Call-ins Radio Broadcast Friday 08/27/2021

Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P665 (08-27-21)

Allow the Holy Spirit Living in You to Renew Your Mind With Truth

In order to grow in Christ, we need to replace error with truth. But do we recognize the error? How would we if we are not spending time in God’s word relying on the Spirit of God living in us to teach us. A common mistake that hinders growth is relying on denominational persuasions on what truth is.

A common hindrance to growth is all the denominations not teaching truth. Listen as a caller asks a question concerning a church practice of home churches for today, as if that is the only way church structure should be done according to some people, that led into a conversation about the church being a mess today. The church is not a mess because of its organizational structure even though that brought about some of the mess. What good does it do where the whole church is doing the same thing? There is one denomination where the pastor looks alike and everybody looks alike, and that is not even the problem with the church. The problem is they are teaching heretical things within it.

Sadly churches today hinder the ability of people to be led by the Spirit of God. Instead of teaching truth, they are teaching error. Many churches today are comingling law and grace, even controlling people with guilt and manipulation, teaching experience over truth. Many have become entertainment centers to bring in nickels and noses rather than places for teaching truth from the word of God, encouraging true fellowship in the Spirit and praying in truth. Prayer has been replaced by dangerous prayer practices borrowed from the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola. Many churches will promote life groups that have book studies but not bible studies, where such studies are not rich in scripture or use scriptures taken out of context to promote an agenda, a so-called purpose driven life by a well known pastor, or the promotion of tithing, in a lot of books sold today are promoting the tithe as though that is for us today. So many have an ecumenical spirit about them, as if all roads lead to God, with joint prayers with Catholics, Muslims and Jews all together with them, and see nothing wrong with that.

Another common mistake is to reduce God down to our level of thinking. This is so common in this area of forgiveness. We think that if I do something wrong then I need to get forgiveness from God. For after all, that is what happens between me and another person. Or, we rely on our feelings rather than on what truth is. I feel bad when I do wrong so I must need to get forgiveness from God to get rid of those bad feelings.

But God is not like us and has already provided the forgiveness of sins for the entire world, and that before you and I were ever born. God already provided for our reconciliation through Jesus Christ, by His death on a cross by which He ushered in a New Covenant of grace. You and I were declared guilty, but Jesus took all the punishment for our sins, and not just ours but the sins of the entire world, back to Adam and forward to eternity. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin (Hebrews 9:22). Jesus is not coming back to shed His blood again. He did it once. He did it for all. He is coming back to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.

Hebrews 9:28
²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

It is so important to understand for you who are in Christ Jesus, that you have have already been forgiven at the cross for all of your sins. You are not under a law of sin and death but under a new law of liberty in Christ Jesus. Under law, there is a penalty associated to that law called death, for the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and as long as we were still under that law, how could we approach God with boldness and confidence? But the law of liberty in Christ Jesus is not a license to sin, for we never had a license to sin, for we sin quite easily on our own. That liberty is to live under pure grace (knowing our sins have been forgiven), with the love of God living in our hearts, being made into a new creation, so we can walk in the new way of the Spirit. By walking in the Spirit, you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. You could sin but it would no longer make any sense to do so for you are now a child of God. But if you do sin, you have a defense advocate, who appears before God in heaven, saying that sin has already been paid for over 2000 years ago on a wooden cross.

Romans 8:1-4
¹ Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

God knowing quite well our sin-indwelling flesh, our fallen state in Adam, took away the barrier of the fear of punishment that prevented us from freely coming to Him in the first place. Who would come to God if they are in fear of what He can do to you, not knowing your sins have already been forgiven? How can you go boldly to the throne of grace if you do not know what the grace of God is? God provided a means for you and I to participate in the divine nature by putting His Holy Spirit to be in you forever, guiding you into all truth, and has called you His own, a child of God. You will never be cast aside by God, to ever be out of fellowship with God, due to sin. He has freed you to start living by loving, by relying on His love for you that casts out all fear, and allowing Him to live His life in you and through you. You cannot live the Christian life but the Holy Spirit living in you can so you rely on Him. We love because He first loved us. God is the initiator of all things, in both creation and salvation, without consulting us, and we respond to Him. He initiated His love to us and we respond to Him.

So what should a person do when they sin? Should they ask God to forgive them? No, for that has already been done, and it would not be faith to ask God for what in Him you already have. He died once and for all and will not die on a cross again for sin. The issue is, if you are going to walk by faith, there is nothing wrong to say you are sorry when you blew it, but to ask for forgiveness, no. Instead, we are to thank Him for His forgiveness instead of asking Him to do what He will not do again, to shed His blood on across again and again, reducing Jesus’ sacrifice on the same par as the blood of bulls and goats, which could cover sin, but never take them away. You come to God as His child to allow God to renew your mind with truth, and that truth will set you free to walk in true freedom, with the ability to do what you know is right, through trusting Christ who lives in you.

There is nothing wrong with saying sorry. But most of the time our sins are toward one another. What religion has taught us, sadly, is to forget that I have insulted you or lied to you or ripped you off in some way, to forget about that, and just get on with your life straight with God. The basic teaching of confess your sins, meaning to agree with God, has been misapplied to mean you need to ask for forgiveness, clear your slate with God and then ignores the responsibility of confessing your sins one to another.

Colossians 3:13
¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

The reason to forgive one another is that is who you have offended, one another. The majority of sins we commit are toward one another, whether we like it or not. If someone has ought against another, they should go to them, individually, not behind their back trying to kick them off the radio. Individually go to the person you have qualms with and discuss it. That is what enables peace to develop between brothers and sisters in Christ.

Matthew 18:15-16
¹⁵ “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. ¹⁶ But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’[Deuteronomy 19:15]

Listen as a caller calls in who had battled depression most of his life. He called to thank Bob for the resources provided to help him overcome this problem. It really is a thinking problem, and by pondering over the scriptures explained in Classic Christianity and Victory over Depression, he was able to walk in new found freedom. He was so very grateful to Bob and simply wanted to call him to thank him, and express how his life has changed. He now has the tools to know how to take every thought captive to the obedience to Christ when any thoughts comes to his mind that formerly would have kept him bound up in depression.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5
⁴ The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

At other times, callers simply call about questions that gets them stumped, and sometimes get confused. They know you cannot lose salvation, but they get confused on passages of scripture that are not interpreted correctly. Listen as a caller asked about this strange character of Melchizedek in the book of Hebrews and why he is even in the scriptures. Bob shares that the main reason Melchizedek is in there at all is to show the people of Israel that Jesus is superior even over Abraham for they insisted that Abraham is their father. Recall that in those days of Jesus on earth, there were those legalist leaders that would not recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah, saying that they have Abraham as their father. This argument by the author of Hebrews was taken an example from early history that even Abraham gave a tenth of all he had from the spoils of war to a man named Melchizedek, and so he who is lesser gave to him who is greater, and Melchizedek was like a picture or prototype of Christ.

So, at times, it can be helpful to ask questions on others on things of scripture that seem hard for you to understand right now, but with that person’s explanation, you are given enough background along with various scriptures that you can go back and check it out for yourself, to confirm if what he said is so. For again, it is important to rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to you, and ultimately, He is the one who will reveal truth to you. Do not blindly accept what someone else says is true, for in these last days Jesus also warned us to not let any man deceive you. Check it out for yourself. Be a Berean.

Acts 17:11
Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

1 Corinthians 2:9-10
⁹ However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”[Isaiah 64:4]—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—
¹⁰ these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.