Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P499 (12-19-19)
Synopsis
When you have a question on a hard to understand topic, one thing you can be sure of, the answer has to be in agreement with what salvation is, of what the gospel is. A good question to answer first is this: Do you believe that Jesus took away the sins of the entire world? Now, is your answer to that based on what the Holy Spirit has revealed to you through the scriptures, or are you merely repeating what you heard from a denominational persuasion? Your answer to that question will determine how you are going to interpret other scriptures?
Consider the following passages of scripture. I will list some verses, but go back and read the entire verses in their context. If you have the Holy Spirit living in you, then you can rely on the Spirit to reveal to you the meaning. Based on these scriptures, what do you believe these scriptures mean? Romans 5:10, 1 John 2:2, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 9:22, Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:26, and Hebrews 10:10.
If the Holy Spirit is living in you, then you shall know the truth. Grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and grow in discernment so that when you hear false teaching, you know it and are not caught off guard. If a Mormon knocked on your door, and he shared things to you that is clearly contrary to what Jesus said and who he is, what would you do? Consider what God has instructed for us to do in His word. If you are mature in Christ, mature enough to discern truth from error, warn others about such false teachers, so those who hear them do not become trapped or ensnared.
If you are a new believer in Christ, I encourage you, to first of all get a bible translation you can understand, such as the King James, the New American Standard, or the Living Bible. Avoid the Message bible. I would avoid bible commentaries, because then you are getting what men have to say. You want to learn what the Spirit teaches you. The only way you will know if any man is telling you the truth is by checking out the word of God for yourself. Consider that the apostle Paul commended the Bereans as noble for diligently studying the scriptures to see if what he said was so (Acts 17:11).
By relying on the Holy Spirit to teach you, while reading God’s word, also helps you to be on guard against false teaching and error. And we all start off with error, carrying with us some of the thinking patterns while we were lost, and we will always be in need of renewing our minds. That is why we are instructed to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may test and approve what God’s perfect will is (Romans 12:2).
Now, the gospel of John is probably the best book to start with, for then you get acquainted with the love of God, of who Jesus is, and the depth of his love for you. You grow in your relationship with Christ that way. Then I would recommend the epistles, the writings of the apostle Paul. They are rich in doctrine, and ground you firmly in soundness of mind with truth.
Be careful also about memorizing scripture, for their is the tendency, especially in the world we live in today, to make the scripture mean whatever you want it to mean. Instead, read entire paragraphs and chapters, to get the full context, asking the Lord to reveal to you the meaning of the word of God, the meaning He intends for you to know. That will spare you so much heartache and wasted time in this short life we live here on earth.
1 John 4:1-6
1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the anti-christ, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
Transcript
Sid from Greenwood, IN
Sid: I got a question. At a Wednesday night bible study I have been going to, they are trying to bury me in 1 Corinthians 5:5. A gentleman has been messing around with his step mother. They are saying the Lord killed him. No, I do not think so. Reading it, I cannot clarify that. I am sure I heard you talking about that over the years. Can you help me on that and refresh my memory on that. It says, in order to save his spirit. Well, we know if he is a Christian, his spirit is already saved.
Bob: I do not know for sure, Sid, what kind of people you are dealing with there in your study. You are dealing with people who basically are denying that Jesus took away the sins of the world. That is where you have to start with people, Sid. Look, I am tired of listening to people talking and disgracing and making a mockery, as it says in Hebrews, of the grace of God and treating as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that has sanctified you and is insulting the Spirit of grace. I am sick of listening to that. I am going to ask you a question. Forget about this passage. Did Jesus take away the sins of the world or not? Didn’t he? If he has, then interpret this scripture in light of that.
Sid: Well, I tried to. I brought this up to them. Being from Indiana, Bob, you understand.
Bob: (Laughter with him). No, that is not it, Sid, You have a bunch of hard-necked people you are dealing with. I do not have any more patience for people like this. I too am tired of listening to people who are spitting in the face of Jesus, and saying, “You are a liar when you said you took away the sins of the world.” That is where you have to start.
Bob: Now on this passage, there is nothing about God killing this person. They said to turn this man over to Satan. His body is going to die. All of us are going to die. But for the benefit of the spirit, he needs to be put out of the fellowship. Then if you turn over to 2 Corinthians, you read.
2 Corinthians 2:4-11
5 If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent – not to put it too severely. 6 The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. 7 Now instead, [this is hard] you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. 9 Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 10 Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven – if there was anything to forgive – I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11 in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
Bob: When he says if there was anything to forgive, he is saying that the man did not sin against him, Paul, but he sinned against God.
