Radio Broadcast Monday 04/03/2023

Classic Christianity – The Book of John P25 (04-03-23)

True Agape Love Comes From God

~ “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” ^{1 John 4:7,8}

“In chapter 13, he says, I’m going to show you a more excellent way. Because guys, the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is pride. That’s the opposite. Love is patient. Pride is never patient. Love is kind. Pride is never kind. Is it? Love never keeps records of wrongs. Pride can’t afford not to keep records of wrongs. In case you get a little one upmanship on me, I got my record of you to get back at you. There are some people that you can never criticize that they’re not going to put it right back on you. Have you ever known people like that? That you say, Well, you know, you did. this. Oh, that’s what you do too. Got even with them that time. What’s pride, that’s a prideful thing that I’ve got to shoot back. And we live our lives kind of like a Christian skunk, you know, somebody gets too close to us, we just spray them. And we just don’t want people to get too close to us, you know.”

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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
Turn with me back to First Corinthians 13 and and as we look through these things, we see how that the opposite of this love that Jesus said you do not have the love of God in your hearts. And what we have to take a look at is in our own lives here in 2004, how much of the love of God do we have in our hearts? And how are we doing in his love department? Because how we’re doing in the love department is a direct correlation is to how we’re doing in the abiding department. In other words, love is a reflection of abiding in the source. And so it’s it’s not it’s not taking a look like at the fruit of the Spirit of love joy peace, patience, kindness and then kind of like it’s a vending machine. Well I’m okay in the love and joy but I need a little patience. So I put the quarter and get a little patience. No, it’s all together the fruit of the Spirit of love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, long suffering. It’s not a vending machine. It means all of those characteristics will be yours when you’re abiding in the source of those things. And so we have to understand that all of this is not well, I don’t have much joy. So go out and try to get some joy. All right, you know, command somebody to love somebody, lot’s of luck. If you say, have some peace, Penny, you know, get peace in your heart. Well, you can do that if you want to, but you’re not gonna get it. You can’t, it says there is no law, you cannot command those kinds of things to somebody, that’s a fruit of the Spirit, that’s a byproduct of abiding in the source. It’s like going up to a water faucet and saying, Give me some water, you got to turn it on. The faucet is merely plugs into the source of the supply. And so we have to understand the truth of this, that it’s not that maybe I’m not loving, or this, it’s not, I’m not abiding. And see, we’re always dealing with the fruit and always are missing the root of the problem. When I’m not experiencing love and joy and peace, it’s because I’m not abiding in the source of love and joy and peace. And there’s your problem. So we don’t have to worry about what I’m not doing, we need to see why it’s not coming out of me, is because I’m not abiding in the source of love. So he says in here that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. And so we’re gonna deal a little bit with what he’s talking about here.

In chapter 13, he says, I’m going to show you a more excellent way. Because guys, the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is pride. That’s the opposite. Love is patient. Pride is never patient. Love is kind. Pride is never kind. Is it? Love never keeps records of wrongs. Pride can’t afford not to keep records of wrongs. In case you get a little one upmanship on me, I got my record of you to get back at you. There are some people that you can never criticize that they’re not going to put it right back on you. Have you ever known people like that? That you say, Well, you know, you did. this. Oh, that’s what you do too. Got even with them that time. What’s pride, that’s a prideful thing that I’ve got to shoot back. And we live our lives kind of like a Christian skunk, you know, somebody gets too close to us, we just spray them. And we just don’t want people to get too close to us, you know.

So the opposite of agape love; and there’s three kinds of love mentioned in the Bible. There’s phileo, that’s where we get our name, Philadelphia, City of Brotherly Love, philanthropic. All of those are root words of phileo, meaning a brotherly kind of love. You have the eros kind of love that’s never mentioned in the Scripture, but it is a Greek word. And we know what that means. That’s a sexual love. And then you have the word agape, which is a word that means a kind of love that comes only from God, it is not a feeling, it’s an action taken by God on behalf of man. And so what he’s saying here is agape kind of love can only be produced again by the source. And the opposite of agape love, is this pride. And guys, there is our problem, pride. Our problem is, I am going to protect myself. Why? Because wonderful me, I’m not going to get hurt. And that’s why we don’t want to give ourselves to people because we’re fearful we’re going to get hurt by people. Are we together on that? We know what we’re talking about.

