Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P610 (02-19-21)
Synopsis
There are things that are taught in religion or major denominations that are just not in accordance with what is true. We believe it because it was taught to us, frequently enough that we do not even think to ponder over whether it is really true or not. A Baptist pastor teaches what he has been taught from a Baptist seminary. So too, a Presbyterian minister teaches what he has been taught from a Presbyterian seminary. And so too with the Methodists and the Catholics. They are taught to depend on what man tells them rather than depending on the Holy Spirit to reveal to them the meaning of the word of God.
Sadly, none of these denominations agree, and they continue to repeat error, generation after generation. So, the church is in sad shape, and often those who know the truth are compelled to leave because they would be silenced or isolated, called out as being divisive, because what people hear, the truth, is contrary to what they have been taught by men, and they will not or are unable to accept what you say, expounding on the scriptures, from what the Spirit has taught you as truth.
A very good example of this is the false practice of confessing your sins before taking the Lord’s supper so as to not be taking the Lord’s supper in an unworthy manner. Another example is this comingling of law and grace, that you have to ask God for forgiveness every time you sin. So many do not even realize that they do not even teach what the complete gospel is, as if the gospel is getting your sins forgiven.
That simply is not true. Jesus died for our sins before you and I were ever born. That problem was already taken care of for us. No one is saved by getting sins forgiven. What Jesus did on the cross, once and for all, was what prepared the way for life to be given. You are saved by getting new spiritual life. The real issue is you are dead, separated from God, born without the Spirit of God living in you, and so you must be born again.
The clear understanding of the gospel, with passages that clearly explain this, is that He will remember our sins no more, and in Him is where the forgiveness of sins, that what was provided then, is received in Him. It is received by faith because He is alive and offered the life that raised Him from the dead to you and me. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You are not under an Old Covenant of the law of sin and death, but under a New Covenant of grace, of new life in Christ Jesus.
Again, when you study the scriptures, you have to come to conclusions based on the clear understanding of the meaning of the word of God, in what the gospel of salvation really is. You start with what you do know, and do not create your own answers with your own understanding of things that you are not certain of or are unsure about. When you are born again, you begin to grow in grace, having the mind of Christ, His Spirit placed in you so that you can discern the things of God. So, have this attitude, that if God does not reveal the meaning of scripture to me, then I will not know what it means. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to you.
So, take a look at the Lord’s supper. Do you ever need to confess your sins to God so as to be found worthy before the Lord? Were we ever worthy before the Lord? Who alone is worthy? Jesus alone is worthy. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.
First, what is the context of that passage in scripture in 1 Corinthians 11, that so many misinterpret out of context, to come up with this misunderstanding of the Lord’s supper? Paul was addressing a practical matter of people eating all the food up and drinking all the wine before the rest of the body came. So who is being judged, and by whom? Those who were being gluttons were being judged by the rest of the body. All our sins were judged once and for all at the cross, when Jesus shed his blood to take away the sins of the world, never to see them again.
So what was happening? They were being judged by the rest of the body, and disciplined by the Lord, that their behavior is not in accordance with who they are. They needed discipline, to have their minds renewed, so as to be separate from the world in their thinking and attitudes, which God is at work in every believer with that purpose in mind, to live in the new way of the Spirit. Are they being selfish? That certainly is not of the Spirit, but the flesh. So, wait on one another and consider others more important than yourself. Why be judged by the world by such behavior? God has a new way of life for you to be living. So examine yourself. Are you being a glutton? So to solve this problem, eat at home before you arrive. Consider the poor and needy among you, and act in love.
The Lord’s supper is to be a celebration, not a mournful, dreadful event, introspecting over all your sins. It is to be a celebration of being a part of a new body, the body of Christ, where Christ lives in every one of us. That is the meaning of the breaking of the bread, that Jesus is no longer walking physically on this earth but is in every one of us by His Spirit. This is a celebration of what Jesus initiated when He shed His blood on a cross so this New Covenant was possible with men. So let us celebrate, and let us not hinder others from celebrating. What are you celebrating? New life in Christ Jesus.
Now, when we fully understand the gospel, so many questions are answered and cleared up. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. There is no more judgment for sin. It has been judged. The verdict is guilty. The punishment is death and Jesus took it all. The only sin attributable to man is the sin of unbelief, the sin of the rejection of Christ who provided all this – redemption, forgiveness of sins, imputed righteousness, everything you need for life and godliness – for us.
