Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P466 (8-22-19)
Synopsis
The first caller, Hans, with understandably great emotion with weighty decisions to make. He shared that he is dying of melanoma cancer that has invaded much of his body already, including his brain. He had concerns about losing a relationship with God because of potential damage to his brain. Bob assured him that his relationship with God will always be there. You will never cease to be a child of God. You might not be able to pray to Him, but you are in His hands. He was also wanting advice on further treatments to take. Bob could not answer that for him, but for him to ask God for wisdom. God gives wisdom to all who ask without partiality. But he offered what he personally would want to know. If the cancer has invaded most of his body and that no amount of treatment will get rid of it, then the decision, to Bob, would be one of quality of life versus quantity of life. He would personally refuse continued treatment, if he had definitive information from the doctor on the matter. Other considerations is the financial burden on the wife. All those things have to be considered. Bob also encouraged him to not make decisions from fear. God does not give us a Spirit of fear so do not let what the doctors say put fear in you in making decisions. There is no fear in death for a believer. It is a passing from this life to the next, where you will forever be with the Lord.
The second caller, Jessie, with tears, expressed deep love for his mentally challenged son who is sick. He was concerned about those who do not have understanding of God. Does God accept those people into heaven? Being that his son was not without understanding, slow but he had some capacity of understanding many things, Bob encouraged him not to assume he cannot understand the message of the gospel. If he can make the decision of when it is time to go to bed and when to put clothes on and take them off, then he can understand the simplicity of the gospel. He may not be able to express it like you and me, but you might be surprised when you just share that your love for him is greater than life. Tell him that you want him to know there is a life after death, and to ask Jesus into his heart. Jesus loves you more than his own life. As you share these things, you might be surprised that that is something he wants to do.
As for very young children or those incapable of understanding anything, we leave that decision into the hands of a perfectly loving and just God, who will make that decision based on who He is. He is the same God who sent His Son to die for us and rise again to give us new life. That decision is not something we have to be concerned with. We just leave that decision in the hands of God. As for those who have never heard, Bob personally believes from scripture that God will see to it that a person wanting to know God will be presented with a message of the gospel.
Joe called to express his struggle in holding onto truth. There are times when as believer, growing in the Lord, we are hearing from the Spirit and even beginning to grasp truth, but then we hear teaching again from others. That little bit of teaching from others sheds that little doubt in our mind. We ask ourselves, “Did I understand this truth correctly?” We sometimes get stuck on just one verse and it is like we have a mental block or tunnel vision. Such was the case with Joe. He had asked about Romans 6:2 concerning what it means to be dead to sin. How can we be dead to sin when we keep sinning?
Bob first said that we can understand truth clearly from the Holy Spirit when we read entire passages and chapters of scripture, particularly Romans 5 through 8, letting the Holy Spirit teach us. There is so much truth in Romans that just reading that alone will be sufficient for you to know how to live the Christian life. We get tunnel vision because we get so focused on just one single verse, without context.
Another common mistake is to try to get doctrine from the Old Testament. In the Psalms, just because David prayed for the Holy Spirit not to leave him, that does not mean that is true for born again believers today? David was under an Old Covenant system and Jesus had not finished the work yet. Hebrews explains this clearly, this contrast between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant we live under today. In Ephesians, we read, speaking of the New Covenant, about the Holy Spirit that is sealed in you. He will never leave you or forsake you.
Ephesians 1:13
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise
Now concerning Joe’s question on dead to sin. You are dead to sin but not dead to sinning. Without the law there is no sin. Are you dead to the law?<“Yes”, Joe replied. Then you are dead to sin. You are no longer under the law. God is not holding you accountable in sin. You are not dead to sinning. You are dead to God dealing with sin. God is not dealing with you anymore on the basis of sin. If He was, then He would be dealing with you on the basis of sin and death. If that were the case, if you ever had life, then the next time you sinned, you would die again.
Sadly, there are so many pastors that teach error. The most sure way to spot error is to read the scriptures yourself, letting the Holy Spirit teach you. Best selling Christian authors writing books on 25 or 26 principles to live by. You do not live by principles. You live by a life. You live by a living Jesus, who is alive living in you, called the vine, and we are the branches. That is not living by principles. That is living by a life. Abiding in life. You do not abide in principles. You do not abide in the law. You have no capability of obeying either one of them. It is abiding in him and letting him produce his life in and through us. Any thing contrary to that is contrary to the clear teaching of New Testament Christianity. Yet, the most popular ministers we have today teach the very opposite of abiding in the life of Christ Jesus, exchanging our life for his and allowing his life to be lived in and through us.
