Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P566 (08-28-20)
Synopsis
So often in our lives, we have been taught so many things that are just errors from denominational persuasions of men. Such pastors and other believers may be sincere and well meaning, but have not interpreted scripture correctly. But as you read through entire passages of scripture for yourself, allowing the Holy Spirit to teach you, you will begin to see truth that will set you free.
This is certainly true when it comes to teaching on the Lord’s supper. So many times, people are scared to death to even take the Lord’s supper for fear they have taken it in an unworthy manner, and therefore, will heap judgment on themselves. Oftentimes, people will introspect and even ask God to forgive them of their sins. This shows a huge lack of understanding on several fundamental truths, and how a misinterpretation of a passage of scripture has prevented thousands of people from celebrating the new covenant we are under today.
First of all, Jesus already went to a cross over 2000 years ago to take away the sins of the entire world, forever, from the eyes of God. That was a necessary preparation for life to be given. For until the consequence of sin, which is death, is taken away, life could not be given. When Jesus shed his blood on a cross, that is what happened. All the sins of the world were placed on Him, and He will remember our sins no more. God in Christ reconciled the world unto Himself, not counting our sins against Him.
And that was just preparation for salvation to be given. Salvation is receiving new life, eternal life, the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. At a moment of time, when you were born again, the Spirit of Christ Jesus came to live in you, to be in you forever. So now, when you understand the complete gospel of what salvation is, go back and read chapters 10 and 11 in 1 Corinthians in regards to the Lord’s supper.
Read the passage in light of Jesus being the bread of life, not a physical piece of bread, but a representation of what He did for you and me, a new covenant of grace we are under. When Jesus broke the bread, and passed it around, the bread, representing His body, what is that a picture of? His body is gone, gone physically from this world and back to His Father, so now He comes alive to live in you personally, every one of you, by the Spirit He has given you. So we have become adopted into the family of God, as spiritual brothers and sisters on that day we believed by faith in what He accomplished for us through His death, burial and resurrection. This is to be a joyous celebration of the New Covenant we are now under, as explained to us in Hebrews 10.
The reason people get confused is because they read one verse and interpret it to mean that we are to analyze ourselves so we do not come under judgment. They think that you need to analyze yourself, to be sure to recall any unconfessed sin before partaking of the Lord’s supper, so you will not be judged. That is way out of context of what is going on in the passage. The people are being instructed to stop being gluttons and pigs, eating up all the food before other believers arrive. They are sinning against their brothers and sisters in Christ, who is the body of Christ. So they are being disciplined by the Lord and being judged by other believers, who are judging them for their selfish, inconsiderate behavior. Go eat at home before you arrive.
Other believers call for clarification on other passages of scripture, and are encouraged in heart as they get the clarification they are looking for. Others call simply to encourage Bob or to say thank you for helping share truth from scripture that has personally helped them and have heard how it has helped so many callers who have called into the radio program. People are so grateful for the truth they grab a hold of that has helped them walk in the freedom that God wants us all to experience in Christ Jesus.
At times a caller calls in who is in quite a predicament of mind and in a precarious situation, suicidal even, seeing little hope for their future. One caller was so bound up in error, thinking he is a schizophrenic, suicidal and is currently in a psychiatric ward. But he really does not belong there. Many times that happens because people do not understand their new identity in Christ, that they are a child of God, and that they are not defined by what labels are placed on them. So, it is so important to have your mind renewed with truth, so you no longer live bound up in error, but in the new life God has given you.
Transcript
James from Victoria, TX
James: You ministered to me a lot on the radio. My question today is this. I want clarification. I know the apostle Paul spoke on the last supper in 1 Corinthians 10, on eating unworthily. The reason I bring this up is because I was in a bible study where a brother was talking about the chastening of the Lord. It all comes down to eating unworthily where God chastens you, or puts sicknesses on you to get you back in line with Him. I want clarification on that. It did not set right with me what I have studied in the word.
Bob: That kind of talk turns your stomach, James, when you hear people talking that way. First of all, in using the Lord’s supper has nothing to do with that at all. I will just read through this in the 11th chapter of Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 11:17-22
17 In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. 18 In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. 19 No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. 20 So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, 21 for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. 22 Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!
Bob: So these people are eating up all the food, one person remains hungry and another drunk. So his solution to that is, “Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in?” Then he talks about what the Lord’s supper is. We will get back to that in a minute.
1 Corinthians 11:27
27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.