Bob: He is dealing with that person. They put him out of the assembly. This was a man who was having sex with his father’s wife and they were proud about it. They were arrogant. They were boasting about it. They were thinking, “This grace is wonderful. You can do whatever you want to.” That attitude is what Paul was addressing. When you get this kind of attitude, and in this particular case, you hand this man over to Satan so that his body may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. In other words, turn him over to Satan. His body is going to die, but his spirit needs to be saved on the day of the Lord.
Sid: The day of the Lord, what is he referring to on that?
Bob: He is saying you are dying and going to heaven. Your body is going to die, but your spirit is going to be saved the day you meet the Lord.
Bob: Back them up. So you say this. I am not going to answer this one. What I am going to ask you and you must answer this one. Do you believe when the bible says that when Jesus took away the sins of the entire world, do you believe that or not? If you do believe it, then how are you going to interpret this scripture?
Sid: Some of them are looking into it a little bit. It is going to take time, I am sure.
Bob: Again, Sid, you know we have been dealing with this issue for a lot of years. Whatever place you go it is the same thing. The whole issue comes down to red-necked people who will not believe the truth. The truth is, Jesus, unlike atonement that covered sin until the next time, that Jesus came and took away our sins from the eyes of God never to see it again. When he comes back he is not coming back to bear sin but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Why is he not coming back to bear sin? He has already done it. He cried out from the cross, “it is finished”.
Bob: I would just hang in there, Sid. Do you believe Jesus at the cross, crying out, “it is finished“, did he mean what he said or does he mean it is almost finished? So if it is finished, then you are a forgiven person, if you are in Christ. And if you are in Christ, then you will interpret scripture in accordance with the truth of the cross, “It is finished”. And that is how you are going to interpret this passage of scripture.
Bob: If you are not doing that, I would just hammer them until they understood that truth. I am not going to deal with these controversial issues until we have dealt with the real issue, and that is the issue of the cross.
Sid: The pastor in some areas, he is far off . He is very much seminary taught. He gets into experiential and progressive and this and that and the other. I questioned him on that, but there again, I cannot. We are in a small group and he is leading it and I do not want to get into it when I feel not as capable of addressing as you did. But when they came up with that, I know it is not true, but I do not know how to explain it away, this passage in 2 Corinthians 2.
Bob: Again, Sid. I know what you are going through. I have been through those things. I have been in bible studies and here is this seminary graduate. In about three months of study in the bible, I probably knew more than his four years of seminary training. Are we supposed to believe that when Jesus said “it is finished” ,was it finished, or is he deceiving us? Put it back to them that they will have to come to a conclusion. They will have to come to understand what this means. Is that what it means or does it mean something else?
Sid: I said to him, “All things are permissible and not some things beneficial. Boy, you sure took that out of context.” I just let it lie there. All things are permissible. He said all things are permissible. He did not say some things are permissible. Where sin abounds, grace increases all the more. That kind of falls into that.
Bob: There you go.
Sid: Thanks again for your ministry. Thank you all so much.
Bob: Bless you, my friend.
Dorothy from New Orleans, LA
Dorothy: I would like some information on the Mormon on Baptism.
Bob: A Mormon is not a true Christian belief system at all. They do not believe in the same God as you do. They believe God was once a man who elevated himself into the position of God. They believe Satan as Jesus’ brother. They have all kinds of beliefs that are so contrary to the bible that you would not even recognize them. To think that some man is claiming, years ago, that he looked into a pair of binoculars and saw Egyptian hieroglyphics and interpreted those and no one else knew what they said except him. I would be hard pressed to think how any thinking person could go along with that and get a hold of that nonsense. But they are fast growing. They do that by having appearances of having wonderful families. The guy that just murdered his wife out there had an appearance of being wonderful families. But what is on the outside and what is on the inside are two different things. It is a cult. It is cult activity. It is something a true Christian should avoid like a plague. We can get some information. John Ankerburg has books on that type of thing. Dave Hunt has books on it. If you go into any Christian bookstore and ask for some books on Christian authors as regards to Mormonism, you will get your eye full, believe me.
Dorothy: In my community, they are really hitting the elderly people.
Bob: Right.
Dorothy: They are really going after them to be baptized. It struck one of my family members, so I was curious to find out what they were telling them about it. I did some research on it and I found out that they baptize people for the dead, whatever that means. I did not understand what they meant by that, but I knew it was not in the bible.
Bob: That is for sure. He created his own and people follow it like sheep going off a hill. There is only one Father and he is not someone who was here once and elevated himself to God. I encourage you to tell your relatives to stay away from that. The reason they are going after the elderly is to get their inheritance. Along with false teaching comes false motives, I am sure. Be on the alert and warn your people.
