Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P546 (06-19-20)
Synopsis
Life can certainly be frustrating. You are a believer and want to provide a better home for your family, and you find life difficult and you wonder how to live this life. You lose heart. Or you are a believer and you know your family is lost as ever. They have not understood the gospel and they do not even want to listen to the truth on such an important message. Whenever a topic comes up, they just stay clear of it. And your heart breaks for your family. Or you are a believer but you are married to a spouse who has gotten caught up in sinful behavior, such as a drug addiction or addicted to pornography. Several callers called on this program for help in how to deal with these life struggles and wanted wisdom in what to do.
There is always hope in Jesus Christ. We all know what sin is like, for we can all identify with Paul who said, “I do not understand myself. The things I hate to do I do and the things I do not want to do I do anyhow. What a wretched man I am. Who can save me from this condition of death? Praise be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” See, the message of Christ Jesus is the solution to all the issues we face in this life. For if Christ is living in you, you have the mind of Christ. You can boldly go to the throne of grace for help in time of need. It is just a prayer away.
Yes, there are practical steps to take, such as make no provision for the flesh in regards to its lust. You many even have to make choices to get rid of your computer if you are addicted to pornography and you are so weak to that temptation. See, the heart of God is mercy. He is gracious. He will provide a way of escape. He is for you. If you are in Christ, there is no condemnation awaiting you.
Now, to the proud of heart, those who refuse to listen to the message of Christ Jesus. To those family members who take pride in their behavior, who see no need of Christ, or who trust in their theology and traditions of men. God resists the proud of heart. You cannot change the mind of someone who is arguing against the truth of the word of God. God’s role is to convict a proud heart so the hard heart will be broken. Yes, it is frustrating. Listen to the heart cry of the apostle Paul to his own Jewish people, whom he deeply loves, and said he wish he could be cut off from his own people if that would mean their salvation.
We have to be humbled to even want to hear about Christ. That is how we have come to Christ. We are humbled to the wretched state of sin and death we are in. We have come to realize that we are a sinner, and more than that, worthy of death, dead to God. By knowing this state of death, we are anxious to find life. We come to understand that Jesus offers His life to be lived in us and through us. So we accept that life. God begins the process of renewing our mind with truth and the truth sets us free. We learn to walk in this grace we have now found in Christ. We have become a new creation in Christ Jesus, from sinner to now a saint, not having any righteousness of our own but having the righteousness of Christ imputed to us by faith. So when we walk by the Spirit, we do not give in to the desires of the flesh. We have the ability to participate in the divine nature who now lives in us. As a new creation, it just does not make sense to participate in sin-indwelling flesh. The love of God poured in our hearts overwhelms us.
So also when as a believer you tend to lose heart, for we all continue to have this battle between the Spirit and the flesh. When you see the circumstances in life just crumble around you, it is easy to take your eyes off Christ Jesus. But this love of God is what sustains you. So you learn to keep your eyes on Christ. He has promised to never leave you or forsake you. He has promised to complete the work He began in you. Oh, these great and precious promises of God you just learn to cling to. He has promised that He has given you everything you need for life and godliness. So you become convinced of God’s love for you. This love of God is what sustains you. So you walk by faith and not by sight. You come to grab a hold of this peace of God and experience that peace of God. See, God gives you peace that surpasses understanding. You are thanking Him in the midst of your trials and tribulations because you know Him who has overcome the world and you are convinced of His love for you. So, again, I say rejoice.
Transcript
Eric from Indianapolis, IN
Eric: Every time I go to talk to somebody and they are talking about baptism, they always take me to that scripture in 1 Peter 3:21. I know baptism does not save you and they take me right there every time.
Bob: Well, I think that is the worst place to take you if you are trying to prove baptism saves you. That is the very opposite of saying water baptism saves you. Let us read the passage. That is the best way to deal with it.
1 Peter 3:19-20
19 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits – 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,
Bob: He did not say saved by water. You were saved through water. You are not saved by water. You are drowned by water. The ark is what saved them through the water. If they did not have the ark, they would drown. The water does not save you. Water drowns you.
1 Peter 3:21
21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God.
Bob: If this water symbolizes something, then what baptism is he talking about? The baptism of the Holy Spirit. Recall what John the Baptist said.
Luke 3:16
16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Bob: Jesus also said the same thing.
Acts 1:4-5
4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
To be baptized by the Holy Spirit is to be placed into the body of Christ. That ultimately is what saves us.
1 Peter 3:21-22
It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
Bob: What is the “it“? That is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, not water baptism. Water baptism cannot save anybody. It will get you wet, but it cannot save you. You and I are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.
