Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P478 (10-03-19)
Transcript
Liz from Gallup, NM
Liz: I have been saved for 8 years, love the Lord with all my heart, and married for 9 years. We got married in the church but he walked away. I asked him to move.
Liz: In Ephesians it says a man is to write a note to let the wife go. That is what I have to do. (She is in great distress. You can hear anguish or tears in her voice.)
Bob: I am sure it does not say that, Liz. You are reading something that is not there.
Bob: Why are you so upset with this man in your marriage?
Liz: He does not believe the bible. He is believing his traditional way. He is gay. He is practicing homosexuality. He prefers a man than me. (She is quite emotional). I need to file for a divorce.
Bob: Hold on Liz. Let me ask the questions and you answer. I think I can help you better that way.
Bob: Is he practicing homosexuality?
Liz: Yes. People have seen him.
Bob: Have you confronted him with his homosexuality?
Liz: Yes. Has he admitted that he is?
Bob: Has he been with another man sexually and has he admitted that?
Liz: Yes, and he was with that guy, at his mom’s place.
Liz: I think the issue is I am disabled.
Bob: You take wife for better or worse. That is not an excuse. If he is practicing homosexuality then he is committing a sin against you, then you have a certain right to divorce him. If he is going to continue in that lifestyle, and mistreat you as person that is disabled. Do not ask him to write a certificate of divorce. Do not wait on him to write a note. You write it.
Bob: A person that is practicing perversion. Homosexuality is more than just a sin. It is a perversion. He is living in perversion. Unless a person comes to Lord and literally recants what he has been doing and recognizing them as what they are, sin. It is not an alternative lifestyle. It is sin. He has violated those vows of marriage and because of that we are going to end this marriage. If that is your desire to do so, do not wait on him to do it. Some will say, “I want my husband to do it so I will not file for divorce.” That is nonsense. If such a man has no desire to change, then a wife cannot live with that. That is why you are crying and upset.
Liz: God hates divorce.
Bob: God hates sin, all sin. Worry is sin. We need to get off this of what God hates, this or that sin. He hates anxiety. That which is not of faith is sin.
Bob: When sin entered world it entered us. That is why God came to the world to take away the sins of the world. He did not die because he loved sin. He died because he hated sin.
Bob: The issue is if you have a man and he has decided to go into another relationship, then he has broken his marriage vows. If he is mistreating you, and you are disabled, and that is your desire to leave, then you are free to do so.
Liz: Does it not say that we marry until death do us part.
Bob: He did not wait for death do us part. He entered a relationship with another man.
Dave from Unica, NY
Dave: In letters Paul writes to churches, giving milk and not solid food. Did scripture evolve into maturity as we move along?
Bob: First of all that scripture does not say that Paul gave them milk. They should be teachers by now and they were not ready for solid food. He is saying they still need milk because they are carnal. So he is not encouraging them to remain on milk. He is saying this.
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
1 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly – mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
Bob: So if Paul is saying that he who plants or waters is not anything, he is also saying he is not anything. It would be like people today boasting they are Baptist, Catholic or Presbyterian. That is following mere men. Who is Apollos? Who is Paul? Only mere men. Each man will be rewarded according to his own labor. God is the one who is something. He is the one who causes all things to grow. If Paul is no big deal, then nobody should be walking around all puffed up.
Bob: In Hebrews it says we ought to be teachers by now. We should be growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet Paul says to them that they are still babes in Christ.
Dave: I also have a question in regard to the law. He died for our sins. The law still stands.
Bob: Not to the saved it doesn’t.
Dave: Is not Christ the embodiment of the law?
Bob: Not at all. We are dead to the law. If that were the case, to die to the law would be to die to Jesus. If you do not die to the law, there is no way to grow in grace.
Romans 8:14
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
Galatians 5:18
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Bob: That means if you are under the law, you cannot be led by the Spirit. And if you are not led by the Spirit, then you are not a son of God.
Bob: A person who continually wants to be under the law, according to these passages, then I would ask yourself some serious questions if I am really saved.
Dave: Other passages say the law is not a burden, that you uphold the law.
Bob: No it doesn’t, Dave. It says you are to die to the law.
Dave: I understand the law is death.
Dave, you are not understanding. Otherwise, you would not be saying what you are saying.
Bob: The only thing the law can do for you is kill you.
Dave: Okay
Bob: The law cannot make you righteous. It cannot justify you. It cannot give you life. That is why it says it is no longer in effect.
Hebrews 8:13
13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.
Bob: When you have come to Christ, you are no longer under the supervision of the law. The power of sin is the law. You have to die to the law. If you are alive to it, it is like being married to Jesus and dragging your old wife around.
Dave: I agree with you, Bob. I have another question. Do you see the same type of legalization and corruption in hierarchy today as when he walked the earth?
Bob: Absolutely. You see heads of denominations and see what is taught from top down. You may see people born again, under such leadership, but have never grown, but are still just babes in Christ, still on milk. Many times I can’t tell you how this happens. You get a person who comes to Christ, and if he has any testimony at all, he could be on the circuit for 20 years, telling hundreds of times how he got saved, but has never grown in grace. You can be totally ignorant of what is taught from the top and still be saved.
