Call-ins Radio Broadcast Friday 04/30/2021

Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P630 (04-30-21)

Synopsis

Have you allowed the truth God’s word to change your thinking, or are you relying on your feelings? Do you feel that while you are in church, or active in serving others in some capacity, you are full of the Holy Spirit, but when you leave that feeling leaves? Did the Spirit of God ever leave you? No. The Spirit of God is always at work within you, and will never leave you or forsake you. He lives in you, if you are born again, to will and to act according to His good purpose. How well do you know all that God has given you in Christ Jesus? So grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ by reading His word, allowing the Spirit, who is alive living in you, to renew your mind with truth.

Have you been sitting under a pastor who is mixing law and grace? Has your pastor taught you that you have to take the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner, and be sure to have no unconfessed sins when you eat at the Lord’s table. Is that true? No! Have you read 1 Corinthians 11 for yourself to discern what Paul is addressing those immature believers? They were sinning against the body of Christ, fellow believers, by eating up all the food and drink, getting drunk, before the poor people arrived? So read it again, and listen along as Bob reads and explains these passages of scripture. Remember that Jesus already died for all the sins of the entire world, He remembers our sins and lawless acts no more and worthy is the Lamb, not us, and He is now alive, permanently indwelling us forever. So think about the visual picture of breaking a single loaf of bread and drinking from the cup, and what that visually represents in regard to how a person is born again, and what is the result of that.

Think about what legalism is, and how Jesus confronted the Pharisees in regard to the Sabbath. Then think of the New Covenant we live under today, as you read through the book of Hebrews. What does the book of Hebrews say about the Sabbath in light of Jesus death on a cross, and then His resurrection from the dead? Jesus set aside the old system of rules and regulations that were set against us. He set aside that temporary system of covering sins with the blood of bulls and goats. So Jesus, after shedding His blood on a cross, is now sitting down at the right hand of God, for there are no more sacrifices for sins. So now, we are told to rest from our works just as Jesus did from His. Rest in the fact you are a forgiven person, that Christ is alive living in you, your hope of glory. Rest in all the spiritual blessings you have in Christ Jesus. So every day, and every hour of every day, is a rest. We no longer live under the tutelage of the law, now that the New Covenant is here. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, and the Sabbath was made for man under a Levital system, and that just for the Jews, and has been set aside today for a permanent rest in Him. Those things of the old were a foreshadowing of things to come, but the reality is now in Christ Jesus. You have been made complete in Christ.

Realize that as you come to understand what truth is, and are not able to communicate grace in a legalistic church, for a pastor who may not even know the Lord, is mixing law and grace, then leave that place. For you are not going to be able to grow in grace nor reach out to others with truth who are not able to receive it. For that group of people would only serve to reinforce old patterns of thinking that you want to stay clear of, and form new thinking patterns in accordance with truth. By remaining, you will just face discouragement, be fed poison, or even face persecution of some kind, or false accusations, by those who do not understand grace. I believe you would grow a lot faster in truth by staying at home reading your bible than going to a legalistic church, or a church mixing law and grace, if you searched far and wide and cannot find a place with like-minded believers.

Transcript

Randy from New Orleans, LA

Randy: I really enjoyed and learned a lot from the recent Classic Christianity conference that you had down here in New Orleans. My question is this. I went to a legalistic church. I love the pastor and I try to do my best to help them out. So I add a lot of grace to legalism. But the question I have is it has got to a point where they say you can only read the King James version, and women should wear dresses and these man-made laws. I was able to deal with that for quite a while because I love the guy. But it has gotten out of hand and is quenching my spirit when I go to church. So I made a decision to call in to let him know I am looking for other things. I am really down about it. I am wondering if I am making the right decision, but sad to lose a friend. What point scripturally, is there any point in the bible, that really gives any grounds?

Bob: It says, Randy, that we, you and me, have been called to be ministers of a New Covenant. If you would take a look at 2 Corinthians 3:6-11, it says this.

