Radio Broadcast Monday 03/20/2023

Classic Christianity – The Book of John P19 (03-20-23)

Every Person in Christ Jesus Has The Same Holy Spirit to Teach Us Truth

~ “The Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” ^{John 14:17}

~ “So guys, if you think, or if you believe that what you have been hearing, and taught and discipled through this ministry, if you believe it is true. And the only way that you can know it’s true is if you’re studying the Bible on your own. And we’re gonna study that in a minute, is when you yourself, get into this word. And you say to the Spirit of God, Holy Spirit of God living in me, if you do not reveal the meaning of this word to me, I am not going to know what it means. And so I’m going to count on you to reveal the meaning of it to me. And you approach the Word of God with that kind of a mindset and study this word, you will know what the word means. You don’t need me to tell you, or someone else to tell you. God will use teachers to communicate to you what the Word of God says, and to communicate to you what I believe it means. But if what I believe it means is not been taught to me by the Holy Spirit of God, it’s merely been taught to me by denominational persuasion, all I’m going to be passing on to you is my denominational persuasion. And so I say to you, I could be teaching you error.”

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Announcer 0:12
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.

Bob George 0:29
I’m getting a glimpse, again, guys of what’s going on in the world in which we live. This is your world. Unfortunately, we live in little box here sometimes we’re around Christians all day long. And, and we’re around Christians. We’re on Christians here and around Christians who work for the ministry around Christians all day long. It is good for us to get away from Christians and get out into that marketplace and see what you guys are going through at your workplace. Because you’re going through what I’m going through in those meetings, I’d probably be unemployed. It’s it’s tough to have to sit around, is it not? You guys know I’m talking about sit and listen to some of the conversations that take place with people who claim to be religious, that don’t know anything about Jesus. And then they sit around their little groups and pool their ignorance. It is amazing what’s out there. You say where are these people getting this mindset from the pulpit. They’re not learning it out of Reader’s Digest. This is what’s being preached in pulpits and they’re merely echoing what they’re being taught on Sundays, probably. And so when you see the condition of the so called Christian world, my friends, and you see what is out there. And I finally had to say something. I noticed this a surprise to you. That I said when you’re sitting down in in our pulpits today, commingling Law and Grace, teaching to have one foot in the law, the other foot in the grace of God, you’re a double minded man that is unstable in all ways. And I said, we talked about discipleship, how can you disciple people unless you teach them truth? Discipleship is making a disciple of Jesus, not a me. Discipleship is getting people to be taught by Jesus. How are you going to disciple somebody unless they know Jesus? And then how are they going to be discipled with Jesus unless they know what Jesus said? And how they’re going to know what Jesus meant unless they read the epistles of Paul, where he explained what he meant? To be a disciple of Jesus isn’t getting involved in a technique. It’s getting involved in the person of Christ Jesus. It’s getting involved to know this Christ that we proclaim, we know. And to get our minds saturated on truth that sets us free. And we’re all hung up in techniques. I’ve been through all these techniques. I’ve been through all of this stuff. I’ve been 30 years in it, none of it works. What works is getting a person to know Jesus, and to know him intimately. And then you go out and share this Jesus, you know, that’s true discipleship. true discipleship. I’m not discipling a person to be like me. I’m discipling a person to think like Jesus.

And guys, we get into this idea, you know, where you hear this all let your walk match your talk. Do you know anybody who’s walk matches or talk 24 hours a day? That’s all self righteous sounding stuff. Let your walk match your talk. Let me pull in front of you on the freeway and see if your walk matches your talk. Folks, the Christian life isn’t look at me and how wonderful I am. It’s look at Jesus. And look how wonderful he is. I thought in that one meeting, and Guy, guys sit over there, he was sitting there with me, I told I said the Guy, I’m either gonna throw up or go get some iced tea. And I went out and got some iced tea. But Guy got up afterwards, he was talking about guys. We can’t live the Christian life. It’s Jesus, that Jesus is alive, living in us. That’s our hope of glory. And we get all of this drawn attention to ourselves. We become preoccupied with a body and we’ve lost contact with a head which is what it says in the scripture that we’ve lost contact with the head. Why? We’re all concerned about what the body’s doing. Who cares what the heads doing? Just look what we as a body are doing. And the bigger we can get as a body, the more we can do brag on ourselves. And we’ve lost contact with that vital personal living vitality of a relationship with the living Jesus that sets us free with truth. So that we can go out into the marketplace of life and to have be willing to give an account for the hope that was that is within us. And Guy, thank you for what you shared in that meeting that day it was needed, I think you’ll agree with me, it was needed. But again, there’s benefits to that thing. You hear what’s going out there in the world. And you hear what’s being taught out in the world, and it makes you shutter.

