Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P644 (06-18-21)
Synopsis
All of us need encouragement in this fallen world we live in. As Jesus warned us so many times, let no man deceive you. All of us have been deceived one time or another and are all subject to deception. Many of us grew up in some denomination or cult even, and some of us came to the knowledge of the truth. We came to realize God’s word is truth, and anything contrary to that is to be rejected as from men. Not all men are deliberately deceiving you. Many are simply passing on what they heard from others.
How grateful we are for those many people, the born again believers all over the world, who have understood God’s grace, the totality of the cross, of being made complete in Christ and salvation through receiving new life through the resurrection of Christ Jesus, who has offered all men the Holy Spirit to be placed in those who believe.
When we see another believer trapped in sin, what is our attitude toward them, knowing what God has done for us, and rescued us from, and we are all equal at the foot of the cross. We are to go to a person with humility, knowing we could be ensnared ourselves, and seek to restore them. We proclaim the same truth that set us free.
So listen now as various callers call in to either encourage Bob or receive instruction on things they have heard that just does not ring true to them. Many callers report on how they have seen relatives overcome depression through truth they heard and others who are now walking in grace instead of in bondage to legalism. Truth is coming now into greater focus, or clarity of understanding, of the meaning of the word of God to them.
How blessed are those who look intently into the scriptures to see if what any man says is so, relying on the Holy Spirit to teach them. As Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. The Holy Spirit is at work to draw all men unto Himself and to guide the believer into all truth.
Transcript
Jacob from Kansas City, MO
Jacob: I have always been encouraged by your ministry. I was googling legalism the other day. It is amazing the things that come up on there. I found this ministry and I will not mention his name. It is neat. He is doing this thing where he is trying to do Christianity without the religion. He is trying to help people to understand Christianity does not have to be a religious ritual. He says it is without human enclosed rules, ritual or regulations. I left information with a staff member so you can look at it. There is just a small group of them. I have read some of their letters too. People who came out of Jehovah Witness type of background, Mormon-type of background, and normal mainline denominational churches, but you get to read all their different testimonies of how they have been encouraged and helped by this ministry, of how they have been led out of their legalistic stuff they had been involved in. They are in California. It is nice to know the body of Christ is all over the world.
Bob: That is for sure, Jacob. When we first started on the air over 20 years ago, as far as media is concerned, as far as any kind of program on either television or radio, we were kind of unique in teaching the finality of the cross and completeness in Christ with the emphasis on completeness through the resurrection. There were a lot of people who took shots at us, calling us heretics, and then started studying the word of God and found out we were teaching truth, and lives were changed by it.
Bob: When we first started out with publishing Growing in Grace, the publisher was saying that you cannot title it like that because no one is interested in grace. There were hardly any books on the book shelves with the word “grace” on it. Today, almost everything on the bookshelf is connected with grace.
Bob: God uses people in different ways. There are different people who have gotten a hold of this message and are passing it along in their unique way. We were never alone, although it seemed we were alone as far as the media is concerned. More and more people are beginning to figure out Christianity is not do’s and don’t but a relationship with Jesus Christ. We verbalize those words but to put them into practice and meaning is few and far between. That is what truth is.
Bob: People have got so bogged down in tradition and denominationalism, where Christianity is perceived as a building on the corner of walk and don’t walk instead of realizing church is people. It has been a journey for us. We are glad other people are picking up on it.
Bob: You do have to be discerning, because now grace has become a buzzword like other things. After a while people see something as popular and start teaching it. So you have to be discerning in who you listen to. All you have to do is listen to someone long enough and then you will find out if they really know the grace of God or are just using it as words.
Bob: Thank you for your encouragement, Jacob. Keep growing in grace, my friend.
Jacob: I want to thank you again for your teaching, Predestination, Free Will, Election & Foreknowledge, on how predestination is not about you’s and me’s but about Gentiles and Jews. It never clicked. It bugged me. I heard you talking to this lady caller, and she got it right away. I could not understand it. I prayed, and the Lord finally revealed the meaning to me. I knew what the word said, what you are talking about, but He had not taught me yet. “Lord, I now want to know what this is.” In Ephesians 1, I have written this down what you had been saying. It was an exciting day for me when I understood it. Then in Ephesians 2, I was encouraged to find, in verses 15 and 16, where it talks about how we are the living church. It is alive. It is a living building. It is great to know these truths are real, alive in them and rejoice in them.