2 Corinthians 3:6-11
⁶ He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter [the old Covenant] but of the Spirit; for the letter [of the law] kills, but the Spirit gives life.
⁷ Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, ⁸ will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? ⁹ If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! ¹⁰ For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. ¹¹ And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!

The law has no glory at all compared to the grace of God that has surpassed it. We are to be ministers of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:17-18
¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us [you and me] the ministry of reconciliation:

He has given you and me the ministry of reconciliation, not of law, but of grace.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19
¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

Bob: So anyone under the law, the bible says you are under the power of sin. So your pastor, if he is teaching what you are talking about, is under the power of sin. He is under the law, and therefore, being led, not by the Spirit, but by Satan. A person who is under the law cannot and will not draw near to God because it says that under the law you cannot draw near to God. If the bible tells us that we have been made ministers of the New Covenant then what are we doing teaching the Old Covenant unless we are just in total rebellion as to what the New Covenant tells us. To me, my wondering is not that you are leaving, but what took you so long.

Randy: It was one of those situations that if you are in a dark place, you would be in the light if you did not take the light out of the dark place. Scripture makes it plain, to shake the dust off your feet, if they reject the grace of God. I was in a good balance in it for a long time. I had seen that. When you search for maturity, I thought it was something to give, not just what you take. Do I stay to offer what I have to offer them, and just choose people I can help out?

Randy: I was actually going to speak on Classic Christianity. I was going to use that illustration. Someone asked how do you explain legalism and you gave a good illustration. I was going to use it this Sunday when I saw it but then someone would see it as starting a stir. You understand my problem?

Bob: I do. If you talked to the pastor, then he clearly knows that you think he teaches legalism. If he had the ability to understand, Randy, he would know he was teaching legalism. But it says that a person who is under the law, there is a veil over their eyes and they cannot see. When grace is preached to them, they do not understand. I would have no problem at all, Randy, understanding how a person comes to Christ. They are a baby Christian and they are in a legalistic church, or in a church like I was. They were not legalistic and they were just so liberal that they did not believe in anything and stay there. I had an opportunity to teach. No one was telling me not to teach what I was teaching. As long as I had freedom to communicate truth, I stayed there. But I do not understand a person, such as a pastor, who can claim to be knowledgeable, can remain under the law, and say I am born again. The Spirit of God is not testifying that he is under the law. It is just not happening.

Randy: I think you said it best when you talked about the tithe. The reason people preach on tithing is because they cannot trust God. I think that is a lot of his problems, of letting God do what He needs to do. Before we go, can you tell that illustration again from Classic Christianity the definition of what legalism is? You had said something about a guy listening who had headphones on, and listening to a tune.

Bob: Yes, that is an illustration that kind of illustrates that. A guy who is deaf comes in, and sees a guy listening to music, snapping his hands and fingers. So he decides he can do that. So he sits down next to him, watches him, imitates him snapping his fingers and tapping his toes. Someone else comes in, and says listen to that guy who is listening to that music. Now that is not true. Only one guy is listening to music and the other one is just copying the other guy. That is what happens in church. We learn our traditions and we copy it. We learn what somebody says and we copy it but there is no reality to it. The deaf guy is not hearing music. He is just mimicking the snapping of fingers and tapping of feet.

Bob: Randy, I think you are on solid ground. I do not know how you can live there. The bible says you cannot mix law and grace. You cannot put new wine into old wineskins. If you do not have the ability to teach grace, then you need to go someplace else. Maybe that will bring this guy to his senses.

Randy: I hope so. I appreciate it.

Bob: Okay, brother. Good to talk to you, Randy.

Carl from Atlanta, GA

Carl: I have a question on Matthew 12:7. What I want to do. I work every day except Saturday and Sundays. This Sunday I decided to volunteer. Some of the people say I was not supposed to work on the Sabbath, on Sunday. Well, I need to support my family, so I am going to go to work this Sunday.

