Radio Broadcast Monday 06/03/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Hebrews P113 (06-03-24)

Do Away With All Bitterness

~ Bitterness will eat your lunch. If you are holding a grudge against someone, it will ferment inside your heart and grow and grow. Think about it folks, Jesus, who could be bitter at everything in the world, because after all, he took upon himself the sins of the whole world, yet he is not counting anyone’s sins against them. So why would we hold a grudge against someone? Yet at the same time we need to be Truth tellers. A Truth teller tells it like it is, especially if it is harming the body of Christ. And make no mistake about it, Paul had to be a Truth teller on numerous occasions within the church itself. He had to call out Peter and some of the followers of Peter that they were legalists. They were trying to force circumcision on Gentiles. And even Peter needed to be reprimanded for not associating with Gentiles and trying to force Gentiles to obey the law of Moses. But that is not bitterness, that is simply telling it like it is. Jesus could have become bitter towards his killers, but he did not hold a grudge. He said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Likewise, we are not to hold onto bitterness either, for many do not know what they do. They have been brainwashed by Satan and the things of this world beyond measure. So do away with all bitterness and allow the Holy Spirit to lead you in all Truth. However, be a Truth teller, and let the chips fall where they may. Everything is in God’s hands. We are simply the spokespeople for God when we abide in Him and share Truth with others.

~ Hebrews 12:1-17

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons:

“My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord,
and do not lose heart when He rebukes you.

For the Lord disciplines the one He loves,
and He chastises every son He receives.”

Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live?

Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore strengthen your limp hands and weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Pursue peace with everyone, as well as holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many. See to it that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He could find no ground for repentance, though he sought the blessing with tears.^{Hebrews 12:1-17}

Pray to God:

“Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”

~ “Now, when we understand that, that’s what he’s saying, Why would you do you want to let bitterness creep into your heart toward other people, when God isn’t bitter toward you. And it’s the only thing that makes us look at ourselves. And we get down and we remember, and boy, I remember when you did that. And remember you did that. And I remember he did that. And I remember needed that. And remember that he does go on and on and on. And then God comes along says I forgot all your sins, I put them behind my back. never see them again. And love that and keep records of wrongs. Doesn’t keep records of what you do, but he doesn’t. And so when I’m keeping records of wrongs, it’s the grace of God that comes and says, Bob, hold on, a minute. Are you are you my child? Yes, I am Lord. Then if I’m not keeping records of your wrongs, and I’m certainly not keeping records of Amy’s wrongs, or I’m not keeping records of this person over here that you weren’t real happy with wrongs. Why are you keeping records of their wrongs? I mean, are your standards higher than mine? If I was willing to forgive them and put it behind the back and never see it again, why aren’t you? And the only answer to that is cause of my pride. said yeah, now you got it. Now, are you ready to deal with your pride? Because, again, pride is what comes before what? Before the fall. And it is our own pride that causes 99.9% of our problems is pride. And the only counteract into pride is love. And the only source of love is Christ. And that was given to us in the grace of God. And that’s why he says, See to it, that no one misses the grace of God. If God so loved you and me and everyone in this room what right would we have to have bitterness toward anyone in this room? As an example. Or outside of it as well, but I’m just saying we can see these. And the answer to that is, we have no right at all. If God forgave me, and does not keep records of my wrongs, then why should I keep records of yours? Now, that’s the grace of God that will change our lives and change our hearts and change the way that not only we perceive ourselves, but the way we perceive one another, as well. Bitterness, there is no place for it, he said.” ~ Bob George

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And so when we let bitterness, envy and strife, selfish ambition, and those types of things creep in, it is going to affect so many people. Bitterness occurs when I don’t get my own way, when I am not getting my own way. And you’re the reason you’re the reason. If it wasn’t for you, I could be getting my own way. If it wasn’t for you, I would be happy. If it wasn’t for you, I’d be able to do what I want to do. And so obviously, the entire reason for my misery is you. And so the solution to that is to either get rid of you, or what we tried to do because I didn’t real desirable is to make you so miserable that maybe you’ll shape up. And so I think I’ll put enough heat on you. And I’ll put enough pressure on you that maybe and hopefully just in time, you’ll get miserable enough to just change your ways. Because if I can get you to change your ways to be like I want you to be, then I will. And I’ll be happy. And God forbid I’d ever be unhappy isn’t that, right? That’s what bitterness, that’s where it comes from bitterness comes when we want, what we want when we want it. And if someone is not playing our game, then I am bitter. Because they’re making me unhappy. Now, the Bible says, See to it, that you don’t miss the grace of God, and that no bitterness grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Why are those two tied together? Because, quite frankly, guys, it’s the grace of God, that is the only thing that can cure bitterness. It is the knowledge of the grace of God is the only thing that when I began to meditate upon that and understand the grace of God, is the very thing that keeps me from saying, wait a minute, who said that I had to have my own way? I mean, did Jesus get his own way was he just thrilled to go to the cross? I can just hardly wait to get up there and get beaten half to death. I mean, didn’t Christ say that I didn’t come to be served, but I came to serve. Didn’t he say, to serve one another in love that you’ve been called the freedom but don’t use your freedom to indulge the flesh, but rather to serve one another in love. And then I do not have to live on this earth getting my own way. Isn’t that pretty much what the grace of God is the grace of God was given to us for our benefit. In other words, it was done to serve you and me.

I was listening to a fella the other day. He’s a brilliant scientist. And he was talking about how that they are starting to look and discover that whereby in past that this little thing called the earth, just sitting out here was just kind of out there and just kind of there. But that has, the more that they have studied the universe, that they have come to realize that all of the stars, all of the things that are out there were made for this little globe. Because if it was not for the amount of stars that were out there, we could not be producing the hydrogen and the oxygen that is necessary for the air here. And that God loved us so much that in his preparation, not only did he give us a planet to live on, but an entire universe to serve the planet. And that the stars and the universe is there for the purpose of serving and keeping intact, this little globe on which little you and me live. That’s a picture of the love of God for us.