Bob: Yes, it is a great time when He opens our eyes to these things. Thanks for your call and encouragement. Call any time.
Dean from Colorado Springs, CO
Dean: I cannot get you very well down here because I had power down on the station. I can hear you a little bit on the radio. I get some kind of music that comes in about half an hour after you come on and drowns you all out.
Bob: That is all a part of good old radio. You have to cut power back on A.M stations. That happens every year. The best thing to do is get on the internet during those periods of times and possibly pick up the program there.
Dean: I do not have a computer, but I certainly get into your books and I am reading them and listening as much as I can. But more than that I am able to share a lot of this with my family. I just wanted to share something with you, Bob, that has been absolutely a miracle. My sister, who is in Arkansas, and I have talked to you about her before. She is absolutely in love with the Lord. Her middle son had got caught up in drugs and things like that. He has been living with a gal for the last six years in Pensacola, FL. Finally, he just got fed up with it and went to Arkansas. And he saw that when he got there, he saw his mother, who was an absolutely changed person because of the Lord in her life now. He was just absolutely amazed and she was able to share a lot of this stuff, Bob, through your books and especially Classic Christianity and Victory over Depression. He said, “For some reason I have got to get back to Pensacola.” So he went back to Pensacola and he called me the other night, “Uncle Dean, I want to tell you something.” He will be 39 in December. “My mind is as clear as it has been in I do not know many years. I am thinking clearly right now. I am going to get a lot of stuff I left here in Pensacola and I am going to straighten out. I am going to tell people who I have wronged I am going to make right. When I read the first few chapters of that book, Victory over Depression, that man talked about me. My mind got so clear I could think for the first time in I cannot remember in how many years.” I want to share that your books have the power they are having in people’s lives.
John 8:32
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Bob: Well, Dean, thank you. It is very humbling to know that and to hear that. But again, it is back to that same old thing, that truth is what sets people free and error is what binds you. When you are in a condition that is totally contrary to the things of God, you are in error. Your mind is full of error. And it is not complicated. How do you get rid of error. You replace it with truth. It is not something you have to wallow around on the ground with. You just begin to, like what happened to the gentleman you are talking about, you begin to read truth and that truth begins to dispel error in your head, and if you have come to the Lord, that is the whole process we will be in as long as we are alive on this earth. We will be replacing error that is in our minds, and still to this day, full of error, and replacing that with truth. That is all a part of the renewing of the mind that will be taking place as long as we are alive.
Dean: This young man is my nephew. I love him dearly. My sister has three boys and my younger sister has three boys. I love all these boys. He told me the other night when he called me, and he was absolutely in tears. He said, “Uncle Dave, you lived this life for so many years. I saw it and I denied it. I have seen the change made in you.” He said, “I can see the difference it is making in me now. I want to thank you for being there for me.”
Bob: Wow! Well, that is what makes life worthwhile isn’ it, Dean.
Romans 8:31-33
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
Hebrews 13:5
5 God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Bob: Yes. That is the message, absolutely. Talk about a purpose filled life. There is only one purpose for us being here and that is to make our bodies available to the living Christ who lives in us to live His life in and through us. It is not living by a group of principles or living by law or to get all the church together doing the same things at the same time at the same place with the same degree of enthusiasm. It is recognizing God saves you and me individually and is there to guide us individually just like He told Peter, “What is it to you if I have him to live forever? I am telling you to follow Me.” He is not telling you to get into church to do the same thing, the same time, the same place, with the same degree of enthusiasm.
Dean: Right.
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.
Bob: He says, “Individually I will guide you. I will tell you where I want you to go and how to do it.” If we will just learn to trust the Holy Spirit of God living in us, that would be amazing the results that would take place. I was thinking of a comment I heard the other day. Somebody was talking about all these birds. They all left to go to another place. It was getting cold here. Just like the swans coming back from California to Capistana. They do not have a calendar. How do they do that? They do not have to watch either. They just show up at the same time every year. Somebody said those are smart birds. No. Those are birds who are listening to whatever voice that is within them telling them what to do. They are just merely listening to it. If we ever learn to be obedient there is no telling what would be accomplished in our lives.
Dean: It was like the salmon that went back to where they were. How do they know to do that? It has to be something greater than ourselves?
Bob: Absolutely.
Dean: And it is not the big bang either.
Bob: Nope.
