Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P540 (05-29-20)
Synopsis
In this day and age of the Coronavirus, and various events going on in the political realm, people have asked even today, what needs to be done to stop these evil or deceived people who are pushing for this one world government? What should pastors do? Even in Bob’s lifetime, people called in asking the same question. First of, if you are a pastor, or any born again believer for that matter, do not get side-tracked from your primary purpose, and that is to proclaim the gospel. All of these events we continue to see happening are certainly signs of the end times and preparation for what we know is prophesied in Revelation. The greatest avenue we have, each citizen of the United States, is to exercise our voting rights. If you are in Christ, then you need to ask for wisdom from God, so your vote is in accordance with understanding and discernment, for Jesus even told us to not let anyone deceive you. And, we are certainly instructed to pray for all those in authority over us that we may live peaceable and quiet lives.
But to put it into perspective, if everyone in America was lost but us, then what would it matter if we went out of our way to win the battle for political correctness? So, you see, God has made us, not just pastors, but everyone in Christ, competent as ministers of the New Covenant, a message of grace in Christ Jesus, and that not the letter of the law. Study to make yourself a workman approved of God, who rightly divides the word of truth. Do you know what the truth is on law and grace, the finality of the cross, being complete in Christ, and the New Covenant of grace you are under today? I encourage you to inquire of the Lord as you read the book of Hebrews, especially as you get into Hebrews 7 and on through chapter 10, to reveal to you what is this grace you have in Christ Jesus under a New Covenant system? One of the callers today was so excited about what the Lord personally taught him and was delighted to share that with Bob and the listeners on the radio program.
Sometimes people call about a certain passage that confuses them or somewhat bothers them. Some words in the bible, depending on context, have slightly different connotation of meaning. When Paul writes about the Bema seat, where everyone will stand before God and appear before the judgment seat of Christ, fear seems to overcome some people. Listen, there is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear. This judgment seat is really an appraisal of what works are done in and through you as a result of your faith in Christ, in doing what He personally asked you to do, or for you to say what He told you to say. We personally are not judged, as if we will be condemned when we fail to do what we ought or do what we know we should not. That is the battle of the flesh and the Spirit, which we will continually have this fight in this sin-indwelling flesh of ours. And, at times, we will fall short, and give in to the flesh. God is looking primarily at the motives of your heart.
We learn to overcome by the Spirit who lives in us, and as our mind is being renewed with truth. Our sins, and the sins of the entire world were already taken away from the eyes of God when Jesus shed His blood on a cross. As a child of God, we are dealt with as a child of God, to be disciplined and trained so that the works of God can be produced in and through us as we come to understand what it means to abide in Him. See, God longs to be gracious to us, to build us up, to see us grow, and He said He lives in us to will and to act according to His good purpose. So, we learn to abide in Him. How much easier is it to abide in someone, or trust someone, who loves you unconditionally and totally accepts you? How much easier is it to abide in Christ when you know you are no longer under law but grace? So we learn to love when we grow to understand that He loved us first. God is love and this love is in our hearts. We respond by faith, so this love is not produced by the energy of our flesh, nor could it, but is borne from a relationship with the living God.
Transcript
Bill from Albany, NY
Bill: I would like to know about 1 Corinthians 6:9 and on, where you will not enter into heaven. What will that piece of scripture do with being saved once and for all and you fall back into one of those sins?
Bob: Well, Bill, what this is saying is this.
1 Corinthians 6:9
9 Or do you not know that the wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Bob: What is the wrongdoers, or the wicked? The lost. The lost is called the wicked. They will not inherit the kingdom of God. So you are talking about the reason they will not inherit the kingdom of God is because of their wickedness and their unrepentant hearts. They have never been saved by Christ Jesus.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Bob: Why? Because they are wicked. This is the lifestyle of a wicked, unrepentant heart. These are just some of them, not all of them. In the book of Corinthians, these were the main ones being manifested in that part of the world. They were known for those sins. That is why they were listed. It is because this is what they were known for. So it is saying to the Corinthians, “you, Corinthians, who are lost, who are wicked, and this is an indicator. This shows how you are lost, and how I know you are lost, because these are the things you are involved in”. They will never enter the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 6:11
11 And that is what some of you were.
Bob: What do you mean that is what some of you were? You were wicked, an unbeliever. You were engaged in all of these activities. What was the problem, the activities or the wicked heart of the unbeliever? Obviously it is the latter. But that is what some of you were.