Mike called to ask questions that were difficult for him to understand and grasp. He has heard teaching from his own father, a pastor, that was in conflict with truth he has now been reading and hearing. The Holy Spirit is teaching him and guiding him into truth, but because of erroneous teaching, truth is harder to grasp. Mike shared that his father was a pastor and taught something called the Sonship doctrine. “If you sin, then you have a break in communication. Do you believe any of that?”
No, not if you are dead to sin. If God made you dead to sin, how can God be looking at sin? If Jesus’ cross took away the sins of the world from the eyes of God, how can God be convicting you of sin? The issue is that people are sitting in double talk. Is it true or is it not, that when Jesus went to the cross, he said, “it is finished”. That is what he meant. He did not mean “paid in part”. He meant paid in full.
So Mike and Bob dialoged back and forth for awhile. Mike shared why he was struggling to understand. You can tell that Mike really wanted to know the truth on this matter. What about the conviction of the Holy Spirit? What about conscience? What should we do when we sin? All of these questions are sincere and genuine questions that so many people have asked.
Did the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, take away your sins from the eyes of God never to see them again? Mike replies, “Absolutely.’ How then can the Holy Spirit be convicting you of sin? We do not live by being convicted of sin. We live by a new life. When I blow it, I first have to look at what did God do. He took it away. What do I do? How do I respond to that when I sin? I say, “Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you that you took away that sin 2000 years ago. You had to suffer and die for that. Why did I do what I am doing? You said the root of all sin is unbelief in me. So I was not trusting you”. I stopped trusting Him. Instead of trusting Him, I was leaning on my own understanding. I was trusting in myself. “So now, Lord, teach me. Teach me to how to abide in you”. I do not want Him teaching me how to live by principles. I cannot follow them. I do not want Him teaching me the law. I cannot follow it. If I could follow the law, I would not need Jesus. Jesus lives in me. I have the mind of Christ living in me. I have the ability to participate in the divine nature, every moment of every day? Do I do that all the time? No. Sometimes I lean on my own understanding. What did He do with that, when I lean on my own understanding? He forgave it. He took it away. So what do I do? I say, “Thank you, Lord”. I do not want to be begging God for for what I already have? That is not living by faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. We think we are being pleasing to God by keeping short accounts with God. God is sitting up in heaven saying, “What do you people think I did for you 2000 years ago on a cross? Not to be asked to do it again? If I answered your prayer, then I would have to hang on a cross and die all over again, for without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.” No, I do not ask God at all for forgiveness. I thank him. It is not like He blinked an eye at my sin. He judged it. The verdict was guilty. The punishment was death and He took it for me. So I will spend the rest of my life thanking Him instead of asking for what in Him I already have. That is the new life of Christ.
Jim called to ask if love is greater than faith? Faith can move mountains, but love is greater?
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.
Transcript
Hans from Eugene, OR
Hans shared, “I am going through melanoma cancer. In January, the doctor took out a tumor out of my brain. Two legions have not been removed. I am looking at probably. I am so confused. There is radiation they can use. A new form of radiation that does minimal damage. Is there anything in the bible that will help me feel be comfortable with radiation. What if it changes my personality? Will it affect my relationship with Christ?”
No. but those are all things to think about. There is no treatment without side effects. So when dealing with treatments, especially the brain, the question to ask and ask is, ”What is the possibility of this occurring you are talking about?” You have two choices. One, try to treat with radiation, or two, try to treat with chemotherapy. Bob said he has friends going through the same things. So many friends going through cancer. Those are decisions you have to make.
Hans shared also, ”Most of my stomach and part of intestines are taken out as well.”
Bob responds. There is another issue. Talking to a friend of his, whom he has known for years and years, with lung cancer. Bob encouraged his friend, “Can you go to a doctor and get a straight answer. If this cancer is all over my body, and if it is, then why do anything?” Same thing happened to Bob’s sister. “Come on now, radiation is not going to help if it is all over my body. Neither is chemotherapy.” The doctor replied, “Yes, but you never know.” So they gave it to her and she was dead in three weeks. I am not saying that the doctor killed her but I can say this. Before she started on that she was in good shape. She was lucid before this. Doctors are so petrified of being sued, so they just decide, “well, we are going to try everything so the patient cannot come back in and say you did not try enough”. That is a dangerous practice of medicine to me. If it were me, I would like to find out if this thing is confined or all over my body? If it is all over my body, then leave me alone and I will wait for my consequences, whatever that might be.
Hans continues sharing. I am taking immune-enhancing drugs, daily, for 18 days straight and then a week off.
Bob replies. You are dealing with quality of life versus quantity of life. You are already in the system. I do not want to be discouraging to you. Right now you are in their hands. I cannot tell you what to do, one way or the other. We can pray for you.
Hans then expresses his concern, how it effects his self awareness and consciousness.