Dean: Anyway, I wanted to share that with you. I am just humbled by what the Lord is doing in my sisters lives and nephews now. The Lord had got a hold of Buddy now. His name is buddy. The Lord has got a hold of his life. The other two brothers are going to see a difference that he saw in his mother. He is going to have an influence on the other two boys. I just sense in my spirit that great things are going to happen very, very soon. I want to let you know. Thank God for your wisdom, Bob, and through your insight into the mind that we do not have psychological problems but we have thinking problems. We need to get our thoughts together. We need to get our thinking straightened out and everything else will fall in line.
Bob: Well, Dean, thank you so much for your call, brother. You call at any time.
Paul from Wilyear, CA
Paul: I was wondering what you would say about the ghost that was conjured up by the witch of Endor? Was that the bonified Samual or demonic impersonator?
Bob: I have not studied the passage concerning 1 Samuel 28:9 in detail and is not on authority on that topic. What doe it make a difference one way or the other?
1 Samuel 28:8-14
8 So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. “Consult a spirit for me,” he said, “and bring up for me the one I name.” 9 But the woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?” 10 Saul swore to her by the Lord, “As surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this.” 11 Then the woman asked, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” “Bring up Samuel,” he said. 12 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!” 13 The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?” The woman said, “I see a ghostly figure coming up out of the earth.” 14 “What does he look like?” he asked. “An old man wearing a robe is coming up,” she said. Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.
Paul: Whether you are going to heaven or hell, I do not think there is going back and forth?
Bob: For people?
Paul: For dead people.
Bob: No. According to scripture, you and I, who are in Christ Jesus never die. We just go to sleep and open up in the hands of Christ once you have eternal life, granted to you the moment you are born again and manifested in fulness on the day we leave here physically from this earth, and go into the presence of God. That is where you are going to stay until He comes back and we come back with Him after the rapture and ultimately to reign with him a thousand years in a millenial reign. But that is not a ghost.
Paul: Samuel would have been in Abraham’s bosom, the paradise department?
Bob: What I am saying here, with questions like that, to think I have all that stuff on the tip of my tongue, I do not.
Bob reads the passage.
Bob: It seems to me he has cut off all mediums and spiritists.
Paul: Read further down when the ghost is conjured up.
Bob: There is where you are talking about. I have no idea. Even after studying, I do not know what that is talking about but certainly we are not in that dispensation today. One way or another I do not worry about those things too much, for what happened in the Old Testament, it was not pertaining to me as a Gentile anyway. But I will study it.
Paul: The reason I asked is because I have a loved one who had a spouse who departed and went on to be with the Lord. A relative said that they saw the presence of the departed person with them. I said that could not be because once you are in heaven you stay there until, and that is it. Is that right?
Bob: Yes, you are a hundred percent right. That is wishful thinking.
Paul: Samuel would have been in paradise, in Abraham’s bosom, and he would not be able to come out either.
Bob: We do not know. You can assume that. Again, I have not studied that in that light. I am not an authority to talk on it, Paul. But on this side of the cross, the Old Testament saints were in a holding pattern until the price is paid by Jesus. So what God did with them, in that holding pattern, He could do anything He wanted to. But once Jesus paid the price, He led them into the final paradise they are in today, which is the paradise of God, and where they will stay until we all come back to reign with Jesus.
Paul: On this side of the cross, definitely not. Before the cross, it is a question mark.
Bob: I have no idea. I do know after the corss we are with Jesus, period, and we are not coming back to appear to people. I do not think people did before the cross either.
Paul: Me neither.
Bob: but I do know we are certainly not doing that now.
Paul: Okay, Bob.
Bob: Okay, my friend. I wish I could be more up to date on that. But I am not. I will study it though.
Paul: Okay. Bye bye now.
Bob: Okay, my friend. God bless you, pal.
Paul: You too.
Andrea from Lakeland, MI
Andrea: I am calling concerning a person who was involved in blatant adultery and saw nothing wrong with it. The woman is divorced and remarried and now married to her former husband, so according to scripture, she is committing adultery. A close girl friend is severing ties with her because she is taking up with a married man. She considers her a sinful person because she is a divorced person. I am puzzled concerning this. Why is she doing this? Her attitude is ridiculous.
Bob: Actually, her attitude is not ridicuolus. If you believe you are a goner, if you are divorced in the eyes of God, then you might as well eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you die. In your mind, you have no hope of redemption.