So guys, if you think, or if you believe that what you have been hearing, and taught and discipled through this ministry, if you believe it is true. And the only way that you can know it’s true is if you’re studying the Bible on your own. And we’re gonna study that in a minute, is when you yourself, get into this word. And you say to the Spirit of God, Holy Spirit of God living in me, if you do not reveal the meaning of this word to me, I am not going to know what it means. And so I’m going to count on you to reveal the meaning of it to me. And you approach the Word of God with that kind of a mindset and study this word, you will know what the word means. You don’t need me to tell you, or someone else to tell you. God will use teachers to communicate to you what the Word of God says, and to communicate to you what I believe it means. But if what I believe it means is not been taught to me by the Holy Spirit of God, it’s merely been taught to me by denominational persuasion, all I’m going to be passing on to you is my denominational persuasion. And so I say to you, I could be teaching you error.

I remember like it was yesterday of going into the group that I used to teach every, I think it was Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday morning, 6:30 in the morning, at First Baptist Church had a group about 50 guys that met every morning down there with me. And I could remember the day that I went into them, and said, Guys, I’ve got good news and bad news for you. What do you want first? They said, the bad news. I’ve been teaching, you wrong. The good news is I think I know what’s true. But if you don’t have the humility to say, I’ve been teaching, you wrong, this is wrong. I was teaching them spiritual breathing, I was teaching keep short accounts with God. I was teaching all that stuff that I came to understand is not true. I didn’t come to understand that because someone told me, I came to understand it through the study of the Word of God. That was so the evidence was so great as to the finality of the cross that I realized that my understanding of the meaning of 1st John 1:9, as an example, could not be what it means, that cannot be in light of the totality of the Word of God that I just been studying. And so I had to say, I’ve been teaching the wrong, but good news is I think I know what’s true. And off we went. Every one of those guys ultimately came to understand the truth of that, and today are disciples not because I made disciples out of me. But I made disciples out of them, disciples of Jesus, going out and teaching what Jesus said and what Jesus did.

And so we have to come to an understanding of what truth is. And guys, what I have put in that little book, condensed in that little Born Free book is the truth of the gospel, as it is revealed in this book. Check it out. If you don’t believe it, check it out on the Word of God, check it up against the word of God. And then if your heart is convinced this is true, then let’s go share it. That’s what I’m asking. Let’s go share it.

Now, we’re told in John 4:39, you want to turn there, that many of the Samaritans where Jesus met with his lady, and many of the Samaritans in that town believed in Jesus because of this woman’s testimony. She went back into the city and said, There’s a man out here who has told me everything about myself. He’s a prophet. She was advertising and she was excited. Come listen to him. And he said, he told me everything I’d ever did. That’d be a good one wouldn’t it? Say stop Jesus. So when the Samaritans came to him to Jesus, they urged him to stay with him. And he stayed two days with the Samaritans. And because of his words, many more became believers. Now, folks there again, our testimony will get a person’s attention. We can talk to people about how I came to Christ, what my life was like before I knew Christ, how I came to Christ. And what today I am in Christ Jesus, a new creature, not perfect, just been made perfect. And that is good. But if you don’t tell the person, what Jesus taught, you’re telling the person what Jesus did for me, that’s good. That’s that gets ther attention. But then you have to tell what he did to cause you to have a life change. So you got the testimony, and you got the word of God, don’t you? And so here, because of his words that Jesus spoke to them, they became believers. And the same is true with us. They said to this woman, we no longer believe just because of what you said. In other words, I no longer believe in this Jesus just because of your testimony. But now, we’ve heard for ourselves. And we know that this man really is the Savior of the world. We know that now. I don’t have to believe anymore, just because you said something about it. And guys, you can go out and tell a person how you were a total alcoholic, and you came to Jesus, and now you’re free, and you’re a new creature in Christ, or I was this as a drug addict, I’ve come to Christ, and now I’m a new creature in Christ and, and all of those testimonies, or you can say I was in Sunday school, all my life. I was in church all my life. But I didn’t know Jesus. And then I came to know him. And now my life has been changed. All of those kinds of things are what gets people’s attention. But again, guys, if we stop there, if we stop there, all we’ve done is tell somebody what Jesus has done for you. But why are you telling them what he’s done for you? So that they’ll get an opportunity for him to do something to them. And that’s why you’ve got to hear what Jesus said. And we know that this man really is the Savior of the world. And so there’s where the word of God goes out. Now, if you’re sharing your testimony with people and blending in the Word of God during the testimony, then they’re hearing both. But if all you said is your testimony at the exclusion of the Word of God, we’ve missed the dynamic of the gospel. And that’s his word. Are we together on that? Don’t short circuit it. And there again, that’s where a little tool like the Born Free book can be helpful to somebody because it gives them an opportunity to read the Word of God and to let the word of God embed truth into their hearts, and set them free with that truth. Now they’re hearing the words of Jesus. They’ve just heard what I said about my life. Now they’re hearing the words of Jesus, and are in a position of responding to what Jesus said, in regard to their salvation.