Bob: What was the unworthy manner in which they were eating the bread and drinking the cup? Well, they were not waiting on each other. One remains hungry and the other is drunk. When he comes to you, you get ready to eat, but each of you goes ahead without waiting on one another. So, whoever is eating and drinking in an unworthy manner is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Who is the body? Us. What is happening to the body? One body was getting stuffed, fat, dumb and happy and the rest of the body shows up and there is no food or drink left. So he is saying that you are guilty of sinning against the body of Christ and the blood of the Lord. Life is in the blood. So you are sinning against the life that is in the body. If you are in Christ Jesus, the life of Jesus lives in us. So you are sinning against the body of Christ and the Lord that lives within the body of Christ.
1 Corinthians 11:28
28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.
Bob: That is not introspection with the organ playing Just as I am and where the lights dim. It means to examine yourself, and ask yourself, “Am I being a glutton and a pig, or am I waiting on the rest of the body?” That is all it is talking about. Are you looking out for the body or are you just looking out for your own needs?
1 Corinthians 11:29
29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.
Bob: Judgment from who? Who is going to judge them? The body. The people who came to the Lord’s supper to participate with other brothers and sisters in Christ, and there is no food left and those sitting over their drunk. So they are going to judge the body.
1 Corinthians 11:30
30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.
Bob: That can also be called being passed out. That is what happens when you eat and drink too much.
1 Corinthians 11:31
31 But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment.
From who? The body. But when the Lord judges, which is what He is doing right now, in this instruction to the Corinthians. When you are being judged by the Lord, you are being disciplined. That is what is in the book, discipleship training. This is disciple of the Lord for them to quit being gluttons and to start being people who are interested in the rest of body rather than looking out only for themselves.
1 Corinthians 11:32-34
32 Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.33 So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. 34 Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.
Bob: Judgment from who? One another.
1 Corinthians 11:34
And when I come I will give further directions.
Bob: That is instruction out of the bible, for the Lord’s supper. What have people done to that. There is no doctrine that has been more perverted than this one, in regard to the Lord’s supper. You have people telling you that you better get all your sins confessed. “You better have introspection or you are going to bring condemnation on yourself.” People are scared to death to take the Lord’s supper for fear they are going to eat and drink damnation upon themselves because they may have a sin they forgot. It is absolutely disgusting to me what people have done to this marvelous Lord’s supper. This is a supper of celebration. What is it a celebration of?
First of all, what would Jesus say on this?
1 Corinthians 11:23-25
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Bob: This is my body. He is not talking about this hunk of bread in his hands. It represents His body. No magical stuff takes place by it. It is just a hunk of bread. It represents His body. Jesus would have held up a loaf, and said, “this loaf represents my body. I am here on this earth. You can see me. You can see this loaf. If it could talk back, it would talk back to you just like me. This body is going away, and when it does, you will not see me again. But I am going to send my Spirit to live in you and you are going to be my body.” That is what this is a picture of.
Bob: So Jesus breaks the bread and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” He passes it around to everybody there, who is in Christ Jesus. After everyone has partaken of that loaf, where is it? It is gone. Where is it? It is in you. It is a picture of the day you became a born again believer, placed into the body of Christ. The loaf is gone, just like Jesus said. “I am going away but I am going to be here on the earth living in you.” So what is the cup for? It is a celebration of the new covenant. What is the new covenant?
Hebrews 10:16-18
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”[Jeremiah 31:33]17 Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”[Jeremiah 31:34]18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Bob: So what do people do? Get in introspection, begging God to forgive them of their sins, instead of recognizing that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not counting people’s sins against Him.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.
Bob: It is not keeping short accounts with God but the fact of praising God that He alone took away the sins of the entire world. Which is the reason why you have eternal life. Because my sins have been taken away, there is nothing to cause that life to depart from me. That is a celebration of joy. When you do the Lord’s supper in that fashion, you will see people, as I have seen, all over the world, saying I have never seen that done that way before. My heart jumped for joy when I realized what this celebration is all about. People have perverted it beyond comprehension.
James: People sure have. You have given a lot of clarification on that. It bothered me all night. I was searching the scriptures this morning and trying to understand. It all started with a brother who said the Lord was chastening him. This passage came up and it did not set right and disturbed me. You helped clarify that and gave me a better understanding of it.
Bob: It is a wonderful, fantastic passage of scripture when you have interpreted it right. It is a message of absolute fear if you do not interpret it right.