Dorothy: Thank you so much.
Bob: You are welcome, Dorthy. Bye Bye.
Mark from Houston, TX
Mark: When it comes to buying a bible, is it good to buy a study bible, such as Scofield or John MacArthur? Or is it better to buy a plain one?
Bob: Mark, I would advise a plain bible. I will tell you why. You have a concordance in all bibles, which is good. A study bible is giving the input of a man. There is nothing wrong with man’s input if the input is correct and right. The way you are going to find out about that ultimately is to read your bible. That is the way I would start. I would refuse to read commentaries as a new Christian or even as an old Christian. I believe that if God means what he says, and he believe he does, then let the spirit teach you truth.
1 Corinthians 2:9-10
9 However, as it is written:“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived” –
the things God has prepared for those who love him –10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
Bob: Then revelation has to come from the Spirit of God living in you. The revealing of the meaning of the word of God, not what it says. A computer knows what it says. The meaning has to be revealed to you by the Spirit of God. The same Spirit that lives in Scofield or MacArthur lives in you. That may sound strange to some people, but the fact of the matter is the same Spirit that lives in them lives in you and gives you the same ability to understand the meaning of the word of God as it did to them. I would rather digest pure food than chewed up food. I would advise you as a relatively new Christian to read the bible on your own. Get a translation you can understand, such as the New American Standard (NAS) or the New King James (NKJ). There are a lot of wonderful translations out there. Pick one of those and start reading scriptures and let God reveal the meaning of it to you.
Mark: The one I have is the ESV. It is a literal translation.
Bob: Yes, that is a newer version and it is a good one.
Mark: Okay.
Bob: Yes, just start in the gospel of John, or wherever you want to start. If you are a new Christian, I recommend starting in the gospel of John to get a total glimpse of the love of God. Then start into the rest of the scriptures.
Mark: I attend bible studies at the church I go.
Bob: Again, I just encourage you to do this. Always check out what someone tells you, including myself, in the word of God. Never take the teaching of a man as gospel truth. Check it out. They might be a wonderful teacher. Check it out in the scriptures. And always read the scripture in context.
Mark: Okay. Alright.
Bob: One of the dangers of scripture memory is memorizing scripture out of context, and the meaning of it comes to be whatever you want it to mean. That is very dangerous. Always study scripture in context.
Mark: Okay. Alright.
Bob: Does that help?
Mark: Yes.
Bob: Okay Mark. God bless you. Bye. Bye.
Nile from Detroit, MI
Nile: I heard you teaching that Jesus took away all our sins at the cross, past, present and future, from the eyes of God. So that means we have a clean slate?
Bob: As far a sins are concerned, but you are not saved. You are saved by the resurrection. That is what it says in Romans 5:10.
Romans 5:10
10 For if, while we were God’s enemies [lost], we were [past tense] reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled [that being an accomplished fact], shall we be saved through his life!
Bob: You are not saved by the death of Christ. You are saved by the life of Christ. To be saved by eternal life, not temporal life, he had to eternally take away the cause of death, which is sin. Had it not been for the cross, where he took away the sins of the entire world, we would never have eternal life, because if he did not take them all away, the next time we sinned, if we received life, we would die again. That is why there is no condemnation for those in Christ because the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death. It is because of the finality and universality of the cross that you and I have eternal life today.
Nile: So even though the cross was a physical thing, it covered all of mankind universally?
Bob: It did not cover it. It took it away.
Nile: He took away all sins from the eyes of God.
Bob: Yes. The only sin attributable to man is the sin of the rejection of the Son of God, which is unpardonable. That is a sin that cannot be forgiven. It has to be repented of. That is why Jesus said the world’s sin is unbelief in me. All of the sins of the world were placed on Christ. The sin of the rejection of the one who did it is unforgivable.
Nile: Oh, yes. I can see why.
Bob: Absolutely. We walk around talking about the nasty nine, the dirty dozen, the terrible twelve, and then walk around in unbelief in what the cross accomplished for us, yet unbelief is the only sin attributable to man.
Nile: With that in mind, what I am trying to understand is on a day to day basis. When I get up in the morning, I know it is not up to me to keep myself clean because I can’t. Unless I cover my eye, tape my lips, and plug my ears, how do I? It is so hard with the way women dress.