Matthew 12:3-8
³ He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. ⁵ Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? ⁶ I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. ⁷ If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’[Hosea 6:6] you would not have condemned the innocent. ⁸ For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Bob: In the first place, they would be on tough ground if they want to nit-pick that Sabbath was a Saturday instead of a Sunday. But now that we are in Christ Jesus, we are to enter into the Sabbath rest, and that is why Jesus said that He is Lord of the Sabbath, is the fact the Sabbath is no longer a day of the week. It is every day of the week, every hour of the day, resting from our works just as He did from His.

Hebrews 4:8-10
⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. ⁹ There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; ¹⁰ for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.

Bob: The day of the week was merely a foreshadowing of the reality of the Sabbath rest that He has called us into. It is no longer a day of the week. It is every day of the week. I am resting in the fact Jesus has completed His work in me. I am resting in the fact I am a forgiven person and there is nothing I can do to add or subtract from that. I am resting in the fact that through Christ Jesus and His grace, He raised me from the dead to live in newness life, that is mine through Christ Jesus. I am trusting in the fact that when I die I will be absent from the body and present with the Lord. I have eternal life in Christ Jesus, and that eternal life took place the very day I had the Son. That is what it means to enter the Sabbath rest, resting in the completed work of Christ Jesus. The day of the week is not the important issue. It is every day.

Carl: Okay. I think I heard you said to a young man who got rude with you in regard to the Sabbath. You told him neither Saturday or Sunday.

Bob: God gave us a day of rest, Carl. We enter into two days of rest in America. In most countries, if you get a day you are lucky. We have two days, as far as our work flow is concerned, if we work Monday through Friday. The issue is, God did not give us two days. He gave us one day, to rest from our work, to rest up for our physical health. The things God gave us is for our own good. That is why in that passage that you were referring to in Matthew 12, which is very interesting, where Jesus was going through and he began to pick grain. The Pharisees saw it and said he was working on the Sabbath.

Matthew 12:1-2
¹ At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. ² When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

Bob: You could not spit on the Sabbath. You can spit on a rock but not the ground for that would make mud and that would be constituting work. So that is the nonsense you got into. You go into Israel today, and they have a Sabbat elevator on the Sabbath, from Friday night until Saturday night. That Sabbat elevator means that when you stand down in the lobby, you can push a button. So they decided to design a way out of that, so the elevator automatically comes down to the first floor, then it stops on every floor on the way up, so then you do not have to push a button. So how you get in a room, I do not know. But I do know that you cannot push a button to get into an elevator. That is nonsense. But that is how stupid you can get in legalism. That was part of what they were doing there with the Sabbath. They wanted to hang him on a cross for violating their interpretation of the laws. So you have to do it, they say. If a man does not care for his family, he is worse than an unbeliever. If you have to take care of your family then you take care of your family.

1 Timothy 5:8
⁸ Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Carl: I do not have to work every Sunday, but just some Sundays, to help pay the bills a bit. I think it was stupid of him that I could not come to work. Another question is, “Why do I need to pay tithe?”

Bob: You ask him why he isn’t? If he argues with you, you ask him that you want to see his IRS records.

Carl: Yes.

Bob: I am serious. If someone had the audacity to say that to me. “Why don’t you tithe and I want to see your IRS records because I am going to prove you that you don’t.” The people that do that stuff are hypocrites and lying about what they are doing anyway. Jesus said that.

Matthew 23:25-27
²⁵ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
²⁷ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.

Bob: That is the lifestyle of a legalist. No change from Jesus day to our day. He said they were white-washed sepulchres. You give impression how wonderful you are on the outside but on the inside you are a dirty pig. It did not make them happy when he told them that. But that is what he said. All of us are saved by the grace of God, and if any of us is without sin, then we can throw stones at each other and tell each other what they should and should not do. But we are not without sin so we ought to stop doing that.

Carl: So, Bob, so neither day is actually the Sabbath, neither Saturday nor Sunday?