Bob: Turn now to the 10th chapter of 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 10:16-17
16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.
Bob: It says it all, doesn’t it?
James: Amen. Well, brother Bob, you answered the question. I really do appreciate it.
Bob: You are sure welcome, James. Thanks for your call.
Oscar from Beeville, TX
Oscar: I want to make a comment and get clarification on a verse. Thank you for clarifying the scripture you just mentioned. For years I had trouble with that verse. I never really put much thought into it about eating unworthily. It must be right if someone is telling me that. Now I am hearing what you are saying and it is all coming to light. Yes, it is a joyful thing. Thank you for the insight.
Oscar: What I want to know is Romans 8:18-22. When I was reading this, I was looking in scriptures. I want clarification, on verse 19, on the earnest expectation of creation. Is this correct thinking? The creation is all that God created, the waters, the sea, the earth, the plants and animals. Everything in the universes. Are they all awaiting the redemption of their bodies after Christ returns after the tribulation. Then the curse will be lifted?
Romans 8:18-22
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Bob: So the glory that will be revealed in us is when our ultimate redemption takes place.
Romans 8:19-22
19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Oscar: Could that bondage also be the curse Adam was in?
Bob: Absolutely. When Adam sinned and death entered the world, decay also entered the world.
Oscar: That curse has not been lifted yet?
Bob: No. The whole creation has been groaning as pains of childbirth up to the present time. We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly wait for our own adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
Oscar: Now, the curse is anyone who hangs from a tree. He was cursed also. So we have been freed from that?
Bob: We have been freed from the wages of sin, which is death. That is the curse we have all been under, the fear of death.
Oscar: From that particular curse?
Bob: Absolutely. That is the only one we have. When you are dead, that is about as bad as you can get.
Oscar: That is right. Like the ground is being cursed, and man having to plant seed.
Bob: Everything fell. Natural disasters, sickness, and all of that, is a result of the fall of man.
Genesis 3:17
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.”
Oscar: Under a curse.
Bob: Yes, under a curse.
Bob: All men are under the wages of sin is death until you choose life. When you choose life, you are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of life.
Colossians 1:13-14
13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Bob: When the ultimate takes place, when all of us meet Him in the air, who are left. We will meet those who have preceded us and meet Him in the air. Then we return for a thousand year reign.
Oscar: That is where the lion and the lamb lie down together. The lion will be feeding out of a trough.
Isaiah 11:6-7
6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
Bob: I cannot wait to hug one of those without being eaten.
Oscar: I am glad I am getting clarification on that verse. God bless you. Keep doing what you are doing. I love to listen to you every day.
Bob: Thank you, brother. We appreciate that more than you will ever know.
Todd from El Paso, TX
Todd: Hi, Bob. How are you doing?
Bob: I am doing good, Todd
Todd: I am a first time caller. Right now today, I am lost about Jesus. When I was back in 1994, I was schizophrenic and suicidal. There have been times I tried to kill myself because I do not know the Lord Jesus right now. I got the devil tugging at my throat to do this or do that. I want to get away from that. How can I do that?
Bob: As you probably heard, as I was talking to some other people, about what salvation is. Salvation is recognizing what God has said about you. Now, you can go to a psychologist, but he doesn ’ t know anything about you any more than you do. Now you can go to a shrink who knows nothing about you more than a lamp post. He is as messed up as you are. When God says something about you, and He created you, and if anyone ought to know something about you, then it would be Him. So you are willing to listen to what God has to say about you, rather than a shrink, who says you are a schizophrenic or bipolar, none of which is in the bible.
Bob: What God has to say about you is that you are born dead spiritually. What death is, is the absence of life. The life of God departed from Adam when he sinned. And you and I are born in Adam, dead to God. God is saying, “I do not want you to stay that way. That was your condition. I was raised from the dead to give you life. The kind of life I want to give you is eternal life. If you are willing to turn to me by faith, accepting the fact I took away your sins at the cross, when I died on that cross to do that, and was raised from the dead, in order to give you resurrected life. If that is your desire, I am willing to come and live inside you, and to be your guide and lead you into all truth”.
Bob: Todd, is that what you want to do?
Todd: Yes, sir.
Bob with Todd repeating: Lord Jesus I need you. I thank you for taking away my sins at the cross. I now receive you into my heart as Lord and Savior and my very best friend.