Romans 8:9
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
Bob: Therefore, you could not be saved apart from being born again, of the Spirit. The Spirit places you into the body of Christ. That completes the action. One is Christ in you, your hope of glory. The other is, you are now in Christ, his body here on this earth.
Colossians 1:27
27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Ephesians 4:15
15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
Bob: The water baptism symbolizes. It is a picture of the baptism that now saves us, that we now are placed into the body of Christ and saved by the resurrection of Christ Jesus. That ties into Romans where we read this.
Romans 5:10
10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Bob: You are saved by the resurrection of Christ Jesus. Forgiveness does not save people. Forgiveness is what prepared us for salvation. What did we have to be saved from is the wages of sin, which is death.
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Bob: The only thing that can save us is the gift of God, which is life. The kind of life God gave us is called eternal life. The reason that that life is eternal is because of the eternal consequence of the cross.
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Bob: So that is why, again 1 Peter 3, it saves us by the resurrection of Christ Jesus. To come in and use that passage to substantiate to be saved by water baptism is ludicrous. They ought to stay away from that like a plague.
Eric: It is usually the King James Version they are reading out of. The reason I continue on with them is because they are family. You want to have family because you know they are not understanding. The King James Version does not go along with what my other bibles. What does it mean by the “like figure”?
1 Peter 3:21 (KJV)
21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
Eric: The “like figure” is referring to the ark.
Bob: The natural man cannot understand spiritual things. I hate to say this because you are talking about relatives.
1 Corinthians 2:14
14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
Bob: The bible tells us, under no uncertain terms, that if anyone preaches a different gospel than the one I preached to you, then let him be eternally condemned. That is unbelievably harsh language.
Galatians 1:8
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!
Bob: Now, it explains the gospel. It is the death, the burial and the resurrection of Christ Jesus.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures
Bob: Anybody who adds to that, he says, let them be forever condemned. Why? They are preaching a different gospel, which he says is no gospel at all. Anyone who adds baptism to the gospel is preaching a different gospel which is no gospel at all. Anyone who adds tongues, church memberships, tithing, giving, you name it, when you add to Jesus, you have subtracted from Jesus.
Eric: All of that you just said is what is going on.
Bob: Absolutely that is what is going on. The issue is you are talking to people who are lost. Anyone who believes you get saved by baptism is lost. There is no way to be saved by being baptized.
Eric: When I started talking to family but when we get onto a topic like that, they ditch me.
Bob: That is because they do not want to hear the truth. Satan does not want to hear the truth, does he?
Eric: It is an awful feeling thinking your family is lost like that and you cannot get anywhere with them.
Bob: It is because of their own choice. They have chosen to believe what somebody told them, that they are saved by being dunked in water. Nothing can be farther from the truth.
Bob: I tell somebody. Who died for sins? Jesus. Who was raised from the dead? Jesus. Who baptized you? My pastor. That ought to tell you something. In case you have not figured that out, that ought to tell you something. How is Jesus and your pastor going to save somebody?
Bob: I imagine they are out of the Church of Christ? Is that correct?
Eric: No, they are the Pentecostal.
Bob: Same deal.
Eric: The baptism does not matter. It is how you say it. “Yes, whether you are baptized in the name of Jesus or not. You are baptized in name of Jesus if you do everything in word and deed.” I do not think that matters.
Bob: The only thing that matters in salvation is, “Have you by faith accepted, individually, personally, the fact you are a sinner?” There are two things you have to agree with. You have to agree with what God says about you, and you have to believe what God did to correct you. First, you have to agree with God that I am a sinner. Secondly, I have to agree with God I am dead. I do not agree with Him that I am dead then you do not agree with Him. If I do agree with God that I am dead, then I ought to be anxious to believe He has got a life available to me. If I agree that I am a sinner, then He went to the cross to take away my sins from God never to see them again. If the wages of sin is death, then He has offered me resurrected life, and then I accepted that life. My life to me now is to live is Christ. I am born again and I am saved, there is nothing to add or subtract from that. There is no tongues experience.
Eric: They do not believe that.
Bob: That is why they are not saved. There is no way.
Eric: They think that if you do not give tithes you lose salvation. Or if something bad happens to you here, it is sin in your life.
Bob: Just tell them according to your faith be it done unto you and move on. Shake the dust off your shoes and move on. You cannot argue with somebody who is arguing with the word of God. They are arguing with the word of God, not you.
Eric: It is hard. It is terribly hard. I just wish I could find a way to get through it.
Bob: I will tell you something. Anyone whose heart gets humbled, they will come to know Jesus. The reason they do not is pride. Why do they want to hang onto their special gift? Pride. Why does someone want to hang, saying, “I have been baptized and not you?” Pride. Whenever a person gets rid of that pride and comes with a humble heart to God, God gives grace. God gives grace to the humble and resists the proud. You cannot bring that about. Only Christ Jesus can do that. It takes the conviction of the Holy Spirit to bring about repentance.