Andrea: I supposoe if you are thinking in that mind frame.
Bob: Yes. Her problem is not what she is thinking now. Her problem is what she understood back in regard to the truth of this kind of thing. In Jesus
Call-In-Bob-George-p644 (06-18-21)
Synopsis
All of us need encouragement in this fallen world we live in. As Jesus warned us so many times, let no man deceive you. All of us have been deceived one time or another and are all subject to deception. Many of us grew up in some denomination or cult even, and some of us came to the knowledge of the truth. We came to realize God’s word is truth, and anything contrary to that is to be rejected as from men. Not all men are deliberately deceiving you. Many are simply passing on what they heard from others.
How grateful we are for those many people, the born again believers all over the world, who have understood God’s grace, the totality of the cross, of being made complete in Christ and salvation through receiving new life through the resurrection of Christ Jesus, who has offered all men the Holy Spirit to be placed in those who believe.
When we see another believer trapped in sin, what is our attitude toward them, knowing what God has done for us, and rescued us from, and we are all equal at the foot of the cross. We are to go to a person with humility, knowing we could be ensnared ourselves, and seek to restore them. We proclaim the same truth that sets us free.
So listen now as various callers call in to either encourage Bob or receive instruction on things they have heard that just does not ring true to them. Many callers report on how they have seen relatives overcome depression through truth they heard and others who are now walking in grace instead of in bondage to legalism. Truth is coming now into greater focus, or clarity of understanding, of the meaning of the word of God to them.
How blessed are those who look intently into the scriptures to see if what any man says is so, relying on the Holy Spirit to teach them. As Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. The Holy Spirit is at work to draw all men unto Himself and to guide the believer into all truth.
Transcript
Jacob from Kansas City, MO
Jacob: I have always been encouraged by your ministry. I was googling legalism the other day. It is amazing the things that come up there. I found this ministry and I will not mention his name. It is neat. He is doing this thing where he is trying to do Christianity without the religion. He is trying to help people to understand Christianity does not have to be a religious ritual. He says it is without human enclosed rules, ritual or regulations. I left information with a staff member so you can look at it. There is just a small group of them. I have read some of their letters too. People who came out of Jehovah Witness type of background, Mormon-type of background, and normal mainline denominational churches, but you get to read all their different testimonies of how they have been encouraged and helped by this ministry, of how they have been led out of their legalistic stuff they had been involved in. They are in California. It is nice to know the body of Christ is all over the world.
Bob: That is for sure, Jacob. When we first started on the air over 20 years ago, as far as media is concerned, as far as any kind of program on either television or radio, we were kind of unique in teaching the finality of the cross and completeness in Christ with the emphasis on completeness through the resurrection. There were a lot of people who took shots at us, calling us heretics, and then started studying the word of God and found out we were teaching truth, and lives were changed by it.
Bob: When we first started out with publishing Growing in Grace, the publisher was saying that you cannot title it like that because no one is interested in grace. There were hardly any books on the book shelves with the word “grace” on it. Today, almost everything on the bookshelf is connected with grace.
Bob: God uses people in different ways. There are different people who have gotten a hold of this message and are passing it along in their unique way. We were never alone, although it seemed we were alone as far as the media is concerned. More and more people are beginning to figure out Christianity is not do’s and don’t but a relationship with Jesus Christ. We verbalize those words but to put them into practice and meaning is few and far between. That is what truth is.
Bob: People have got so bogged down in tradition and denominationalism, where Christianity is perceived as a building on the corner of walk and don’t walk instead of realizing church is people. It has been a journey for us. We are glad other people are picking up on it.
Bob: You do have to be discerning, because now grace has become a buzzword like other things. After a while people see something as popular and start teaching it. So you have to be discerning in who you listen to. All you have to do is listen to someone long enough and then you will find out if they really know the grace of God or are just using it as words.
Bob: Thank you for your encouragement, Jacob. Keep growing in grace, my friend.
Jacob: I want to thank you again for your teaching, Predestination, Free Will, Election & Foreknowledge, on how predestination is not about you’s and me’s but about Gentiles and Jews. It never clicked. It bugged me. I heard you talking to this lady caller, and she got it right away. I could not understand it. I prayed, and the Lord finally revealed the meaning to me. I knew what the word said, what you were talking about, but He had not taught me yet. “Lord, I now want to know what this is.” In Ephesians 1, I have written this down what you had been saying. It was an exciting day for me when I understood it. Then in Ephesians 2, I was encouraged to find, in verses 15 and 16, where it talks about how we are the living church. It is alive. It is a living building. It is great to know these truths are real, alive in them and rejoice in them.