No, it will not effect your relationship with God. You will still be a child of God. If your brain is effected, then you will not be able to do much praying. Try to get an answer. Is it spread over all my body or not? Death is imminent. I am a Christian, so I am not afraid of death. So I would rather have a quality of life than a quantity of life. Those are the answers that I would personally want to know. Sorry to hear this. I know you have called numerous times. So sorry to hear this.
Hans shared other concerns. I also do not want my wife to be with a huge financial burden for my wife.
In all those things you need to ask for wisdom. You ask for wisdom and He will give you wisdom. Do not function from fear. Fear is not from God. In the practice of medicine today, they try to scare the daylights out of you. You cannot scare me. I will not make a decision based on fear of dying because I am not afraid of dying.
Hans thanked him for the call and longed to meet Bob in an upcoming conference planned in Eugene, OR. He really appreciated the reminder of not acting in fear and that there is no fear in death.
Jessie from Atlanta, GA
Jessie shared about his son who is mentally challenged. “I have a son who is mentally challenged. I am stressed and he is a little sick with a stomach virus in bed. I am trying to find the most effective way to witness about what Jesus did and did for all of us. Him being mentally challenged, a lot of things in this life he does not understand. He is not mentally retarded but he is slow. I am so worried because I want him to have the opportunity to accept Jesus. Is Jesus going to turn him away because he does not understand? I am not sure you have the answer to that?
I do have the answer to that. Do not assume he cannot understand. He understands some things. I am sure he understands when he is hungry to go and eat. I am sure he understands when to go to bed at night. I am sure he understands when to put his clothes on and when to take them off. So there are many things he understands. There are a lot of things he does understand. I would approach him not as a mentally challenged person but a person that you are going to communicate the good news of the gospel. There are many people in that category who are as just as much in Christ as you and me. They may not be able to express all the things you and I can, but they are still in Christ Jesus. I would share Christ Jesus with him just as you would with anyone else. I would continue to do that. I would challenge him to accept Christ Jesus in his life. If you have never done that before, then you might be surprised that that is what he wants to do.
Now, will God not accept the person who does not or has no capacity of understanding? Does God accept the child that was too young to come to Christ by faith? Would there be a possibility of someone who has never heard the gospel? Bob personally believes from scripture that no one who has wanted to know God has never been left without a presentation by someone in regards to Christ. But what about these other situations? You put them in the hands of a perfectly loving and just God, the God who so loved you and me and came to earth to take away the sins of the world. If we place these kinds of people into the hands of God, who is perfectly loving and just, then God will make the decision in accordance with who He is, perfectly loving and just, and so I do not have to worry about those kinds of decisions. Those are decisions I do not have to make.
Jessis, with tears, said, “I love my son”.
That is expressed to him, Jessie. That is the best thing he could ever hear, is how much you love him. I would tell him, “Son, it is because I love you more than life, that there is life after death”. So just communicate that to him, “It is because I love you so much, I want you to know about the life after death. I want you to know that we will all die”. Just communicate that with him. You will probably be amazed with his response.
“Thank you, sir.”
Keep us posted and let us know how that turns out.
Joe from Bay City, TX
I cannot thank you enough for your program. A member of your staff made a recent post on Facebook concerning dead to sin. I often thought dead to sin was being dead spiritually but thanks be to Christ, I am alive to God. I read verses again and something else is there. This is the case with Romans 6:2. Don’t you know that you are dead to sin and that you …”
Bob interrupted him because he knows what he is going to say. Let me see if I can help you with this. Without the law there is no sin. Are you dead to the law?
“Yes”, Joe replied. Then you are dead to sin. You are no longer under the law. God is not holding you accountable in sin. You are not dead to sinning. You are dead to God dealing with sin.
Joe said, “I have had people tell me that that means you are dead to sinning.”
No, that is impossible. You are dead to God dealing with you on the basis of sin and death. That is what Romans is about. If a person took some time reading Romans 5 through 8, then you will have essentially everything you need to live the Christian life.
Joe comments. “That is how the Holy Spirit is teaching me but when I hear someone else then I get hung up on my interpretation and question myself. They act is if they do not sin anymore.”
Well, I would like to interview his wife, Joe. I hear some of those people. The self righteousness of those people oozes out of their mouth. They think they never sin. It must be miserable living with someone who thinks they are so perfect.
Joe continues. “You and the Holy Spirit have taught me. Now that I am seeing light, and starting to live more and more in the truth, I am astonished at how many people do not know it! That is for us.