1 Corinthians 6:11
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified
Bob: You have been saved, in other words. You have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. You have been set apart, not to go back to those activities. You are a new creature in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Bob: That is saying, that is what you were, an unrepentant, a lost person, who could never inherit the kingdom of God, but now you are not. You are a new creature in Christ.
1 Corinthians 6:11-12
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say – but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything” – but I will not be mastered by anything.
Bob: So what is he saying here? Now you have got a totally different way of determining my behavior as a person who has now been washed by the blood of the Lamb, set apart for God, for the divine service for which God created me, and justified me in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. As a born again believer, a new creature in Christ, everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Why would everything be permissible? For if it wasn’t, it would be law.
Romans 6:14-18
14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.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. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
Bob: We are no longer under the law. We are under the grace of God. Is it permissible to do these things? He is talking about doing these things as a born again believer? So, is it permissible? Yes. But, is it beneficial? No. It is stupid. It has no meaning to it at all. It is a totally different life style.
Bob: It is sort of like the person who has been living out of a garbage pale, living out of there and eating out of there, getting his food out of one of those big garbage pales out there. So one day you say, “Son, my heart reaches out to you, and I am going to hand you a free pass to this cafeteria so that you can go into it the rest of your life, and go in there and eat anything you want the rest of your life”. The guy goes in and looks at the food in the cafeteria, and he says, “you mean any time?” ’Yes, any time?” “Yes” “For as long as I live?” “Yes, for as long as you live”. “Is it still okay to eat out of the garbage can?” You would feel like hitting him on the side of the head. “What planet have you come from? Why would you want to eat garbage when I offered you all of the food you can eat in the cafeteria?” Is it permissible to go eat out of the garbage pale? Yes. Is it beneficial? No. It would be the dumbest, most idiotic thing you can engage in. That is what he is saying here. That is our reasoning process today, Bill, as born again believers? Is it beneficial? Yes. Is it profitable? No.
1 Corinthians 6:12
12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say – but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything” – but I will not be mastered by anything.
Bob: Whatever you yield your flesh to, you yield to Satan. I do not want to yield my flesh to Satan because if I do I will be mastered by Satan. So that is what that passage is talking about. It goes on to say to flee sexual immorality, and all of these different things.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Bob: There again, it is not to abuse your body. Your body has been given to you by God as a temple of the Holy Spirit of God. We are not to be sticking drugs into it. Do not think it is beneficial to put smoke into it, or nicotine, or booze or drugs into your body. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit of God. It says to treat it as such. God has given you this, so now treat it as such. So that is basically what these passages are talking about. I hope that helps.
J.D. from Lubbock, TX
J.D.: I have been listening to your program for over 15 years now. I have been blessed by a lot of your teachings. I have a comment and a question at the same time. It is not new to you, but I want to hear your say on this. In regard to all this denominational groups, most of them build a building, put people in it, and call it a church or a temple. I disagree with it, but they make it a practice, and psychologically make people believe that if they are not there, they are fallen off grace or insecure. Nobody is perfect I know. I am not perfect, but my faults or what I consider fleshly, and I do not justify them, but I battle and fight. I try with grace and strength to overcome those weaknesses, but most make a practice of these things, but I do not condemn them. For example, they say come up to the altar, and I believe that an altar is in heaven. Christ opened the door for us. It is a spiritual thing. I am secured no matter where I am at, here in the house or out in the country. I am the temple that you have been teaching. Then, boy, these people practice this. When Lord says come out from among them. All of that is yeast they brought, that the Lord warned us about. There is an expression or saying or ephemerism, if you cannot beat them, join them. I cannot do it. No matter where I go, that is same practice. I concluded that I need to have fellowship with brothers and sisters. They mean well, but Lord help me. I am not discrediting one iota what Christ has done for me. What can you tell me in regards to that?
