The whole issue of salvation is being saved from the consequences of sin, which is death, (Romans 3:23) by the gift of God, which is life (Ephesians 2:8-9). God looks at life as a gift. That is when you are saved. It is not when you just recognize and thank him for the cross and ask him for forgiveness. People stop there but it is the resurrection that saves you. He lives in you when you ask him in you as your Lord and Savior.
Romans 5:10
For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Lynn, you are indwelt by God. So you are indwelt by the wisdom of God with the heart, love and mercy of God.
1 Corinthians 1:30
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.
So you have to ask yourself, when Christ is your life, would the Jesus in you want you to abort this life? No. So you shouldn’t either. It will be an inconvenience and an embarrassment but all those things are short-lived. In the long run, you are going to bring a child in this world under some adverse conditions but God will cause this to work out together for your good.
Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
It is hard to see it at the time. But once you see the child come out of you, just as new life was produced in you at new spiritual birth, you will have a love in you that you never knew you had before. I have heard people say “I will never get my college education.” Well, there are a lot more important things than getting a college education. Bob, at 70 years old, has only been asked one time if he had a college education and was never asked what grades he got. You were in love with someone and these are natural impulses that people have (there is no sin except that which is common to man; sexual desires are naturally God-given but sin is when improperly exercised out of context of marriage). At your age you are full of hormones. You got in the trap of making physical love with one another and you got into the trap of pregnancy. Do not compound the problem.
Romans 8:31-39
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 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.
Nothing can separate you from the love of God. In all these things, you are more than conquerors. You and Jesus will get along just fine. Keep the child and you will be a phenomenal mother.
They have been together for 4 years. Bob asked here, “Does he know about this?” She replied, “He does not know about this yet.” Bob said, “You are fearful of telling him and fear does not come from God. God did not give you a spirit of fear.
2 Timothy 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
He needs to know about it. That way you are going to determine whether this is the boy or man you want to be married to. And he is going to determine if this is the woman he wants to be married to. He might cop out. If he is a true born again believer then he will say, you and I need to get married and have a family together.” And if you do not want to do that, then wait on God to bring the right man along. If you have been together that long seems that a good relationship was formed. You need to confront him with this and let him know about this. That is the proper thing to do. These are some of the repercussions that not everybody gets into. There are those who are very promiscuous as can be and nothing ever happens. Another person slips up one time and get pregnant. We do not know why those things take place.
Bob extended such grace and offered practical help and reached out in love to her. Do you accept that God took away your sins 2000 years ago? Recognize God loves you and God wants you to preserve that life that is in you. As a child of God I am sure you can do it. I hope to meet you some day. You do what God would have you do and you will be blessed. If ever you need help call at any time. If you need future counseling we have got Ed Heck to talk to. Do not go this alone. You have friends here to rely on.
Joe called but somehow hung up. His question was an important one so Bob answered for the benefit of his listeners on the air, and for Joe also if he was still listening.
A common question that is asked is in regard to Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10. Many a Christian have become so fearful that somehow they have sinned that they can lose their salvation. Some of this is due to a misinterpretation of Hebrews 6 and 10 due to the wording that makes the meaning unclear to them. But a deeper question needs to be answered that pertains to the proper understanding of forgiveness of sins and the sin of unbelief. Indeed, there are many religious people, Catholics and evangelicals alike who have not really repented of the sin of unbelief in God’s finished work. Bob addresses this topic while explaining the meaning of Hebrews 6 and 10.
There are lots of confusion out of Hebrews when taken out of context. Hebrews is about showing the superiority of Christ. He is superior to the angels (chapter 1), greater than man (chapter 2, though humbled himself and became a man), greater than Moses (chapter 3), the great high priest (chapter 4), and a priest forever (chapter 5).
Romans 6:4-6
4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
When you tasted something you really haven’t consumed it. Judas Iscariot would have fallen into this category. He certainly tasted and seen the miracles of Jesus and heard truth he had spoken. He had been around him and tasted the goodness of the Lord. But he did not repent of unbelief to be bought back to repentance.
The phrase, “if fall away” trips up a lot of people. Lots of people say, “See there, if you fall away from the Lord, that you call salvation, and never get back again, if you lose it, then there is no recovery from that.” Such fear grips so many people who have believed in error. But they stop reading there.
Romans 6:6
To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
What is it saying there? If you fall from something you have to fall to something. If you fall from grace, you fall back under the law again. If you fall from believing then you have never believed. The reason you cannot be brought back to repentance is because you have never repented to begin with. It is impossible to fall back to where you have never been. You have a doctrine that you have erroneously believed. You think that in order to do what God asks you to do that Christ would have to be crucified over and over again that subjects him to public disgrace. The writer of Hebrews is talking about the cross. He is talking to people today, who are saying out of one side of their mouth, “God took away the sins of the whole world” but then they are saying out of the other side of their mouth, “I am going back to the day of atonement to get my sins forgiven.” That is double talk. That is double mindedness that causes a person to be unstable in all his ways.
James 1:6-8
6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
Let us not go over these truths again, says the writer of Hebrews.
Hebrews 6:1-3
Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so.