Bob: No, the Sabbath is a rest we entered into. It is every day. He is Lord of the Sabbath. How many days is the Lord alive? Every day. So He is Lord of the Sabbath. That means every day I am to be resting from my work just as He did from His.

Carl: Thank you, Bob. I will take that and study it.

Bob: Thank you, brother.

Carl: You have a good day, Bob.

Bob: Bye. Bye.

Tim from Arlington, TX

Tim: I wanted to ask you about closed communion. I had a disagreement with the pastor in our church. He believes that, and I guess our denomination believes that, that only members of our church can participate in the Lord’s supper. I was wondering what your ideas are on that?

Bob: If they are egotistical to believe that that church is the only born again believers on the face of the earth then that may be true. But that is far-fetched to be believing in.

Tim: It is to me.

Bob: It is ridiculous. In the first place, they really do not know for sure what the Lord’s Supper is all about. If you stop to think about it, Tim, the instructions in regard to that sin in 1 Corinthians 11. What the Lord’s Supper is a picture of is the body of Christ. And, let me just read from that passage of scripture to help with the understanding on this.

1 Corinthians 11:17-20
¹⁷ In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. ¹⁸ In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. ¹⁹ No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. 20 So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat,

Bob: Now why they call it communion, I do not know. The scripture calls it the Lord’s Supper. Now let us read the problem that was going on in Corinth.

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: The solution to that is this.

1 Corinthians 11:22
²² Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? 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!

Bob: And we read on.

1 Corinthians 11:23
²³ For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Bob: Now it talks about eating and drinking in an unworthy manner. Yet people teach people need to get worthy to take the Lord’s body. The lights are dimmed and get everybody to get unconfessed sins out of their life. So people are told that it is okay to sin just as long it is not unconfessed. That is called getting worthy. We never will be worthy. Worthy is the Lamb, not the sheep. What it is saying here is this. The problem is they were going ahead to have a Lord’s Supper and one group was eating up all the food and drinking up all the wine before the rest of the body of Christ got there. They were saying that you are doing that in an unworthy manner. Some of you sitting over there are fat, dumb and happy and drunk and the others did not get anything to eat or drink at the Supper. So will I praise you for that? No. So whenever you are eating and drinking in an unworthy manner you are sinning against the body. Who is the body? You and me, born again believers. If you and I showed up to this Lord’s Supper and we were a little late and all the food was gone and all the wine gone, with everybody over there drunk and passed out, do you think we would be pleased with that part of the body? You would say to those people are sinning against the body of Christ. You are sinning against the blood, the life of Christ that is in the body.

1 Corinthians 11:27-28
²⁷ So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner 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: So scripture says to examine yourself? Are you a pig? Are you a glutton or drunk or are you waiting on the rest of the body of Christ, before you indulge yourself? It explains that.

1 Corinthians 11:29
²⁹ For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.

Bob: Judgement from who? Not the Lord. The Lord has already judged your sins. But judgment from who? The body.

Tim: Yes, the body of believers.

1 Corinthians 11:30
³⁰ That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

Bob: It can also be translated passed out. That is what you do when you eat and drink too much.

1 Corinthians 11:31
³¹ But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment.

Bob: Judge yourself on what? Am I waiting on others? Am I being a glutton? If we judged ourselves we would not come under judgment. Judgment from who? One another.

1 Corinthians 11:32
³² Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined

Bob: That is what this book is doing, discipling those Corinthians into truth. Why?

1 Corinthians 11:32
so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.

Bob: So the world does not look in and say these people are no different than we are. They are not loving people. They eat up all the food and drink before the rest do. They look just like us. So, look at this and how we perverted this in our churches.

1 Corinthians 11:33-34
³³ So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. ³⁴ Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.

Bob: From who? The body of Christ. That is the instruction out of the bible for the Lord’s Supper, or what some people call communion.