Milt from Vancouver, British Columbia
Milt: I have a friend whose wife is Buddhist. He through a question at me I did not know how to answer. God said it so it has to be true. When Cain went to another land and got a wife, where did she come from? If God said it is true, then it is true. It does not matter where she came from. But he wanted an answer. So I told him I would call you.
Bob: Here is the answer to that type of thing. Here is a guy throwing out smokescreens. If I could prove to you who she was, would that make a difference in what he believes concerning Christ Jesus? Maybe she was his sister. That is the way the earth had to be populated in the beginning. Quite frankly it is none of his business where she came from. George Bush has a wife and I do not know where she came from and I do not care.
Bob: So I would ask the question. “If I could prove to you right now where she came from, then would you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior?” If his answer is no, then tell him, “neither will I tell you where she came from.”
Bob: What good would it be for you where she came from when you still remain dead in your sin? You are still lost. You do not even know where my wife came from. Does that mean I am not married?
Bob: To those types of smokescreens, I ask this question. “If I could prove to you right now where she came from, will you get down on your hands and knees and accept Christ as your Lord and Savior? I have never had a person say yes.
Bob: Others have asked, “Was Jonah in a whale?” It does not matter if Jonah ate a whale or was in a whale. The problem is that you are denying salvation through Christ Jesus.
Milt: I tell them just accept it through faith. God says that is how it is, so believe it as true.
Bob: It is not based on fairy tales. It is based on the fact of a man named Jesus who walked on the earth, whom was seen and walked with, who proclaimed himself to be God. I do not believe big, fat Buddha ever claimed himself to be God. It is not faith by faith. Faith has an object. The object is Jesus, who came to this earth, was hung on a tree, taking upon the sins of the world, and was raised from the dead to give life to men. Those are facts. His faith must be based on facts, not fiction.
Michael from Albany, NY
Michael: I was saved four years ago. I went to a church and left that church to a more conservative church, a King James only church. I am wondering if there is a difference between a seeker-friendly and another church. Should a church be open for everybody to come?
Bob: I have never studied out of the King James bible. It uses language antiquated to us, with thee’s and thou’s. I say to those who are King James only, what about those who are German, French, or Italians? How will they ever be blessed by God, for certainly they do not have a King James bible? That is nonsense and divides the body of Christ. According to them, nobody should be listening to me. I have never studied from the King James bible. I may have memorized a verse or two from the King James, and it can be quite poetic. It is a good translation. It is just antiquated to me. I have difficulty understanding something in the King James. The King James only people are in essence saying that the translation is superior to the Greek. But most of the King James was translated from the Septuagint and not the Greek. Those things irritate me because so nonsensical. I think I have a good understanding of the word of God, because the Spirit of God had to reveal the meaning to me regardless of the translation. In situations, someone will say, “See in that translation it did not say God”. “Well, go back to the Greek. And in the Greek it did not say ‘God’ but it said something else, but it certainly did not negate ‘God’ in the Greek.” So they are making arguments that make no sense.
Bob: As far as the seeker friendly movement, everybody has to do what they think. I cannot handle that personally. What God said to me is this. “Bob, did I have a college ministry and an executive ministry? What kind of ministry did I have?” I respond to God by saying, “A ministry to the people.” “You present Me and then let whosoever come will”. That makes sense to me.
Bob: The early church met together for the breaking of bread, fellowship and prayer and listening to the apostles teaching. Today, we have bowling alleys and coffee shops and everything imaginable. The Christian world is gathered into a single spot and never have an opportunity to meet with the lost. So let us get music the children like. Why? I do not think we develop music because someone likes it. Music should come out of your heart.
Bob: In our assembly, I can only focus on what we are doing. I want a balance between hymns and modern music but none of that rock and roll stuff. We try to obtain a balance but the reason people come to church is for biblical teaching. I do not think you will build a large church that way because I do not think many people are really interested in what the bible says.
Michael: I think that is what I was confused about. Also, to clarify, the church I am going to is not King James only, to clear that up.
Bob: They should not even be mentioning that.
Michael: I think just the pastor is reading it. That is not the big issue. The church I left was a big church. What is more important, size or quality of the message?
Bob: It is the quality of the message. You have a seminar on how to build church. There take these methods, and there are good methods as far as getting people to come into your building, and are effective, but then there is no mention of Jesus. So what do you want to do? Do you want to get a bunch of people in, spend money to build buildings to bring in the lost and carnal people? I want to build a church for those who know Jesus and love Jesus and want to know more about Jesus. I do not want to build an entertainment center for people. I want a place for people who sincerely can grow in their knowledge of Jesus. That is what scripture teaches, to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think you are right on that. When the attention is on things going on, not that they are bad, but they can be a substitute instead of a supplement. Anything God will bless as a supplement God will curse as a substitute. Ultimately, you are looking for quality of teaching. That ultimately is what is going to sustain you.