Why are you going over these elementary truths again? For if you heard these truths and go back to a sacrificial system then that is a sign you never repented. It is impossible to go back to a sacrificial system. You never believed what God said that you must believe in order to be saved. This teaching on forgiveness is unbelievably important! So many people in so called Christianity have never repented of their unbelief.
John 16:9
The world’s sin is unbelief in me
John 3:18
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
They say they believe Jesus took away all their sins but then they say they keep short accounts with God and ask God to forgive them every time they sin. That is double talk. That is a person who has never truly repented of the sin of unbelief and who has not come to Christ by faith and faith alone. When Jesus Christ cried on cross, “it is finished” (John 19:30), what was he really saying? There is no more forgiveness for sin. That is why in Hebrews one reads that you are crucifying the son of God all over again. If Jesus did not die for all, and you are asking him to forgive you, then what would he have to do in order to forgive you? He would have to die again. You are crucifying the son of God all over again, subjecting him to public disgrace, in order to take away your sins eternally in the eyes of God. You are not going to be brought back to repentance because you never repented in the first place. You are saying you are going back to a sacrificial system. The New Covenant states that your sins and lawless God will remember no more.
Hebrews 10:17
Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”
What was the purpose of sacrifice? To forgive sins. There is no more forgiveness of sin. It has been taken care of at the cross. If you are turning to 1 John 1:9 then you have never repented. You have never said you are a lost sinner. There are people who say, “I know God forgave me of my past sins, but what about my future sins? I know he forgave all my sins up to the point of my first decision for acceptance of him but after that it is up to me.” No, that is never repenting in the first place. Your confession will never forgive you of your sins. The shedding of his blood is what took away sin.
Hebrews 9:22
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Turn now to Hebrews 10 where people also misinterpret scripture. The critical, and damning, error though is when people do not understand the forgiveness of God or what the sin is that keeps someone from having eternal life.
Hebrews 10:26-29
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 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?
Read the passage carefully. It states that after we keep on sinning after receiving the knowledge of truth. What are we sinning against? The knowledge of truth is what we are sinning against. How can I be sinning against the knowledge of truth? Someone who is sinning against the knowledge of truth is saying, “I believe Jesus took away my sins but I am going to keep asking him to forgive me?” What is that? That is sinning against the knowledge of truth. You know better than that. If you do not know better than that then you never repented. There is no sacrifice for sin left. You say you have received the knowledge of truth but you are going back to the sacrificial system and God, in essence, is saying: “Sorry, but there is no sacrifice for sin left.” If you are not going to believe Jesus took away the sins of the world all you have to look forward to is a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire.
Hebrews 10:28-29
Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 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?
It does not say he will, but he deserves. He is paying no attention to what he did. He treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant. What is the covenant that sanctifies them? The covenant states, “I will remember their sins no more.” You have insulted the Spirit of grace.
We get all caught up in the nasty nine and the terrible twelve sins. There is no sin greater than the rejection of Christ Jesus, the sin of unbelief of those who deliberately keep on sinning after receiving the knowledge of truth, not admitting that there is no more sacrifice for sins left. In Jewish days, by an outward atonement for sin, sins were transferred onto a lamb and they were cleansed until the next time, and this repeated year after year. Priests perform over and over again. After 70 A.D. there is no longer a temple for sacrifices and the sacrificial system has gone away. Today, I have no idea how they get there sins taken away and neither do they. They just reject God.
People today say we do not have a sacrificial system. We just have a confessional booth. So in the Catholic system you have to get forgiveness from a priest and do penance. If do not know the truth, the knowledge of truth, you cannot sin against what you have never heard. If you never heard truth and that is all you heard, then you never had truth. But anyone listening now, or reading this transcript, you have the knowledge of truth in regard to forgiveness. Jesus said there is no more sacrifice for sin, and their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more, it is finished, and He says it is over and when I come back I come back I come back not to bear sin but to bring salvation for those waiting for him.
Hebrews 10:17-18
17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering [sacrifice] for sin.
John 19:30
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Hebrews 9:28
28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
To the Jew, if you keep going back to the sacrificial system of atonement then you are trampling the Son of God underfoot, treating as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant, and insulting the Spirit of grace that enabled Jesus Christ to do what he did for you.
To the Catholic, if you keep going back to a priest to absolve you of sin, then you are trampling the Son of God underfoot, treating as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant, and insulting the Spirit of grace that enabled Jesus Christ to do what he did for you.
To the Protestant or Evangelical, if you are going to continue thing of keeping short accounts with God, confessing your sins to God to get forgiveness, then you are trampling the Son of God underfoot, treating as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant, and insulting the Spirit of grace that enabled Jesus Christ to do what he did for you.
You cannot come back to where you have never been. You have never repented of the sin of unbelief.
What is confession? To say the same thing God said. What did God say? It is finished, paid in full by his blood. The Jew says, “No. I still got a bull and a goat.” The Catholic says, “No, I got to go back to a priest for forgiveness, do penance, and say a rosary.” The evangelical says, “No. I go direct to God to get forgiveness. I keep short accounts with God.” In all those cases, you are sinning against the knowledge of the truth, making a mockery of the grace of God that took away the sins of the entire world. It is time we start understanding that we agree with what God says or we are going to agree with God when we die and are going to a place he does not want us to go.