Bob: Yes, it is a great time when He opens our eyes to these things. Thanks for your call and encouragement. Call any time.
Dean from Colorado Springs, CO
Dean: I cannot get you very well down here because I had power down on the station. I can hear you a little bit on the radio. I get some kind of music that comes in about half an hour after you come on and drowns you all out.
Bob: That is all a part of good old radio. You have to cut power back on A.M stations. That happens every year. The best thing to do is get on the internet during those periods of times and possibly pick up the program there.
Dean: I do not have a computer, but I certainly get into your books and I am reading them and listening as much as I can. But more than that I am able to share a lot of this with my family. I just wanted to share something with you, Bob, that has been absolutely a miracle. My sister, who is in Arkansas, and I have talked to you about her before. She is absolutely in love with the Lord. Her middle son had got caught up in drugs and things like that. He has been living with a gal for the last six years in Pensacola, FL. Finally, he just got fed up with it and went to Arkansas. And he saw that when he got there, he saw his mother, who was an absolutely changed person because of the Lord in her life now. He was just absolutely amazed and she was able to share a lot of this stuff, Bob, through your books and especially Classic Christianity and Victory over Depression. He said, “For some reason I have got to get back to Pensacola.” So he went back to Pensacola and he called me the other night, “Uncle Dean, I want to tell you something.” He will be 39 in December. “My mind is as clear as it has been in I do not know for how many years. I am thinking clearly right now. I am going to get a lot of stuff I left here in Pensacola and I am going to straighten out. I am going to tell people who I have wronged. I am going to make it right. When I read the first few chapters of that book, Victory over Depression, that man talked about me. My mind got so clear I could think for the first time in I cannot remember in how many years.” I want to share that your books have the power they are having in people’s lives.
John 8:32
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Bob: Well, Dean, thank you. It is very humbling to know that and to hear that. But again, it is back to that same old thing, that truth is what sets people free and error is what binds you. When you are in a condition that is totally contrary to the things of God, you are in error. Your mind is full of error. And it is not complicated. How do you get rid of error. You replace it with truth. It is not something you have to wallow around on the ground with. You just begin to, like what happened to the gentleman you are talking about, you begin to read truth and that truth begins to dispel error in your head, and if you have come to the Lord, that is the whole process we will be in as long as we are alive on this earth. We will be replacing error that is in our minds, and still to this day, full of error, and replacing that with truth. That is all a part of the renewing of the mind that will be taking place as long as we are alive.
Dean: This young man is my nephew. I love him dearly. My sister has three boys and my younger sister has three boys. I love all these boys. He told me the other night when he called me, and he was absolutely in tears. He said, “Uncle Dave, you lived this life for so many years. I saw it and I denied it. I have seen the change made in you.” He said, “I can see the difference it is making in me now. I want to thank you for being there for me.”
Bob: Wow! Well, that is what makes life worthwhile isn’ it, Dean.
Romans 8:31-33
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
Hebrews 13:5
5 God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Bob: Yes. That is the message, absolutely. Talk about a purpose filled life. There is only one purpose for us being here and that is to make our bodies available to the living Christ who lives in us to live His life in and through us. It is not living by a group of principles or living by law or to get all the church together doing the same things at the same time at the same place with the same degree of enthusiasm. It is recognizing God saves you and me individually and is there to guide us individually just like He told Peter, “What is it to you if I have him to live forever? I am telling you to follow Me.” He is not telling you to get into church to do the same thing, the same time, the same place, with the same degree of enthusiasm.
Dean: Right.
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.
Bob: He says, “Individually I will guide you. I will tell you where I want you to go and how to do it.” If we will just learn to trust the Holy Spirit of God living in us, that would be amazing the results that would take place. I was thinking of a comment I heard the other day. Somebody was talking about all these birds. They all left to go to another place. It was getting cold here. Just like the swans coming back from California to Capistana. They do not have a calendar. How do they do that? They do not have to watch either. They just show up at the same time every year. Somebody said those are smart birds. No. Those are birds who are listening to whatever voice that is within them telling them what to do. They are just merely listening to it. If we ever learn to be obedient there is no telling what would be accomplished in our lives.