This is what it means to be sinning against the knowledge of the truth. You are insulting the Spirit of grace, treating Jesus death on a cross as an unholy thing, when you are going back to the day of atonement to get your sins forgiven, going to a confessional booth or a priest to get your sins forgiven, or quoting 1 John 1:9 to keep short accounts with God so you can keep in fellowship with God. God is not keeping records of wrongs. He has already judged the sins of the world once and for all when He shed His blood on a cross. He is not going to shed His blood again. It is finished. It is over. He wants you and me to come to Him for the new life, eternal life, He came to give by way of His resurrection.
God Himself came to this earth, as God’s Son and fulfilled the law through walking in perfect love through His lifetime and having fulfilled the law was able to now uphold the law by taking upon Himself what was due to you and me, which is the judgment of death, and entering into our spiritual death with us so that we could enter into His resurrection with Him. Salvation is being saved from the consequence of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is the resurrected life in Christ Jesus. You are saved not by the death of Christ but by His eternal life lived in you.
Transcript
Steve from Atlanta, GA
Steve: It is very hot in Atlanta right now.
Bob: It is only a hundred and five here. So, we are having a cold spell.
Steve: I am glad I am here and not there.
Steve: In 1 Corinthians 11, the latter part, where Paul speaks about those who are sickly among them, and the ones who have died. Can you explain that a little bit please? I cannot stay on the line. I have my radio on so I am able to listen.
Bob: What are you talking about there, brother?
Steve: In the latter part of 1 Corinthians 11, where Paul talks about the Lord’s supper.
Bob: Oh, okay.
Steve: He is talking about those who are sickly and some have died.
Bob: Sure.
Steve: Okay.
Bob: Again, one of the most atrocities we have done in the Christian world is what we have done with the Lord’s supper. The Lord’s supper and the directives Paul gave is because of people, meeting together to take the supper and not waiting on each other and eating up all the food and drinking all the wine before the rest of the body gets there.
1 Corinthians 11:30-32
30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. 32 Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.
Bob: As a result, read verse 21.
1 Corinthians 11:21
21 for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk.
Bob: So they certainly were not just serving Welch’s grape juice.
1 Corinthians 11:22
22 Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in?
Bob: That was his solution to it. If you are hungry and you do not want to wait on people, eat and drink at home.
1 Corinthians 11:22
Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!
1 Corinthians 11:27
27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner
Bob: He is not saying you are unworthy. You have never been worthy. Worthy is the Lamb, not the sheep. What is the unworthy manner they were partaking of in the Lord’s supper? Well, eating all the bread and drinking all the wine before the rest of the body shows up. A group of people shows up and all the food is gone and all the wine is gone, and there are some other people sitting there fat, dumb and happy, some of them stuffed and some of them drunk.
1 Corinthians 11:27-28
will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.
Bob: That is not sitting around involved in introspection, with the organ playing and the lights dim, in order to confess all your unconfessed sins. It is to examine yourself before you eat the bread and drink the cup. Examining himself from what? Am I being a hog and a pig or am I waiting on my brother?
1 Corinthians 11:29
29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.
Bob: Judgment from whom? Your sins have already been judged. This is judgment from the body. If you drove fifty miles to meet with People to People for the Lord’s supper, and here is this whole group sitting there who ate up all the food and drank all the wine, or grape juice, or whatever it might be, you would be judging us. You would say, “What is going on with these people? They are not considering the rest of the body of Christ at all!” He is talking about examining yourself. Are you waiting on other people, are your thinking of others over and above yourself, or are you just being a glutton? For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord is bringing judgment upon himself.
1 Corinthians 11:30
30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.
Bob: Fallen asleep means passed out. Why are you weak and sick? What happens when you gorge yourself and drink too much? You get weak, you get sick and you pass out. You go to sleep. I have seen people do that in my assembly without doing that. But that is what he is talking about, as a result of eating and drinking too much, not waiting on the body.
1 Corinthians 11:31
31 But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment.
Bob: Judgment from who? One another. Now when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined.
1 Corinthians 11:32
32 Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.
Bob: That is what this book is doing. That is what this chapter is about, discipling the body, disciplining His body. How come? So we are not condemned with the world. So the world is not looking in and saying we are no different than anyone else. “Look at them, cold and drunk and not waiting on anyone else.” Were they waiting on anyone else? No. They ate up all the food and drank up all the wine.