Bob: What you are asking is whether you should be in fellowship with other believers. The answer to that is for your benefit. The answer is yes. That church with bricks and mortar is not the church, nor is it a temple. Your body is the temple of the Spirit of God, not a building. You are the church. You are a part of the body of Jesus if you are in Christ Jesus. So, as a part of the body, it’s beneficial to interact with other parts of the body. If you are a nose, you do not want to be hanging around by yourself. You need the rest of the body.
Bob: If you are looking for a place to fellowship in Lubbock, we can certainly recommend a good church out of that area, with a pastor we know who teaches this wonderful message of grace. This fellowship with other people, J.D., is like logs on a fire. When one log sizzles out and you put them together and it burns. We will put you on hold and get that information to you. You just enjoy life and get to know some other believers.
Howard from Tuckwilla, WA
Howard: I hear you a couple of weeks ago and could not hold back my tears back. I am leaving to go to Las Vegas, Nevada. I was going to a church to pass on the gospel. In the meantime, it hit me. They saw the New Covenant put in place, as we were studying Hebrews 9:16-18 and also Luke 5 and Luke 6. They were beginning to grasp that.
Hebrews 9:16-18
16 In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, 17 because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. 18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.
Howard: It was absolutely beautiful. Meanwhile, my dog got sick and he had to be put to sleep. I always think of animals as being close to me. God is going to take care of them. I wondered what your take was on that on, on the death of a dog?
Bob: There is nothing in scripture that talks about what happens to animals. Flesh and blood is not going to inherit the kingdom of God. We do not know. Inasmuch as the bible does not speak to it, then we cannot really speak to it either. We can have our wishful thinking and that kind of thing, but in the final analysis, we will care less if animals will be there or not, any more than we will be concerned with what people are there or not. We will be in a totally different realm altogether. How God prepares heaven and who He has in it, and what He has in it, is His business, not ours. One thing we do know is we will be in a total state of peace and will be in the presence of Christ Jesus at all times. There will be no sickness and no illness, no more death, and no more wars. We will be living in a state of peace. That is a wonderful thing to know.
Revelation 21:3-5
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Bob: Howard, that is the best I can do on that, is the fact we do not know. I doubt it, but we do not know. If that was the case, it would be spelled out somewhere in scripture, but I do not think it is. But again, like I say, the issue is we miss animals because we love them. They are like a part of the family. The fact is when they are gone, I think they are gone. We have got more important things to think about. That is what you are doing right now, and that is this reaching out and leading people who are dead. When the animal or lost person, when you are dead, you are dead. We have a lot of people out there who need to hear the gospel and hopefully to get them into the kingdom of God. That is what our main deal is.
Howard: That is for sure. Simon Peter is a great leader. Bartholomew also. I have one other question. I want to see if I am on the mark. I got out of the bible, when studying it, and I wrote it down. I would like to read it to you. The book of Jesus was to come fulfill the law and the prophets so that at his death on the cross the New Covenant can be ushered in. Sin and death was separated so God the Father could deal with us on the basis of a new nature. Once I believe, I can approach the throne of grace with confidence on any time of the day or night. Jesus and the Father are loving me unconditionally. This is good news. I want to stay at the throne of grace, thanking Him, Abba Father, being taught to trust Him in all things. This kind of trust cannot be found in any other person.
Bob: Very good, Howard. It sounds great. You got some writing skills there that you need to keep working on.
Howard: I just want to pass that on to other people. I want people to see the New Covenant in place, as in Hebrews 9:16-18, for people to see.
Bob: That is phenomenal, brother. You keep it up and keep writing. You have some talent there.
Howard: Thank you. I will call you at different times. I will call you when I get there to see if you know of people who are like minded.