Dean: It was like the salmon that went back to where they were. How do they know to do that? It has to be something greater than ourselves?
Bob: Absolutely.
Dean: And it is not the big bang either.
Bob: Nope.
Dean: Anyway, I wanted to share that with you. I am just humbled by what the Lord is doing in my sisters lives and nephews now. The Lord had got a hold of Buddy now. His name is buddy. The Lord has got a hold of his life. The other two brothers are going to see a difference that he saw in his mother. He is going to have an influence on the other two boys. I just sense in my spirit that great things are going to happen very, very soon. I want to let you know. Thank God for your wisdom, Bob, and through your insight into the mind that we do not have psychological problems but we have thinking problems. We need to get our thoughts together. We need to get our thinking straightened out and everything else will fall in line.
Bob: Well, Dean, thank you so much for your call, brother. You call at any time.
Paul from Wilyear, CA
Paul: I was wondering what you would say about the ghost that was conjured up by the witch of Endor? Was that the bonafide Samuel or demonic impersonator?
Bob: I have not studied the passage concerning 1 Samuel 28:9 in detail and am not on authority on that topic. What does it make a difference one way or the other?
1 Samuel 28:8-14
8 So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. “Consult a spirit for me,” he said, “and bring up for me the one I name.” 9 But the woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?” 10 Saul swore to her by the Lord, “As surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this.” 11 Then the woman asked, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” “Bring up Samuel,” he said. 12 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!” 13 The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?” The woman said, “I see a ghostly figure coming up out of the earth.” 14 “What does he look like?” he asked. “An old man wearing a robe is coming up,” she said. Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.
Paul: Whether you are going to heaven or hell, I do not think there is going back and forth?
Bob: For people?
Paul: For dead people.
Bob: No. According to scripture, you and I, who are in Christ Jesus never die. We just go to sleep and open up in the hands of Christ once you have eternal life, granted to you the moment you are born again and manifested in fullness on the day we leave here physically from this earth, and go into the presence of God. That is where you are going to stay until He comes back and we come back with Him after the rapture and ultimately to reign with him a thousand years in a millenial reign. But that is not a ghost.
Paul: Samuel would have been in Abraham’s bosom, the paradise department?
Bob: What I am saying here, with questions like that, to think I have all that stuff on the tip of my tongue, I do not.
Bob reads the passage.
Bob: It seems to me he has cut off all mediums and spiritists.
Paul: Read further down when the ghost is conjured up.
Bob: There is where you are talking about. I have no idea. Even after studying, I do not know what that is talking about but certainly we are not in that dispensation today. One way or another I do not worry about those things too much, for what happened in the Old Testament, it was not pertaining to me as a Gentile anyway. But I will study it.
Paul: The reason I asked is because I have a loved one who had a spouse who departed and went on to be with the Lord. A relative said that they saw the presence of the departed person with them. I said that could not be because once you are in heaven you stay there until, and that is it. Is that right?
Bob: Yes, you are a hundred percent right. That is wishful thinking.
Paul: Samuel would have been in paradise, in Abraham’s bosom, and he would not be able to come out either.
Bob: We do not know. You can assume that. Again, I have not studied that in that light. I am not an authority to talk about it, Paul. But on this side of the cross, the Old Testament saints were in a holding pattern until the price was paid by Jesus. So what God did with them, in that holding pattern, He could do anything He wanted to. But once Jesus paid the price, He led them into the final paradise they are in today, which is the paradise of God, and where they will stay until we all come back to reign with Jesus.
Paul: On this side of the cross, definitely not. Before the cross, it is a question mark.
Bob: I have no idea. I do know after the cross we are with Jesus, period, and we are not coming back to appear to people. I do not think people did before the cross either.
Paul: Me neither.
Bob: But I do know we are certainly not doing that now.
Paul: Okay, Bob.
Bob: Okay, my friend. I wish I could be more up to date on that. But I am not. I will study it though.
Paul: Okay. Bye bye now.
Bob: Okay, my friend. God bless you, pal.
Paul: You too.
Andrea from Lakeland, MI
Andrea: I am calling concerning a person who was involved in blatant adultery and saw nothing wrong with it. The woman is divorced and remarried and now married to her former husband, so according to scripture, she is committing adultery. A close girl friend is severing ties with her because she is taking up with a married man. She considers her a sinful person because she is a divorced person. I am puzzled concerning this. Why is she doing this? Her attitude is ridiculous.