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Bob George 14:01
Now we go on after two days he left for Galilee. Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country. How many of you have found that you came to Christ and suddenly had no honor in your own family? Any of you found that? Yeah, yeah, that’ll happen. All kinds of things take place in life. In my particular case, going back and saying to my mother and father that I had become a Christian, was like, pouring hot coals on them. What do you mean, you’re a Christian? Well, we’ve had you in church since you were a kid. And I can remember when I told my folks that I was getting baptized. What do you mean you’re getting baptized but we had you baptized when you were a child? And it was almost Are you saying it you didn’t raise me properly, or we didn’t raise you properly? And so many times you have to be unbelievably sensitive to your relatives, especially your parents, if you’ve come to Christ, and they haven’t, to assure them that you are very grateful for the upbringing that they that they gave you and for the fact they had you in church and had me exposed to these things, but But Mom and Dad, I didn’t know Christ at that time I was there, thank God, you took me there, and I appreciate that. But I didn’t know Jesus and I came to know him. So there’s a lot of things that you have to be sensitive to people with. And so but in essence, a prophet didn’t get to have any honor in his own country. When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, for they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover feast for they also had been there. So they had seen the works of Christ Jesus. But once more, he visited Cana in Galilee where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official who son lay sick in Capernaum. And when this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee, from Judea, it said, he went to him and begged him, begged him to come into heal his son who was close to death. You understand that? Here’s a man with a son close to death, he’s worried to death about him, scared to death, his son is going to die. He sees Jesus, he knows that he has done miracles, He knows that he is the Savior of the world. And so he comes to him, begging him to come and to heal his son, who was close to death. Now, it’s an interesting response of Jesus, because he had, there was obviously he had no thought of anything except of providing what was necessary to heal this son. So it wasn’t that his heart was cold to the problem of the father in regard to his son. But he makes a statement here, that to me is so important to us. He said, Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will never believe. We have the same thing going on today. Unless you can show me a sign and a wonder. I’m not going to believe. Well you show him a sign and wonder and they don’t believe anyway, otherwise, you wouldn’t need another miracle. Jesus said to people like that, I’ll show you a sign tear down this tip on I’ll build it up in three days, he was talking about his own body. And what are you saying to us, If you cannot believe in me, with the resurrection, you’re not gonna believe in me, regardless of what I do for you. And the same is true today. We’ve got everybody infatuated with signs and wonders and miracles and, and healings and everything under the oh, that’s all you talk about. You wonder if there are any well Christians.