1 Corinthians 11:33
33 So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together.
Bob: There is the conclusion. Wait on each other.
1 Corinthians 11:34
34 Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.
Bob: Judgment from who? One another.
Bob: We have made a mockery of that. We take the Lord’s supper, dim the lights, play the organ, and get all the unconfessed sin out of our life. “Otherwise, you might bring judgment on yourself”, they say. Is that what this is about, that you might bring judgment on yourself from God? No, sins have already been judged.
Romans 8:1-2
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Bob: I am glad you called, for that is a subject that needs to be covered every now and then, and gives me the opportunity to do so again. So I thank you for your call.
Leona from Waco, TX
Leona: I just rededicated my life to Christ about three weeks ago. What happened was that my fiance and I left about four months before. So I just got to the point of being destitute. I am still dealing with a lot of grief. I was wondering if you had any scriptures to bring joy back in my life to deal with this grief I am having?
Bob: I do not know if your grief is because if you and your boyfriend broke up. If you have that much grief, you ought to get back together. I am not one to say here is a passage of scripture to grab a hold of. What you have to do is realize that you are going to have times in your life of trials and tribulations, of insults and rejection. That is all natural. But you will have to live with an attitude that says if God is for me who can be against me. To realize that is truth. That is not just words out of the scriptures. That is truth. That I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That is where you have to live in this life.
Romans 8:33-39
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.”[Psalm 44:22]
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.
Philippians 4:13
13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Bob: When you are talking about rededicating, and I understand that, but listen to what I am saying. I have been critical but I have difficulty with that terminology because if that is what the heart attitude was, for many times it is saying, “Lord, I am going to come down this time. I am going to dedicate myself to this person.” What you are saying is, “I am going to do something.” I think you will fall flat on your face because you will find you cannot live up to your dedication.
Bob: But this is what I find as more of a heart attitude than what is expressed in the form of dedication in us. “Lord, I just surrender my life to you and I am tired of running things on my own, and I give myself to you totally for you to do in and through me what you want to do.” That probably was your attitude, which I think, unfortunately, is called rededication. Dedication is what I do but surrender is what you put in His hands for Him to do.
Bob: So if you broke up with someone, then there is disappointment. It is a loss of someone. You are going to have a grieving period if you lose an animal.
Leona: Yes, that is true.
Bob: Yes, so that is why a lot of people do not have pets because they hate to lose them. Or you could have the attitude of the old Archie Bunker program where Archie said his favorite pets were goldfish because they always died when you got used to them. But any kind of a pet or friend, when you lose them, there is a certain amount of time of loss and grief. So do not feel bad about that. It is natural.
Leona: I sure do appreciate it.
Bob: Okay, Leona. You just keep trusting the Lord and He will be faithful to you.
Leona: I agree.
Bob: Okay. Bye. Bye.
Ricky from Los Angeles, CA
Ricky: I do not have a question about the bible. I have a question about testimony. My grandfather was a preacher so I had the word of God read to me from the ages of 7 to 13 every weekend until he died. The thing is I never, like most people who say that before I came to Christ I was drunk, or on drugs or into prostitution. I never did anything like that. I never drank beer in my life or tried drugs. Nothing like that. So what is my testimony about that. I believed the Lord from a child. Not only that I am teaching bible study every evening at 5:00 p.m. People say they are lost on something, even the best of them.
Bob: Ricky, my wife is in that boat. My wife certainly was in that boat, the same thing you are talking about. She did not have a testimony like I had when I was out in the world for 36 years, but she is equally saved as I am. The issue isn’t how bad you were. It is understanding how dead you were. You come down to the point where you recognize there is something missing in my life, whether as a small child or whether as an adult, where something is missing. Your attitude of heart is, “I want Jesus to come and occupy my life and give me eternal life.”
Bob: I am not born with eternal life. I am born dead. Whenever that occurs and it is a true conversion, then you are born again. I tell people, sometimes, Ricky, that I do not remember when I was born physically. You may not either. But I guarantee I was born physically. The same can be true of people like yourself. Now, Amy remembers when she was born again, in a church setting. She was born again there. It was not because she was a bad girl. She never was. Why she married me I do not know. But she was just not that way. So she did not have a lot of outward, overt sins, but her heart had problems. She had problems with the heart like we all do. When you are born again, you know you are born again. Scripture says that.