Bob: Actually, her attitude is not ridiculous. If you believe you are a goner, if you are divorced in the eyes of God, then you might as well eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you die. In your mind, you have no hope of redemption.
Andrea: I suppose if you are thinking in that mind frame.
Bob: Yes. Her problem is not what she is thinking now. Her problem is what she understood back in regard to the truth of this kind of thing. In Jesus’ day, you could divorce your wife because you burnt the supper. All you had to do was write a writ of divorcement and you could divorce her for any single thing. Women had no rights at all back then. It is kind of like the Muslim world today. So what Jesus is saying, “Look, if you are leaving your wife in order to go sleep with somebody else, forget that writ of divorcement, you are committing adultery. You are leaving your commitment to your wife in order to have intercourse with someone else. That is the same as adultery, which is true.
Matthew 19:3-9
3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’[Genesis 1:27] 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’[Genesis 2:24]? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
7 “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
Bob: You have to see that also as under the covenant Jesus is teaching in. Jesus was teaching under an Old Covenant because He had not died yet and, therefore, could not usher in a New Covenant, the covenant of grace that says their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.
Hebrews 10:17-18
17 Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” 18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Andrea: Okay.
Bob: That is New Covenant. Under the Old Covenant, He had to bury us under the law. You have the Old Covenant that is the law. Paul later on said that the Old Covenant was worthless because it could never make anyone perfect.
Romans 4:13-15
13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
Romans 3:20
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
Bob; What was the purpose of the law? To show us our sinfulness so we would turn to Christ for salvation.
Galatians 3:19 (TLB)
19 Well then, why were the laws given? They were added after the promise was given, to show men how guilty they are of breaking God’s laws. But this system of law was to last only until the coming of Christ, the Child to whom God’s promise was made.
Andrea: Okay.
Bob: When you are in Christ Jesus, you are under a totally different covenant than what Christ taught under. It is not because He did not like the new. It was not ushered in yet. It is a covenant of grace. Your sins and lawless acts are taken away from the sight of God eternally. That was the meaning of the cross. He did not forget one.
Andrea: What I do not understand is how can someone continue to sin?
Bob: Forget about trying to understand why someone continues. Someone can look at you and me and say, “Why do you continue to worry?”. Worrying is a sin. It is not a smaller or bigger sin. Sin is sin. Someone could ask, “How come you are depressed?”
Andea: Okay.
Bob: Someone could ask, “I do not understand how you can get depressed?”
Andrea: Christ died for us. Our sins are forgiven. That does not mean we should continue knowingly to go on sinning.
Bob: Knowing or unknowingly is not the issue.
Andrea: For someone to say I know the man is married but I have trouble with celibacy and I like what happens between us and I will continue to do so. That is knowingly sinning.
Bob: Andrea, listen to me. There is no one that is going into the presence of God in his own righteousness. If you think you are ever going to go in your righteousness, you are going to get arrested for indecent exposure before you get there. No one is going in their own righteousness. You are going in the righteousness of Christ Jesus. So do not ever get into this thinking, “Thank God I am not a sinner like they are.”
Luke 18:9-14
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Andrea: No, I am not coming from that angle at all.
Bob: But that is the way it is coming across.
Andrea: Okay. I understand.
Bob: Here is what it says in the scriptures. What you are hearing out of that woman’s mouth, that is coming out of a heart that does not know the Lord.
Andrea: She told me, and I believe she was saved when she was in her late 20s.
Bob: You won’t be saved and argue against truth. If saved, you are going to say that going out with a married man is adultery and it is sin and it is a horrible sin.
Andrea: She will say, “I know I am sinning, but.” She will come up with a few justifications here and there. She knows it is wrong but says it between me and God.
Bob: Sorry. It always has been between you and God. That is a cop out.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 16:9-11
9 The world’s sin is unbelief in me; 10 there is righteousness available because I go to the Father and you shall see me no more; 11 there is deliverance from judgment because the prince of this world has already been judged
Bob: Now, she should be saying, “I am entrapped in this sin and I do not know how to get out of it.” You, as a Christian, see a person trapped in it. Go to her, and do not go to her thinking you could not do the same thing, because you could. But go to her to restore her. If I have a relationship with truth, then I cannot say “I know this is sin, but”. There is no “but” associated with it. “I know it is sin and I am trapped in it and I do not know how to get out of it. Will you help me?”