We say that person says, Well, I got a poor self image. I don’t like myself, well, that’s not true. person come up and say, I’m ugly, and I don’t like myself. So that’s not true. If you didn’t like yourself, you’d be glad you’re ugly. Um, if you had some low and living across the street, you couldn’t stand it was ugly, you wouldn’t be mad. You’d be glad. Wouldn’t you? So it isn’t you hate yourself, cause you’re ugly. It’s the fact that you love yourself, you wish you were prettier. And so the Bible tells us that we got too much self love. And then the world comes out and says we need to learn to love ourselves better. What do you see again, who we going to believe the world are we going to believe what God said? Because self love can turn into pride. And so the opposite of this agape love that Paul’s talking about that he’s saying to these people that you don’t have this kind of love in your heart is agape that has to be produced by God, it cannot be produced by us, we have to understand that we cannot do it. And if we think we can, we’ll just keep reading.

So what are some of the areas of pride? Let’s say spiritual pride, what are some of these areas where man is so susceptible to being prideful? And he’s going to list some of those here, because Paul knows our hearts. If I spoke in the tongues of men and angels, well, why does he bring that up? If I can speak in the languages of all men or of all angels? Why does he bring that up? Because people who are out with let’s say, either that gift or falsifying it are prideful over it, that’s the most prideful gift that we have to make a difference whether you’re good teacher or not, whether you give things to people, that’s irrelevant. Just listen to me speak. And so it’s a pride element. And what are you saying to them is, look, if you can speak in the tongues of men and angels. And that’s an exaggeration. It doesn’t mean there’s an angel language. Everybody’s so hung up on language, and God doesn’t listen to what we’re saying, anyway. Think about this for a minute, guys. If God is listening to what you are saying, then who’s the only one talking to God, when I pray up here on Sunday morning? Me. Because you’re not praying, you ain’t talking. Does that make any sense? And a person gets up in a crowd of 20,000 people and say, let’s pray and I pray and you sit there and bow your head. I’m the only one evidently talking to God, because he’s got he’s hearing my words. Does that make sense? That makes sense. How much sense would it be to say, let’s have some silent prayer? If God if the only thing God hears you should talking? Or what if you didn’t have a tongue? Or what have you had a disease that you could not communicate? Does all of a sudden, are you a second rate citizen? Does God not hear you anymore? You see, guys, God is too smart to listen to what we’re saying. Because what we’re saying nine times out of 10, we don’t mean. That’s where you come in and say how you doing? Fine, good, just great, but guts are hanging out. God looks on the heart. Man looks on the outside, and God looks on your heart. He doesn’t need a United Nations interpreter to know what I’m thinking. And God isn’t listening to what I’m saying. He’s listening to what I’m thinking. That’s why you can be thinking one thing and saying another, Can’t you? Sit there saying, I just don’t like you at all. But you look good. Can’t we do that? So we’re pretty phony. And that’s why Jesus says I don’t accept the testimony of man.

So we have to realize those are truths, aren’t they? Those are those are truths that God isn’t interested in what we’re saying out loud, so he doesn’t care whether you’re speaking in Chinese or Japanese, or what you’re speaking in here and listening to you anyway. He’s listening to your heart. Are we together on that, guys? He’s listening to your heart. But when we don’t understand that we get all hung up in how we’re talking. And you’ll hear somebody I remember in one of the places we were in this lady from Scotland and whoa, she she had this Scottish brogue and this Scottish accent and Oh, could she pray and hereby just, did you hear her prayer? You know, it’s just a fantastic prayer. Well, I don’t think God was really impressed with her accent. I mean, I don’t think God is Scottish. But I don’t know it may be but I don’t think so. But were impressed with that stuff. They were impressed with how glib people can be. Where sometimes guys, a prayer that comes out of your heart that says Jesus I don’t even know how to pray but I love you. I think of Bill Bright talking about when he’s first kid was born. And he said, We used to just sit around the anxiously waiting to hear something out of that mouth, you know, and finally started getting ba ba ba and then everybody thinks he just gave the Gettysburg address what a smart kid. And and then one day he learns to say Da, da, we just say that boy knows who his daddy is. We’re so proud of that da da and we say, say Da, da again, we go up, say da da again. He said when a kid gets to be about 12 We’re saying Will you please shut up.