Eric: They have had dreams about me dying. I tell them, “Oh, good then. I will go to heaven.”
Bob: They love dreams too.
Niles from Detroit, MI
Niles: I enjoy your program. I love the way you come straight like that. I wish there was more of you. I was frustrated. I am a Christian and I am trying. I want to have a good home for my family but sometimes I just lose heart. The other caller, he gets frustrated. I heard the other day about a guy teaching about baptism, getting into Acts 2:38. When I hear things like that it turns my stomach. I am tired of church but I still love Jesus. How do I live this life?
Bob: Again, Niles, you can’t. You know that Christ lives in you. You came to Christ for life, right?
Niles: Yes, I did.
Bob: Then He lives in you. You have the ability to participate in the divine nature that lives in you.
2 Peter 1:4
4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
1 Corinthians 2:16
16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
You have the mind of Christ living in you. That is a great wonder for us because now I do not have to use mine. I can use His. But I can also draw upon my own and that is always a mistake. That is leaning on my own understanding. I do not have to do that as a child of God and neither do you. We have the mind of Christ living in you and we have the ability to participate in that all the time. Just continue, Niles, to get into the word of God, stay in the New Covenant and recognize and come to the point of knowing with certainty what Paul teaches in the New Covenant about the love of God. You will come down to the point that you are convinced, just like him, that nothing can separate you from the love of God.
Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Trials can’t. Tribulations can’t. Nothing can separate you from the love of God when that occurs. You have peace with God. When you have peace with God, you can experience the peace of God. You can never experience the peace of God until you have peace with God. That is when you come to the point of knowing that nothing can separate you from the love of God.
Niles: Thank you. I love all of you.
Bob: I love you too, Niles. Bye bye.
Cynthia from Americana, CA
Cynthia: Thank you so much for taking my call. I heard you say women are not to be pastors in the church. My question is what about women who are called to be apostles for a church?
Bob: There are neither men or women who are apostles today. An apostle had to be a man who witnessed Jesus’ baptism and his death, burial and resurrection. There has not been an apostle in existence when John died in 90 A.D. There are no more apostles. An apostle had to have physical evidence of walking in with Jesus. That is why for our bible to be in the New Testament canon, it had to be written by an apostle or an emanisserant of an apostle. That is why no more writings after the apostles completed their work and after the book of Revelation was written. There are no more apostles.
Cynthia: To carry the title of apostle, is that something that is allowed?
Bob: No. It is heretical to do so.
Cynthia: Okay. I have a question because I am working with someone that is called an apostle.
Bob: Who named him an apostle? Why would they think they are an apostle? Who named him?
Cynthia: Well, no. It is a lady.
Bob: Then who in the world named her? Where did she get the idea she is an apostle?
Cynthia: They say she walked with God. Also, I am getting a little bit confused. The Lord is convicting me. The Holy Spirit is, I should say. There are things that have come up that calls me to raise some questions.
Bob: Absolutely, you should. That is discernment of the Holy Spirit, Cynthia, working in your soul.
Cynthia: Yes.
Bob: That woman has her idle mind all puffed up with idle notions. She has lost contact with the head. If she was walking with God, she would be walking with the truth of the bible.
Colossians 2:18
18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind.
Bob: Right.
Bob: The truth of the bible is there are no more apostles.
Cynthia: Oh, okay.
Bob: She is not walking with God. She is walking in her own fantasy and her own adulation. She is promoting herself that God never named her to be.
Cynthia: Oh. Okay. Thank you so much for clearing that up.
Bob: Alright. God bless you.
Cynthia: God bless you too.
Kimberly from San Diego, CA
Kimberly: I have a question for you about my marriage. I have been married for eleven years to a man that has an addiction to pornography. It has been eleven years of hiding in discovery and lies upon lies to cover up the problem. Sleeping in four different homes. We have done pastoral counseling. We have done marriage courses. I thought the addiction was gone. He found a new drug of choice called Facebook. I found several girlfriends he had on Facebook. I asked him about it, who these people were. He started lying again. The same old drill. I said, “I just cannot live this way anymore. I just feel that we tried everything. I cannot stand this.” He threw his chair back and he stood up and grabbed me by my arms and squeezed very hard, and then he threw me in the hallway. I got bruised up. Of course, I was sitting here on the floor. In eleven years I have never been treated that way before. I feel like there is no respect in marriage. There is not a two way street in openness and communication. I am at my wits end. I am in prayer. We have prayer groups praying over us. It seems like it needs both of us to try hard for this marriage to work.