What do you have? Best selling Christian authors writing books on 25 or 26 principles to live by. You do not live by principles. You live by a life. You live by a living Jesus, who is alive living in you, called the vine, and we are the branches. That is not living by principles. That is living by a life. Abiding in life. You do not abide in principles. You do not abide in the law. You have no capability of obeying either one of them. It is abiding in him and letting him produce his life in and through us. Any thing contrary to that is contrary to the clear teaching of New Testament Christianity. Yet, the most popular ministers we have today teach the very opposite of abiding in the life of Christ Jesus, exchanging our life for his and allowing his life to be lived in and through us.
Joe summarizes, “You are dead to sin but you are not dead to sinning”.
Bob continues. God is not dealing with you anymore on the basis of sin. If He was, then He would be dealing with you on the basis of sin and death. If that were the case, if you ever had life, then the next time you sinned, you would die again.
Joe shares, “Just like Paul said, that when we see Jesus face to face, then we will see him as he really is. He will perfect us then.”
Mike from Pueblo, CO
Mike had a question on Psalm 66:18.
Audio was faint, but Bob interrupted him because he knew where he was coming from. Mike was in agreement with Bob on the first question but needed clarification on truth to his second question and struggled more on grasping truth.
Why would you go to the Psalms? We do not live in the Old Covenant. We live in the New Covenant. There are places in Psalms, like David’s prayer for the Holy Spirit not to leave him. We would not pray such prayers today as born again believers. Do not go into the Old Testament looking for doctrine to live by. If doctrine in the Old Testament could save us, then Jesus was stupid for coming to earth and suffering and dying to take away the sins of the world in order to give us his life living in us.
Mike was in agreement and excitedly shared a truth from scripture. If there no problem with the first, there would be no reason for the second.
Hebrews 10:9
9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second.
Mike then shared that his father was a pastor and taught something called the Sonship doctrine. “If you sin, then you have a break in communication. Do you believe any of that?”
No, not if you are dead to sin. If God made you dead to sin, how can God be looking at sin? If Jesus’ cross took away the sins of the world from the eyes of God, how can God be convicting you of sin? The issue is that people are sitting in double talk. Is it true or is it not, that when Jesus went to the cross, he said, “it is finished”. That is what he meant. He did not mean “paid in part”. He meant paid in full.
Hebrews 10:14
14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are [being] sanctified.
When you have been made forever perfect, then how perfect are you? You certainly cannot say you are an imperfect person in God’s eyes, for He made me perfect in His eyes. He completed me.
Mike then shares, “When I fall short, pastor, the Holy Spirit tells me. My conscience tells me. So I also want to get on my knees to my Father.”
How can you be walking by faith saying that? How can you be walking by faith saying that Jesus took way the sins of the world from the eyes of God, never to see them again, but if we confess our sins He will forgive you?
Mike is puzzled by the statement, and asks, “Is there no conscience? That is where my problem in understanding is then?”
It is not conscience because you do not live by conscience. You live by the Holy Spirit.
Mike asks, “Certainly, but if you do something wrong, the Holy Spirit’
Did the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, take away your sins from the eyes of God never to see them again? Mike replies, “Absolutely.’ How then can the Holy Spirit be convicting you of sin? We do not live by being convicted of sin. We live by a new life. When I blow it, I first have to look at what did God do. He took it away. What do I do? How do I respond to that when I sin? I say, “Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you that you took away that sin 2000 years ago. You had to suffer and die for that. Why did I do what I am doing? You said the root of all sin is unbelief in me. So I was not trusting you”. I stopped trusting Him. Instead of trusting Him, I was leaning on my own understanding. I was trusting in myself. “So now, Lord, teach me. Teach me to how to abide in you”. I do not want Him teaching me how to live by principles. I cannot follow them. I do not want Him teaching me the law. I cannot follow it. If I could follow the law, I would not need Jesus. Jesus lives in me. I have the mind of Christ living in me. I have the ability to participate in the divine nature, every moment of every day? Do I do that all the time? No. Sometimes I lean on my own understanding. What did He do with that, when I lean on my own understanding? He forgave it. He took it away. So what do I do? I say, “Thank you, Lord”. I do not want to be begging God for for what I already have? That is not living by faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. We think we are being pleasing to God by keeping short accounts with God. God is sitting up in heaven saying, “What do you people think I did for you 2000 years ago on a cross? Not to be asked to do it again? If I answered your prayer, then I would have to hang on a cross and die all over again, for without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.” No, I do not ask God at all for forgiveness. I thank him. It is not like he blinked an eye at my sin. He judged it. The verdict was guilty. The punishment was death and He took it for me. So I will spend the rest of my life thanking Him instead of asking for what in Him I already have. That is the new life of Christ.
Mike thanked him and indicates by his reaction that he was grasping what Bob was explaining.
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 1:13
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 John 4:7
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
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.
Galatians 5:6
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
1 John 3:16
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
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