So we have to understand that these are areas many times of pride. And so he’s saying if I can speak in all the languages of the world and all the languages of heaven and earth, but I don’t have love. He said, I’m only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. Now there are people and bless their hearts, I know you’re taught that way. But there are people who believe that this gift of tongues as an example, is a sign of being filled with the Spirit. And I say it would be very difficult would it not to be calling someone a spirit filled noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. And yet, he said you could be speaking in tongues and I’d call you a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. So you see, that is not a sign of anything. That is not a sign of being controlled with a spirit. What is a sign of being controlled by the Spirit? What’s the only sign guys are being controlled with the Spirit, the only thing that counts as what? Love. It’s not your neckless around your neck, or your bumper stickers. It’s love. And so he’s saying he’s knocking down all these pride things. If I have the gift of prophecy, oh man that would make TBN. And I can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge. I mean, I’ve got it all. And if I have faith that could move mountains. Can you imagine how many television interviews you’d have? If you had faith to move a mountain? Go out there and see a mountain move, you’d be interviewed all over the Christian world, probably be named the mountainer of the year. He said, If I could do that now guys, that’s pretty big isn’t it. I mean, if you had faith enough to move a mountain, I mean, if you ever tried to do that, try an anthill. See if how you do with that. He said if any of us had the faith, the size of a mustard seed that’s a smallest seed you can get a hold of. But he said you don’t even have faith the size of a mustard seed, you could move a mountain. Any of you moved one lately?

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Bob George 14:12
That shows us that God is not interested in how big our faith is, but he’s interested in how big your God is. Because it’s not the size of my faith that counts. It’s the size of my God that counts. But we brag on how much faith we have. So again, he’s hitting these areas of pride. And so he says, If you don’t have love, you’re nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor man, I’ve given everything up. I gave up everything and and not only that, I’m going to be a martyr. I’m going to surrender my body to the flames. Now that would be pretty, pretty well respected somebody who did that a little Joan of Arc, you know, gave their life to the flames died as a martyr for Jesus. But he said if you don’t have love, you don’t get in anything, guys, that’s pretty severe. What he’s saying here is, there is nothing you can do, that’s going to impress me, if you’re not loving each other.

Now he’s gonna give a definition of love. And first and foremost what you have to understand that before this definition of love, which he’s saying he wants me to do, I, first of all have to understand that that is how the source loves you and loves me, I have to understand this is a definition of how God loves you. God is always patient with you. Did we not see that in the Old Testament? Uou have a whole hundreds and hundreds of years of the failure of people and the patience of God. How patient was God with you in your life? He’s patient, God is always kind. Kindness, guys is almost a lost, characteristic for people to be kind to one another. Kindness is not only in action, but kindness is also in, in thought and indeed, and in the way you say things to people to be kind to people. Love is always kind God is always kind to you. If God is not envious. God does not boast. He’s not sitting there talking about himself all the time. He is not proud. If God was proud, we’d be goners because he would take a look at himself in comparison to us, and we’d be goners. He’s not proud to say that even though I’m the king of this universe, I’m big enough to create this world. Yet I’m small enough to live in your heart. That’s not pride. That’s humility. He’s not rude. He’s not self seeking. He’s not easily angered. God never keeps records of your wrongs. Now, how does that match up with what we teach? Don’t you love that teaching when you go to heaven, that everything you’ve ever done or thought is going to be up on a big movie screen? Have you ever heard that? How many have you ever heard that? Golly, all of us great teaching. And you wonder why nobody wants to go. I want to tell you, if anyone if that was real, that when I die, and I’m gonna go someplace and everything I’ve ever done or thoughts gonna be on a movie screen, I’m gonna ask if there’s another place I can go. Now he doesn’t keep records of your wrongs. Where are all of your wrongs? What happened all of them? Placed upon the cross of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago, and there he who knew no sin became sin for you, and erased those from the mind of God. He doesn’t keep records of your wrongs. It talks it God does not delight in evil. Why? Because evil destroys humanity. The sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when they decided we will determine right and wrong and good and evil. We don’t need God for this set off what we see going on in this world today, war after war, people killing each other, molesting each other child molestation, all of this stuff started from that one sin of man saying, I don’t need you to determine right from wrong good from evil. And so we have situational ethics. And the Bible says that homosexuality is a sin, we say it’s an alternate lifestyle. We say a lie is a lie. And we say no, it’s just it’s just kind of saturating the truth a wee bit. We just don’t worry, it’s not a sin. It’s a healthy concern. We rename things and we redefine things. And God says, No, I’m the only one that can determine right from wrong and good from evil. And the day that you determined start thinking you’re the one to determine that you’re gonna die. And that’s exactly what set off sin in his world. He doesn’t delight in that kind of evil. He always rejoices in truth. Why? Truth sets you free. If you were lost in the woods, and you had a con man telling you how to get out of there, you’re never going to get out of there. If God comes and says, here’s the math on how to get out of here, and you believe him, you’re going to be set free to get out of there. And so he rejoices with the truth, he always protects you. He always trusts you, he always hopes the best for you. And he all always perseveres with you hangs in with you forever. Now, that’s God’s love for you. And he said, This is the kind of love that I want to see coming out of you. So if we’re going to say that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. That’s all that God’s interested in, faith expressing itself through love. And this is the definition of love. Then we have to say, How am I doing? Now the meddling starts.