Romans 8:15-16
15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Bob: As a small child, you just took Christ Jesus as your Lord and Savior and Christ Jesus for salvation. Since that time, you continue to grow in grace. For you, as a small child, you did about all your sinning as a Christian. So, mine was divided up a little bit. You did most of your sinning mostly as a Christian but God is faithful and God has been faithful to you, and to me. I would just think about all the faithfulness of God to you in your life, and not think about how “I was a rotten bum in the streets” and “I am okay”. You just think about how by the grace of God your grandfather gave you the information about Jesus early in your life and you came to Christ as an early young man.
Ricky: Like the word of God says, that the word of God goes out and does not return void. Even during teenager years, I did stupid stuff, but now I am thirty one reading for five years. It is amazing how it works. I love it.
Bob: I think as you grow in age and mature through the study of the word of God, you become more and more aware of His life. Many times people are born again but do not have a clue of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in life. The more that you study the word of God the more you realize that the Spirit of God is who came to live in me to guide me into all truth and take the things of Christ Jesus and make them known to me. So the ministry of the Spirit of God becomes more relevant to you.
John 16:13
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.
Philippians 2:13
13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Ricky: That is true.
Bob: Yes.
Ricky: Alright. I thank you for that. I appreciate it.
Bob: You are sure welcome, brother. I appreciate your concern. Do not be ashamed to tell people that God saved you early. Think of all the things you are saved from.
Ricky: I may never know until I get to heaven. I appreciate it.
Bob: Okay. Good to talk to you, Ricky.
Ricky: God bless.
Bob: God bless you too, my friend.
Mike from Huntsville, AL
Mike: Bob, I just want to call you and say that I got born again at age 35 like you did. I am 53 now. I was so confused. I have been going to church since I was 35. I was so confused by the comingling of law and grace until I started listening to you. When I started listening to you, it was not long ago, about seven months ago, or even less. It cleared everything up for me. It was unbelievable. Now, I am just so thankful to you.
Mike: My question is why do you think all the pastors commingle law and grace? I go to a baptist church. Why do all the pastors commingle law and grace like they do? Why do you think they just do not teach like you do? Because people will be a lot less confused if they did.
Bob: Again, Mike, it is like anything else. If you went to a Baptist seminary, you are going to teach baptist doctrine. If you went to a Methodist seminary, you will teach Methodist doctrine. If you went to a Presbyterian seminary then you will teach Presbyterian doctrine. If you went to Catholic then you teach Catholic doctrine. And none of them agree with each other. That is why you have to say to people, I do not want you to believe as the Baptists do or the Presbyterians do. I want you to believe because you went into the word of God on your own, and you are born again, and so the Spirit of God has promised to reveal to you the meaning of the word of God. That is a promise of the Holy Spirit (John 16:13).
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”[Isaiah 64:4] – the things God has prepared for those who love him – 10these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
Bob: Now when you go to seminary, it is almost a school that is put into existence to negate that, like saying, “No that is not right. You do not let the Spirit of God teach you the meaning of the word of God. You come to us and we will teach you the meaning of the word of God. You just come to us and we will teach you some Greek and Hebrew and we will teach you the meaning.” So guys go and say, “Teach me what I am supposed to believe.” Then they turn around and go to the pulpit and teach what they have been taught.
Bob: I had to get out of that surrounding because I knew that was not correct and I knew there were things in the Baptist church that were not true. Tithing is always being taught. I knew that was not in the New Covenant. If you mention that in Baptist circles, you will be ostracized. So I had to go on to neutral ground not because I wanted to, but I needed to. I had to go to neutral ground in order to get away from denominational pressure and of being fearful of saying things or being fearful of not saying things. I wanted to be free to let the Holy Spirit teach me the word of God and then to openly proclaim it. That is what we have been doing for thirty years.
Bob: Again, what happens there is just what I said. A lot of times in your seminaries, they are scared to death that you are no longer under law because of what people say. People are just going to go out and sin. I have not noticed anyone stopping sinning in the Baptist church or any other place else I have ever been that teach the law.
Bob: In fact, the power of sin is the law. So they have a good deal going. They teach the law and keep you under the power of sin, and beat you up every Sunday for sinning. So that is like a pastor saying, “But you can come forward and get forgiveness. We will cry over you and pray over you, and teach you more law and keep you under law again. So you can go sin again and go answer another altar call. That keeps my job going because my job depends upon how many come forward at the altar.”