1 Corinthians 11:34
And when I come I will give further directions.

Bob: That was a picture of the Lord’s Supper. You have a piece of bread, representing the body of Christ. Jesus said it is good for you that I am going away, for when I do I will send my Spirit into you and you are going to be my body here on earth. That is Christ in you, your hope of glory. The bread is singular in form. You can draw it, feel it, touch it, just like you could with the body of Christ. He said, “here is my body”. It is not his physical body. It represents his physical body that was broken for you. “So I am going to take this bread and break it and pass it around.”

Bob: So when you partake of that one body, it is a picture of the day you were baptized into the body of Christ and the day you had become a born again believer. So after all of the bread is passed around where is it? It is gone. Where? It is in you. That is a picture of Christ in you, your hope of glory. Then taking a sip of the wine, or grape juice, or whatever you use, what is that a picture of? The cup is the cup of the New Covenant. What was the New Covenant? “Your sins and lawless acts I will remember no more and where these have been forgiven there is no longer sacrifice for sins.”

Hebrews 10:16-18
¹⁶ “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”[Jeremiah 31:33]
¹⁷ Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”[Jeremiah 31:34]
¹⁸ And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

Bob: So what do people do? Instead of rejoicing in the fact that if you are in Christ, you are a forgiven person, people are trying to get all unconfessed sins out of their lives, dimming the lights, playing the organ and then in this maudeline mood, hoping I remember all my sins, so I can get them confessed so that when I eat and drink I do not get condemnation on myself. Where did that come from? That did not come from the bible. The covenant is the New Covenant we live under today where sins and lawless acts I remember no more. It should be a celebration in the fact that if you are in Christ Jesus, you are a forgiven person and you can rejoice in that truth.

Bob: Churches have perverted that truth to the point where the meaning is missed and people dread when you are going to have the Lord’s Supper. When you do the Lord’s Supper the way God meant it to be, it is a time of rejoicing. It is a beautiful visual aid, a picture of the beauty of Christ Jesus.

Tim: I had always thought it should unite the body of Christ and not divide it.

Bob: Absolutely. It is ridiculous to think something is closed. If you are in Christ Jesus, take the Supper. It is a picture of what happened to you. If you don’t you can take it but it has no meaning to you. I took the Lord’s Supper for years when I was lost. It did not have any meaning to me. It also does not have any meaning when I am saved when it is taken wrong.

Bob: You are on the right track, brother.

Tim: I appreciate your time. It eased my conscience a lot.

Bob: Thank you, Tim, for your call, brother. God bless you, pal. Bye. Bye.

Mike from Martinis, CA

Mike: Thanks for your ministry. It helped me a lot during the week, getting me through the day. I came to know the Lord when I was really young. When I was five years old, I went to Christian schools and have been in church most of my life. There was a time where I fell away from church for about ten years. I was doing things, and not feeling remorse about it. You could ask the golden question that if you died today would you go to heaven, and I could say a hundred percent sure I would go to heaven. I am back in church doing outreach. The Lord has blessed me with a beautiful wife. But I cannot get back to that feeling of having the Spirit in me unless I am doing those things. But when I leave church, it goes away. I revert back to my old life.

Bob: Mike, again, is that faith to believe that while in church the Holy Spirit is there, and when you leave you leave it behind. Is that truth? No, that is not truth. You have believed a lie. As it says in Romans.

Romans 6:1-3
¹ What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

Bob: So shall I go on sinning so grace may increase? No, do you know when you yield your body to something, you yield control to something. That is when you yield yourself to the bottle when you yield control to the bottle. When you yielded to an affair, you yielded control to an affair. But you know as a Christian God wants you to be controlled by the Spirit and not other things. So that happens if you really know who you are in Christ Jesus, a child of the living God. You need to keep that in mind. What you are doing is permissible but not profitable. It is not that God is going to zap you. He has already taken the sins of the entire world. If you say you have corrected the only sin attributable to man, the sin of rejecting Jesus, and you have not done that, then you are a Christian and in the light. But you are in the light like a person still in darkness. He says to cut that out, Mike, and start living in the life God has called you for.

John 1:12
¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

Romans 6:15-17
¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.