John from Los Angelos, CA
John: I see what is going on in the world and from what I am seeing, I see our country falling apart, and all of these so-called experts asking for a global government. When I read my bible, that tells me this is the anti-Christ at work for forming a world government. I am just curious, are people supposed to speak out and stop this or should we just allow it to happen? That is the way it breaks down, I would think in my Spirit. I am very troubled by this. I think every pastor should be pounding the pulpit and telling people to put a stop to this.
Bob: I agree with what you are saying, but I do not agree that every pastor should be pounding politically. We are not called to do that. We are called to proclaim the good news of the gospel.
2 Corinthians 3:6
6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Bob: Whenever we start getting into political things, we get off the things God calls us to. It would not make any difference what type of government we had if people were all lost. It is a lot more important to get people saved than to get them politically correct. That does not mean as a citizen of the United States that we should not be exercising our voting rights and get rid of these people who are trying to change this world into a one world government. If that was biblical, why did God do what He did to the tower of Babel. He never intended a one world government.
Genesis 11:5-9
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel – because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Acts 17:26
26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
Bob: God never intended all people to be speaking one language in defiance against Him. He told them to increase and multiply and fill the earth. It looks like those things are certainly evident of what it talks about as some of the signs of the end times. As I said before, John, regardless of what happens to us politically, in this country or any other country. You and I could have been raised in communist Russia. When I went back over to Russia and looked at the way people were living. My wife was born there and I thought, my wife could still have been there if it had not been for the Germans taking her and others as slave laborers. She would still be over there just existing instead of living. Wherever we are, we have the privilege of presenting peace in the midst of turmoil, and presenting goodness in the midst of evil. That is what our job should be. But we should absolutely encourage people to go out into the voting booths and get these evil men out of office. We are on dangerous grounds right now, unbelievably dangerous grounds. We are not heading in a good direction. Anyone who has a brain recognizes that. So I think these next elections are going to be vitally important for the Christian to get off of their backsides and get to the voting box, and vote with discernment and understanding.
John: Thank you.
Bob: Alright, John?
John: Thank you so much.
Bob: You are welcome, my brother.
George from Denver, CO
George: I have a question for you. I am from the Ivory Coast, in West Africa. English is not my first language. Most of your listeners are understanding that we are saved by grace and not by works.
Bob: Exactly. Again, everything of salvation comes from God. It did not come from us. All we can do is be the receiver of the offer. He is the initiator. We are the responder. That is to respond to the offer of God’s love and grace that is given to us through Christ Jesus our Lord.
George: Okay.
Bob: You are saved by grace and grace alone.
Bob: As a saved person, then God wants us to walk in dependency upon the Lord Jesus Christ for Him to produce His works in and through us. Therefore, as an example, our works at the rapture, we go to the Bema seat and our works will not be judged as is translated but appraised, which is a different word altogether. Our works will be appraised as to whether we give what we did in the energy of the flesh in order to bring glory to ourselves or those works were as a result of abiding in Christ Jesus and allowing Him to produce them in and through us. Those works will be appraised in accordance with the motives of our works. They will be rewarded. Those things we allowed Christ Jesus to do in and through us might be nothing more than giving a cup of water in the name of Christ. I have a feeling you are going to have a bunch of these people building these mega-churches, going to go up to get their rewards, and when it is all done in the energy of the flesh, those works are going to be burnt and they will have a big size ash pile.
1 Corinthians 3:11-13
11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.
George: That is where I was going with my question. Since saved by grace and not by works, how do we contrast this with the concept that says at the end of time, on judgment day, we will be judged according to our works.
Bob: That is at the Bema seat that we will be judged for our works, not in the final. The Bema seat happens at the rapture. Again, I just explained that. Those works will be appraised of those things that came about as a result of abiding in the vine in comparison with those things we tried to grunt and groan out in the energy of the flesh.
Romans 14:10
10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.
2 Corinthians 5:9
6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
George: Right.
Bob: Those works will be appraised. Your motives for what you have done is what will be appraised there.
George: Thank you so kindly.
Bob: You are so welcome, George. I wish I could speak your language as clearly as you speak ours. You do not have to worry about being understood. You are doing great.
George: Thank you so kindly.
Bob: You call any time, George.