Mike: My problem is I would listen to that. Then I would go out and sin and sin. Then when I started listening to you, and I am not going to tell you what my sin was. You said just know that sin you have done, just know that person that you are doing that with, Jesus died for them too. I started thinking about that. I started thinking differently about that.
Bob: Absolutely.
Mike: So now, I am in church and I sit there and listen to their teaching and rededicating and all that. What is that? Man. Do you know what I mean?
Bob: I sure do.
Mike: I still love people I go to church with. I look at it totally different. I still love them and still pray for them. I just want to thank you how you cleared up the sin issue. I did not have a problem sinning either.
Bob: Well, again, that is the first thing we have to realize is that what Jesus did with the world’s sins. No one will go to hell because of their sins. The only sin to do that is the sin of the rejection of the Son of God. Once that has been repented of, then you are in Christ Jesus. So what we have done is concentrate on sin that God is finished dealing with but we are not evidently, and so have absolutely negated the meaning of the resurrected life, the dynamic of the risen Christ living in us and living His life in and through us.
Mike: I sure do appreciate you. I am sure glad I started listening to you.
Bob: Me too Mike. You keep growing in grace, my fiend.
Mike: I will. If I ever get a chance to get up and see you I will.
Bob: Please do, my friend.
Mike: Thank you.
Bob: Bye, pal. Bye bye now.
Laurie from British Columbia, Canada
Laurie: I thank you for 30 years. That is quite amazing. Just thanks for your ministry and being faithful to your calling and helping us understand so many wonderful things there in God’s word; the New Covenant, the finality of the cross and abiding in Christ, not being under law but grace, and all those things that unfortunately are not taught in church. But your ministry has been there and has been so helpful to me. I learned so much in the last five to six years by listening to you guys, and not by going to church unfortunately. I was brought up in church as a child. When I came to your ministry, something inside my spirit said, “This is what I wanted to hear for so many years.”
Bob: Yes.
Laurie: I am just really, really thankful to you. I am a lifelong supporter and I will be until the Lord takes me home.
Bob: That is great, Laurie. We have a lot of people that echo the same thing. That is unfortunate that this message is not proclaimed from every pulpit in America, or the world, because that is really what He told us to do. We have been set apart as a minister of a New Covenant, not of the Old that kills, but of a New that gives life. Yet many times people never differentiate between the Old and the New and certainly do not proclaim the New as exclusively what we live under. They try to comingle the Old and the New, with one foot in law and one foot in grace and then wonder why walking on both sides of the street at the same time.
Galatians 3:1-3
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?
Bob: The fact is, thank God we were able to have a format to get this message out, to reach people like yourself. We are very appreciative of people like you. Not only are you benefitting from us, but you are passing it along to others as well.
Laurie: Thank you for the integrity of your ministry, of how you teach solid truth of the word of God. It is so important nowadays. It is amazing how knowing through your ministry and teaching of the finality of the cross and how not under law but under grace, I have found for me that, and I am not saying I am perfect, but I struggle with sin far, far less from how I used to by believing you are not forgiven until you ask for it. Or you are saved but you must continue to live under law.
Hebrews 7:27
27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
Laurie: Teaching the New Covenant way, which you do, which tells you the death of Christ is final, sins are forgiven, to walk by faith and rest in that, and be led by the life of Christ and under grace. That frees you to move forward in the Christian life and get your mind renewed by the Holy Spirit and to live out that newness of life.
Romans 6:4
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.
Laurie: You struggle with sin far less when living like that than living the old way, which seems to be the way it is taught by a lot of people. Then people wonder why they are always struggling. It is because they have not come to grips with totally depending on Christ and resting in what He has done and allowing Him to live through you. It is a total trust relationship. I think the biggest thing God wants is for us to learn to trust Him for everything. That really hit home with me.
Galatians 5:6
6 The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Bob: That is what the Christian life is. The only thing that counts is faith, and faith in Jesus that results in loving one another. That is the only thing He is looking for.
Bob: Laurie, God bless you, my friend. You have a wonderful week and we will be thinking of you on our anniversary.
Laurie: Thank you very much. Keep up the good work.
Bob: We will look forward to seeing all of you. God bless you, my friend.
Laurie: Okay. Take care, you guys.