And you see people packing in 20 30,000 strong to watch somebody heal somebody. I want to tell you something. You can heal somebody today, but they’re gonna die tomorrow. Is that right or wrong? A doctor can also give you some medicine that might heal you today, but you’re gonna die tomorrow. And what he is saying to them, in essence, don’t come to me for signs and wonders. Come to me by faith in what I accomplished for you at the cross, and in the resurrection, where I came to give you life. But he’s just identifying a problem. He’s saying to this man, you’re coming to me, because you have a son that is sick, and you want him healed. And I understand that my heart relates to that. But I’m looking around and saying, Look, guys, this is not why you come to me. You can come to me to get your son healed. But if you don’t get saved as a result of this, I may as well nof of healed him. Because until you have a spiritual healing in Christ Jesus, you haven’t been healed. That’s why when you have Jesus in your heart, it makes no difference what kind of physical ailments that you might go through. There’s a certain piece that is there that passes all understanding even in the midst of pain, and some of the tribulations that you can have bodily, they’re still, when you know Jesus, is a certain piece in your heart that passes all understanding. And so the royal official said, Sir, come down and eat you can almost hear the pain in his heart. Lord, please come down. Before my child dies, get there before he dies, please, sir. And Jesus replied, You may go, your son will live. The heart of Jesus saying to the man go your son live. Well what did this guy exercise? Well he believed him. Jesus told him go your son to live. The guy is desperate trying to get his son, come down there, come there, Jesus, my son is dying come and heal him. He says, Go, He’s okay. He’s okay. And the guy believed you. So what do you say? The man took Jesus at his word. Isn’t it amazing how easy it is, to take someone at their word when they’re trustworthy, and how hard it is when they’re not? Jesus is trustworthy, He can be trusted. He says what He means and he means what he says. So he took him at his word and departed. While he was still on his way, we’re told that his servants met him with the news that his boy was living while he was still on his way. He had just taken Jesus at his word, he said, Go, he’s gonna be okay. And they came and said, the boys living. Now, when this man inquired, and you can, you can almost see his inquisitive nature there. He’s saying, This man told me to go, that my son is going to be healed. And I’d like find out what time was my son healed. I want to see if there’s a correlation here. And when he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, the fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour. And the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, your son will live. The guy said, I took him at his word, I believed him. But I think I’ll check him out. He checked him out. And at the very moment, that he said, Your son will live, the fever broke. So what happened? All the household believed. And this was a second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea, to Galilee.

Now sometime later, we’re told that Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Hebrews. And they’re in Jerusalem near the sheep gate, a pool, which in Aramaic is called Masada and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. And here a great number. We’re told of disabled people used to lie, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. We’re told that there was one who had been an invilid for 38 years. That’s a long time. And when Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for 38 years for a long time, he asked a question. Do you want to get well? Now guys, let’s think about that for a minute. A guy’s been in that condition for 38 years, he’s been at the pool. And you asked, Do you want to get well? Doesn’t that sound like a dumb question? Do you want to get well? Do you know, folks, that there are people that are in those kind of physical conditions that they don’t want to get well? They get a lot of attention. They can beg and get their income provided. There’s a lot of advantages maybe of being there for 38 years, and which we’ll learn later, I can’t get in the pool to get healed. So I just sit here and get whatever I’m getting.

In counseling, one of the first questions that I normally ask somebody in counseling, who comes in for counseling, do you want to get well? A person comes in with a marital problem. And the first question asked, Do you want to get well? Do you want this marriage to work? Do you want to get well? Or do you want to get your position heard? Or do you want sympathy? Do you want to get well? Because if you want to get well, Jesus can get you well. If you don’t want to get well, nobody’s gonna get you well. So it’s not a dumb question at all. It’s a very profound question that we all have to ask ourselves. Do we want to get well? Sometimes we’re with habits that we say I can’t break. Nonsense, you can break any habit. You don’t want to have a right or wrong? If I wanted to, I could break it. So the issue is, do you want to break the habit? I’ve had people who say, no. Okay. Will you ask God to make you want to want to? Yeah, I can do that. Well, why don’t you ask God to make you want to want to? You just tell him Lord, I don’t want to quit doing what I’m doing. But will you make me want to want to? Are you sincere praying that prayer? Well then pray right now and ask God to make you want to want to. And I’ve seen people break their habit within a week, when they understand that if I’ll pray and ask God to make me want to want to, that he’ll make you want to want to. And when I want to, I can quit any kind of habit. So it isn’t the fact that we can’t, it’s the fact that we won’t. Why? We don’t want to. Now, am I right or wrong, guys? And so this question Do you want to get well, is a very vital question to somebody. Because that’s what you have to deal with. Do you want really want to get well? There are people who have addictions. Do you want to get well? Because sometimes the answer is that it’s not really because this addiction makes me feel good temporarily. I don’t have a problem with that. The issue is do you want to get well? Do you want to substitute the peace of God that passes all understanding for a temporary peace that you’re getting from, alcohol, drugs, tobacco, whatever it might be? There’s a certain gratification that you get temporarily and but if that was permanent, you wouldn’t need another one. If cigarettes satisfied, you’d only need one. Am I right or wrong, guys? But you see, it tells you that and I understand that I’ve been there. I understand that. But the issue is, are you willing to sacrifice the peace of God that passes understanding for a temporary peace, that’ll go away when the minute it’s over?

Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity, with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord, find more information online at shop.BobGeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs, and bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.