Galatians 6:1
1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.
1 Corinthians 10:12
12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
Andrea: When you use the word “entrapped” in sin that clarifies that. That brings it to another light for me. God bless. Thank you.
day, you could divorce your wife because you burnt the supper. All you had to do was write a writ of divorcement and you could divorce her for any single thing. Women had no rights at all back then. It is kind of like the Muslim world today. So what Jesus is saying, “Look, if you are leaving your wife in order to go sleep with somebody else, forget that writ of divorcement, you are committing adultery. You are leaving your commitment to your wife in order to have intercourse with someone else. That is the same as adultery, which is true.
Matthew 19:3-9
3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’[Genesis 1:27] 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’[Genesis 2:24]? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
7 “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
Bob: You have to see that also as under the covenant Jesus is teaching in. Jesus was teaching under an Old Covenant because He had not died yet and, therefore, could not usher in a New Covenant, the covenant of grace that says their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.
Hebrews 10:17-18
17 Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” 18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Andrea: Okay.
Bob: That is New Covenant. Under the Old Covenant, He had to bury us under the law. You have the Old Covenant that is the law. Paul later on said that the Old Covenant was worthless because it could never make anyone perfect.
Romans 4:13-15
13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
Romans 3:20
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
Bob; What was the purpose of the law? To show us our sinfulness so we would turn to Christ for salvation.
Galatians 3:19 (TLB)
19 Well then, why were the laws given? They were added after the promise was given, to show men how guilty they are of breaking God’s laws. But this system of law was to last only until the coming of Christ, the Child to whom God’s promise was made.
Andrea: Okay.
Bob: When you are in Christ Jesus, you are under a totally different covenant than what Christ taught under. It is not because He did not like the new. It was not ushered in yet. It is a covenant of grace. Your sins and lawless acts are taken away from the sight of God eternally. That was the meaning of the cross. He did not forget one.
Andrea: What I do not understand is how can someone continue to sin?
Bob: Forget about trying to understand why someone continues. Someone can look at you and me and say, “Why do you continue to worry?”. Worrying is a sin. It is not a smaller or bigger sin. Sin is sin. Someone could ask, “How come you are depressed?”
Andea: Okay.
Bob: Someone could ask, “I do not understand how you can get depressed?”
Andrea: Christ died for us. Our sins are forgiven. That does not mean we should continue knowingly to go on sinning.
Bob: Knowing or unknowingly is not the issue.
Andrea: For someone to say I know the man is married but I have trouble with celibacy and I like what happens between us and I will continue to do so. That is knowingly sinning.
Bob: Andrea, listen to me. There is no one that is going into the presence of God in his own righteousness. If you think you are ever going to go in your righteousness, you are going to get arrested for indecent exposure before you get there. No one is going in their own righteousness. You are going in the righteousness of Christ Jesus. So do not ever get into this thinking, “Thank God I am not a sinner like they are.”
Luke 18:9-14
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Andrea: No, I am not coming from that angle at all.
Bob: But that is the way it is coming across.
Andrea: Okay. I understand.
Bob: Here is what it says in the scriptures. What you are hearing out of that woman’s mouth, that is coming out of a heart that does not know the Lord.
Andrea: She told me, and I believe she was saved when she was in her late 20s.
Bob: You won’t be saved and argue against truth. If saved, you are going to say that going out with a married man is adultery and it is sin and it is a horrible sin.
Andrea: She will say, “I know I am sinning, but.” She will come up with a few justifications here and there. She knows it is wrong but says it between me and God.
Bob: Sorry. It always has been between you and God. That is a cop out.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 16:9-11
9 The world’s sin is unbelief in me; 10 there is righteousness available because I go to the Father and you shall see me no more; 11 there is deliverance from judgment because the prince of this world has already been judged
Bob: Now, she should be saying, “I am entrapped in this sin and I do not know how to get out of it.” You, as a Christian, see a person trapped in it. Go to her, and do not go to her thinking you could not do the same thing, because you could. But go to her to restore her. If I have a relationship with truth, then I cannot say “I know this is sin, but”. There is no “but” associated with it. “I know it is sin and I am trapped in it and I do not know how to get out of it. Will you help me?”
Galatians 6:1
1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.
1 Corinthians 10:12
12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
Andrea: When you use the word “entrapped” in sin that clarifies that. That brings it to another light for me. God bless. Thank you.
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