Bob: Well, Kimberly, a couple of thoughts come to my mind. First of all, your problem is because you are demanding him to do something that he obviously has not been able to stop doing. That is unbelievable frustration. That is a frustrating thing for somebody demanding what you cannot do. His whole issue is to get to the point of how do I get rid of these sexual addictions, especially with a porno. My question to that is, pitch your computer. We live in a day and age where it used to be that if a person wanted to look at porno, you have to go to some sleazy section of town and go in and look at porno. Today, you go to your office and just turn on the computer. It is a very convenient thing for men to do, or women to do. Very tempting thing for them to do because it is easy. Why did you do that? Because it is there. The only way. If your husband was an alcoholic, you would not sit there with a supply of booze in your cabinet and with six packs of beer in the refrigerator, would you? You would pitch that and get rid of them. If he wanted to get rid of them, he may not be happy, but he would do so in order to get it out of the house. The temptation you are talking about is in the house. It is not down on some scuzzy street in South Dallas. It is in the house. If you are going to correct that, you have to get it out of here.
Bob: If the husband is willing to say, I am willing to pitch this. I do not want it, but I got it and it is there. It is a temptation and many people have that temptation. The only way to stop that is to get rid of the source. If I was talking to a person, I would tell them to stay out of that scuzzy area of town. Do not drive by that scuzzy area of town. But it is in your home. So I believe it has to be a decision that has to be made for your husband. It is an embarrassment for a person. A person does not want to admit that but you have to come to the conclusion, “Yes, I do.” Remember Romans. The things I do not want to do I do and the things I do that I hate to do I do anyway. That is where he is.
Romans 7:14-24
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Bob: He has to see what Jesus said. What a wretched man I am. You have to see your own wretchedness. I have to see I am capable of getting into this. I did not know I would until I got a computer. But I did. And I am a wretched man. The only solution to wretchedness is to say, “Thanks be to God. Who will free me from this bondage to sin and death? Thanks be to God.”
Romans 8:1
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
Bob: There is no condemnation from God if he is in Christ Jesus. It is over. The issue is how do I get my life back. How do I build trust from my wife again. The only way you are going to do that is to get rid of the source. He is not going to get rid of the temptation immediately, if ever.
Cynthia: The biggest problem here is that is his job. That is what he does. He is a computer IT person. That is what he does.
Bob: His job does not require looking at porn throughout the day. I would not think so .So he does not need a computer at home, does he?
Cynthia: He works at home.
Bob: Well, if he is a computer whiz, then he knows how to get rid of it so he cannot bring it up?
Cynthia: We have done that. It is supposed to be gone. We have some program that is supposed to alert people and his sponsor if he goes onto it. But over eleven years we have gone back and forth with this. So far there has not been a change. But now my concern is now that he has gotten physical and is not willing to make these changes, so at what point do I stop being supportive and start moving in the direction that children and I need to go?
Bob: Do you think he is on any mind altering drug?
Cynthia: No.
Bob: Are you sure?
Cynthia: No./p>
Bob: I say that because of physical violence.
Bob: That was new, was it not? So you wonder if something that new, what caused it? A person in that particular case could very easily turn to a mind altering drug. You might want to look into that.
Bob: Kimberly, you have to trust the Lord in this. I am not saying you need to dump him. He may be a man struggling with sin. It could be that he does not understand the life issue. There are many times with a person like that. If I was talking to him, the very question I would ask him, “What is your understanding of the gospel?” You want to find out if he was saved by getting his sins forgiven. Many times that is where a person is. They have never gone to the life issue. They wonder why they cannot live the life because they do not have life in Him. That is where I would start if I was talking to him. What is your understanding of the gospel? He may not be functioning where his elevator ought to be.
Cynthia: Right.
Bob: If you would like, Kimberly. If he is open to talking with us, you can certainly have him call and make an appointment and call one of our counselors to see if we can be of help to him.
Cynthia: That is wonderful. I certainly appreciate it.
Bob: Do you think he would do that?
Cynthia: I do not know. I will definitely ask.
Bob: Sometimes when you go to the point and have children involved in there, you have to put a line in the sand and say. “This is it. We are either going to do this or I am going to have to get out of the arrangement. I am not going to bring my children up in this type of environment.”
Cynthia: Right.
Bob: It may be that you have to practice some tough love there. “It is not the case that I do not love you and it is not the case that I do not want to be married to you but I am not going to raise children in this environment.”
Kimberly: I am with you, there.
Bob: If he wants help, he has help available as close as a phone call.
Kimberly: Great. I sure appreciate it. I get so much information from your show. Thank you very much.
Bob: Kimberly, have him call us and we will be more than happy to get involved with you.
Kimberly: I will give it my all. Thank you.
Bob: God bless.
Kimberly: God bless you. Bye bye.