Bob: Todd, now when you just prayed a minute ago, it was the result of exercising faith in what God came to do for you, to take away your sins to never see them again. Do you realize all your sins your entire life was placed on the back of God, never to see them again? That is what Jesus suffered and died on the cross to provide for you. He did that because the consequences, or wages of sin, is death (Romans 6:23), and if He had not taken away the sins of the entire world, He could have never offered you eternal life. That is really what you needed, was life. Because He took away the cause of spiritual death, he has now given you eternal life. Jesus has literally taken residence in your life. He lives in you. Now He is going to guide you into all truth. Todd, I cannot encourage you enough to realize that man will tell you anything as long as it sells. I cannot depend upon man. I have to depend on God to find truth in His word to find truth about myself, about God, and about people.
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 5:19
19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
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!
1 John 2:2 (KJV)
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
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: Do you have a bible, Todd?
Todd: Yes, sir.
Bob: I will send you a new believer’s package, and if you work through that, with your bible, it will solidify what you have done. I rejoice with you, Todd.
Todd: Thank you.
Bob: All the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who turns to Christ. There is a lot of rejoicing up there, right now.
Todd: I know it.
Luke 15:7
7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Todd: I think about it every day because the devil is trying to get to me. I am in tears every day that the devil is still after me.
Bob: The thing is the devil was going to still stay after you because he was afraid of losing you. But now he has lost you. What you need to do now is to come to know the truth. That is why you need to study the word of God. Study the word of God and ask God to reveal the meaning of the word of God to you, and when that error comes back in your head, you can give it right back to him because you know what truth is now. The only source of truth we have is the word of God.
Todd: Yes, sir. I know now.
2 Corinthians 10:4
4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
2 Corinthians 10:5
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.
Ephesians 6:10-17
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Bob: If you have any further questions, any time, do not hesitate to call. You are never a bother. We love to hear from you. Do not hesitate to call us. Do you have any other questions before we go?
Todd: No, sir. No.
Bob: Okay. You hang on so we can get your address and get these materials to you. You work through those materials, and if you have any questions along the way, then give us a call, okay?
Todd: Okay. Thank you.
Jeff from North Glen, Colorado
Jeff: This is pastor Jay in North Glen. I wanted to call and thank you. It has opened several doors to help people with issues. I wanted to encourage you to keep doing what you are doing.
Bob: Thank you, Jeff. I appreciate that. It is a joy to our hearts to know that there are men out there in the pulpits who have grabbed a hold of what we talked about. There is a world of difference to knowing what truth is and living according to it.
Jeff: Amen to that.
Bob: The nature of man is rebellious in regards to what God says about things. People erroneously teach that Jesus died only for the elect rather than to take away the sins of the entire world. God’s word is clear that God through Christ has taken away the sins of the world.
2 Corinthians 5:19
that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.
Bob: The natural man is also deceived into thinking he can do good works to enter heaven. Yet, God’s word is clear that man is born spiritually dead and is unable to raise himself from the dead. The only life available to man is the life in Jesus Christ and that life must be received by faith in His resurrected life he has offered you.
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Bob: So man is naturally rebellious to God. Man rebels in how God has initiated the means for us to even be saved, failing to accept that what he did to take away the entire sins of the world. Man also rebels against God’s offer of eternal life. Man would rather try and work for it instead, which is impossible for man to do. That rebellion is always there.
Bob: God is the initiator and we are the responders. People rebel in the way He tells us to respond, which is by faith, to the receiving of eternal life, the only means to enter the kingdom of heaven. Man rebels with trying to enter by works. That rebellion is always there. People rebel in both ways, either in what He has initiated or how we are to respond to what He initiated.
Jeff: I know my heart rebelled for most of my life. I thank God that He has the grace to allow me to do that until it came to the point in my life where I trusted Him.
Bob: He who is forgiven much loves much.
Jeff: In my former life the biggest struggle was that I could not let God love me. In my sin and my disobedience, I could not understand how anybody would love me. My own father did not even love me, and with that was so much hurt and the emptiness. When I finally let God love me, my whole life changed. That is why I am in the ministry, to share that with others.
Bob: That is phenomenal. We wish you the best in Colorado. If we can ever be of any help, you let us know. Do not wait so long to call next time. We are glad to hear from you.
Jeff: You keep up the good work. I know a lot of times you say the same thing day in and day out. There is always a different audience and someday it will click. Just keep it up.
Bob: Well, thanks, Jeff. God bless you, my friend. You too.