Bob: Nile, that is why you need salvation. If you were able to keep from lusting, you would not need salvation. If you were able to keep yourself from being angry, then you would not need salvation. To see that you can’t enables you to turn to the one who can and did. Everything that God commanded us to do is an impossibility. Be perfect. Try that one on for size. The issue is you can’t but what you can do is learn how to walk by faith in the Spirit, and then you will not be fulfilling the desires of the flesh. It means you may look but you will not fulfill it. Why? Because you are walking by faith in Christ Jesus.
Bob: The key to that, it is like a branch and a vine, Nile. You would say to the branch, “what do you do?” He says, “abide in the vine and the vine will produce in you what I am looking for”, and that is love, joy, peace and patience. The branch says, “yes, sometimes I get my eyes onto these other things.” “Well, get your eyes back on the vine, for you cannot do anything about that. The only way you are going to produce fruit I am looking for is abiding on the vine.”
Bob: So, you have to learn not to beat yourself up and recognize that we all fall short of the glory of God and every sin you have and ever will commit has been placed on Christ, where he suffered and died and became an eternal sacrifice for sins. So thank Him for that and start walking by faith. As you are walking by faith, putting your dependency on Christ, it will cause you not to fulfill the desires of your flesh.
Nile: So it will change your attitude. As you walk it will change your attitude about certain topics. I would normally cuss out somebody in a situation. I would back off and say, “Father, forgive him” or walk away.
Bob: Yes, or walk away.
Nile: In other words, your attitude should be that as Christ Jesus.
Philippians 2:5-8
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death –
even death on a cross!
Bob: That is the total change of attitude in heart is what God is working on. In the meantime, we are going to fall on our face sometimes, and when we do, we get up and thank Him for His forgiveness and ask Him to get to the root of what is causing you to do what you are doing. The answer God would give is basically the root is you have stopped trusting Him.
Nile: I am not trying to be nit picky. I know you have been around a lot longer than me. I know it is not just lusting after women. It could just be a nit picking thing or just a little difficult spouse or something. It is against law to do certain things. You do not want to go to jail. You really want to do to solve this and you feel all of it. You feel it.
Bob: That is like Billy Graham’s wife said one time. “Never in my whole marriage did I ever want to divorce Billy. A few times I wanted to kill him.” That is all a part of the human experience. We are never going to be perfect on this earth. If you really want to be perfect, pray for death. While you are in this flesh, and breathing here on this earth, you will always be struggling with the flesh, which has indwelling sin in it, and the Spirit of God living in you. You have the privilege of participating in the divine nature, who lives in you. We can also participate in this flesh. I used to say, “God why did you leave this. You could have eradicated this flesh of mine.” He said, “Yes and you would forget about me in a New York minute. ” Adam and Eve did not originally have sin-indwelling flesh and what did they do? They forgot about Jesus immediately. That is why Paul said, “rejoice in our weaknesses.” It is because of our weakness that keeps us dependent. It is our weakness that keeps us dependent on Him. If I did not have any faults, I would forget about Jesus in a minute. I would think I did not need Him and think I am self sufficient.
Nile: Sometimes it is just feelings and thoughts. When ever I think, “Oh, here I go again.”, if it was not for Jesus Christ, I would not even be able to even think about it.
Bob: Exactly. The more that you get into the depths of what we are in, you just wake up every morning thanking Him for mercy and grace. You say to God, “I do not know why You put up with me. You have chosen to live in me, to guide me and direct me. I just thank You that I am progressing a little bit every day of my life.”
Nile: I am trying to hang up. I have been across so many church members and I do not want to feel like a hypocrite to them. I am not anti-church any more but whenever I go I see so many people. This one preacher. He preached a good message. Then he said the only way to have the Holy Ghost is by speaking in tongues.
Bob: So you are in a place where error is being taught. If error is being taught, no need to stay. You have enough error in the world. You do not need to get more error. So you go some place else. I would not spend five minutes with someone teaching that. The bible definitely speaks against that. That is their bias, otherwise they would not be talking about it. It is adding to the gospel. The gospel is the death, burial and resurrection. Whenever someone adds death, burial, resurrection and tongues, your emphasis is on tongues instead of Jesus death, burial and resurrection. If the emphasis is on baptism, then you forget about death, burial and resurrection. There is not anything in the gospel except death, burial and resurrection.
Nile: You do not have to be baptized to be saved.
Bob: Of course not. John baptized with water but a man coming after me, whose sandals I ma not worthy to untie, he will baptize you with the Spirit. When you are baptized with the Spirit, is when He places you in the body of Christ. That happens at spiritual birth.
Nile: You guys are a blessing. Please do not ever go away.
Bob: Thank you. Come and see me some time, friend.
Nile: I would love to. Let me know.
Bob: God bless you, my friend. Bye. Bye.