Well, let’s see how we’re doing. I am always patient. Do we need to go on? People said no, don’t need to go on. That did it for me. I’m always kind to people. I’m never envious. I just love it. When somebody gets a position better than mine. I’m never boastful. I never brag about anything I do. Never tell any good anybody how what a good cook I am. Or how wonderful I am. I’m never proud. I am never rude to people. I’m never self seeking, I’m always looking at for your interest over and above mine. Especially when promotions come up. I don’t care what’s me just as long as you’re happy. I’m never easily angered. People can pull in front of me on the freeway, and I just say Praise Jesus. I keep no records of anybody’s wrong. Anybody has ever offended me. It’s just out of my memory. Guys, we’ve got filing cabinets full of that information. Why? Because pride may need to use it. I mean, if you get it on a computer, it’s better because you pull it up faster. I always protect others. I always trust people. Should I not? I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t think of not trusting people. Now, when asked you something, is there a risk of trusting people? Yeh, because they may rip you off. But what does love, say? Trust them. If they rip you off, I’ll take care of it. But to say no, not me. I always hope the best for you. And I always persevere with you now guys, I ask ourselves a question. How do we do here? How many of you looked at that and said, That’s me, God? No see hands on that. That’s me. Know if see. So now we’re saying. And what this is doing guys is saying to us? What do we have to brag about? And what do we have to be puffed up over? When he says the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love? And when I look at this love deal, I have to say there anything about Bob Georgia in here, you’re not going to put Bob George’s name next to this, because there’s anything in my flesh that slightly even represents this. But can these characteristics come out of us? Yes, they can. How? By abiding in the source. By abiding in the source. Can you go out and produce these things? While I’m not patient, so I’ll be more patient. And Lord, I’m gonna pray that you’ll give me patience, and I want it right now. Can’t do it. You can’t go out and produce kindness, you can’t go out and do those things. Well, I’ll work on that. I’ll take a course on envy and see how that does. You’re in going to work. It’s the source, you have to plug into the source.

If I’m a lamp, and I want it to light, I got a plug into the wall. I can’t sit there grunt and groan it out in the energy of my own flesh. And that’s what happens in the Christian life. As we go out and try to grunt and groan out the Christian life and the energy of our own flesh. You can’t do it. That’s why Jesus said, I do not do anything unless the Father tells me to do it. I don’t say anything less the father tells me to say it. And he said how to say it, which is important because we can say the same words one way and say the same words another way. And one way is a blessing to a person the other way is a curse to them. So he says even I depend on God on how to say things to people. And so we’re learning something about ourselves. And Jesus is trying to teach this. He said these people thought they had the love of God in their hearts. They thought they love God. He said, No, you don’t have the love of God in your hearts. I’ve come in my Father’s name, and you don’t accept me. But if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him readily enough. But the mere fact that you don’t accept the one who the Father said shows me that you have no love in your heart for the Father. So he’s trying to get us to see that we must learn to live in dependency upon God. How can you believe if you have praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? How can you believe you’re so willing to accept praise from one another and pat ourselves on the back. But he said, you make no effort at all to obtain the praise that comes from the only God. But don’t think that I’ll accuse you before the Father Jesus says, your accuser is Moses on whom your hopes are set. You believe that I’m a follower of Moses. But he said, I want to tell you something. If you believed in Moses, you would believe in me, for Moses wrote about me. But since you won’t believe what Moses wrote, how are you going to believe what I’m saying? Here, you’re saying, I’m a follower of God, I believe God, I love God. He said, and yet, the God that you say you love is the one who sent me and your refusing the one that God sent, the one you say you’re in love with. He said, The love of God’s not in your heart. He said, You listen to all kinds of men’s testimony, but you won’t listen to mine. You say I’m a follower of Moses. And he said, No, you’re not. If you are a follower of Moses, you’d be a follower of me, because Moses wrote about me. Jesus knew how to nail you. And he nailed these people with their hypocrisy of saying to them, Do not say that you love God as an example and hate your brother. Don’t say that. Because if you love God, you’re gonna realize that that God that you say you love that the only reason you love him is because he loved you first. And that God who loved you first also loves that guy that you can’t stand first. And so if he loves you, and He loves them, then what I’m saying is learn to love one another. Let this love that is in you, not stick there, but flow into the hearts of other people. And when you do, my love is going to be made complete. And that’s how people are going to know that you’re my disciples is by your loved one toward another.

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