Now, when we understand that, that’s what he’s saying, Why would you do you want to let bitterness creep into your heart toward other people, when God isn’t bitter toward you. And it’s the only thing that makes us look at ourselves. And we get down and we remember, and boy, I remember when you did that. And remember you did that. And I remember he did that. And I remember needed that. And remember that he does go on and on and on. And then God comes along says I forgot all your sins, I put them behind my back. never see them again. And love that and keep records of wrongs. Doesn’t keep records of what you do, but he doesn’t. And so when I’m keeping records of wrongs, it’s the grace of God that comes and says, Bob, hold on, a minute. Are you are you my child? Yes, I am Lord. Then if I’m not keeping records of your wrongs, and I’m certainly not keeping records of Amy’s wrongs, or I’m not keeping records of this person over here that you weren’t real happy with wrongs. Why are you keeping records of their wrongs? I mean, are your standards higher than mine? If I was willing to forgive them and put it behind the back and never see it again, why aren’t you? And the only answer to that is cause of my pride. said yeah, now you got it. Now, are you ready to deal with your pride? Because, again, pride is what comes before what? Before the fall. And it is our own pride that causes 99.9% of our problems is pride. And the only counteract into pride is love. And the only source of love is Christ. And that was given to us in the grace of God. And that’s why he says, See to it, that no one misses the grace of God. If God so loved you and me and everyone in this room what right would we have to have bitterness toward anyone in this room? As an example. Or outside of it as well, but I’m just saying we can see these. And the answer to that is, we have no right at all. If God forgave me, and does not keep records of my wrongs, then why should I keep records of yours? Now, that’s the grace of God that will change our lives and change our hearts and change the way that not only we perceive ourselves, but the way we perceive one another, as well. Bitterness, there is no place for it, he said.

See to it that no one is sexually immoral, or is like godless, like Esau, who for a single meal, sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. And afterwards, as you know, when he wanted to inherit his blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought a blessing with tears. Well, in regard to the sexually, or sexual immorality, the word of God, again, speaks to us in many instances about that of not even giving a hint of that type of a thing. If you look back in the fifth chapter of Ephesians, Ephesians, five, beginning in verse three, he said, but among you, and here again, he’s talking about people who are in Christ, there should not even be a hit, it says of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity, or greed. Because these are improper for God’s holy people. Now it’s interesting, isn’t it? When you’re talking about when people again, when we get into this judgmental spirit of ours, how we will never mention, you know, when you talk about the grace of God and everything, and people always say, You mean, tell me that if someone went out and committed adultery that they were gonna go to heaven? Or you mean, tell me that if someone went out and murdered? Isn’t it strange that and these kind of lineups that along with the sexual immorality is things like greed? It can you imagine someone stabs at you mean, you tell me if someone is greedy that they’re, we don’t mention those words. We’ll die or no one talks about those. We just talk about the biggies. But you see the reason for a four dot even a hint of sexual immorality or any type of impurity or greed? Because is because they’re improper for God’s people who have been set apart. If you notice, it doesn’t say there among you should not even be a hint of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity or greed. Because if you do any of these, God’s gonna zap you in the head, does it say that? Well, God’s gonna really get you, did it say that? No, it said that the reason for putting these things aside is because they’re improper for God’s people. In other words, they’re inconsistent with being set apart. If you’re a child of God, to be set apart from the world, I’ll guarantee you, especially in this day and age, to be set apart from the world. If you are not even giving a hit of sexual immorality, you’re set apart from this world.

It is, as I mentioned, on there on the radio last week, the thing was, was hitting me as I was talking to some of our younger staff. And as I mentioned, I’ve seen this country of ours, I’ve seen America back in the days when, as I equate it, it was the the innocent, fair haired kid. I saw America back in those days, I grew up in America back in those days. I saw America where in my little hometown that I grew up in Indiana, we never owned we never had a key to the house. There had never been a murder in the city. There was not racial overtones at all in the city. No one ever thought anything about that type of thing at all, or just people that never entered our minds. You grew up in, in a part of the world were a part of the place where where the policemen were respected. elders were respected. You respected your elders. It was back in the days when you would have never thought ever thought of ever striking out at your school teacher. They were respected people never would have given a thought of one kid one time tried to hit a school teacher and that kid was literally ostracized out of the school back. Never would have given a thought of an art and not by the teachers by the kids. What kind of a guy is that kind of a crumb bum is that one to strike out of his teacher? To stand in front of a policeman, and look up and defing city space, unheard of policemen were respected. Officials were respected that in those days, the biggest problems in school were chewing gum, running in the hall, and being late for class. Those were the three biggies back in those days. That was it. Wouldn’t you love to be returned to that? Oh, guys, I have seen a world like that. I’ve seen that those of you who are my age and that we’ve seen that we’ve seen and I have seen that fair haired kid, go to the gutter. In this country. Many of you who are younger, like I say, by the time you came on the scene, that kid that I’m talking about was already halfway emmesiated. He was already about half gone. So you’ve kind of seen a guy that was already messed up, get a little bit more messed up. I’ve seen the guy who wasn’t messed up at all. And today, we live in a in a day and age where you watch television if you do. And it is nothing. I mean people, actresses, actors, people in high places say oh, yeah, we just want to, yeah, we’ve been living together for four or five years. Yeah. And then and stand up and say, Hey, I’m homosexual. Look at me. And you look at that, and I will tell you it may not shock you younger people. But I want to tell you to me, I cannot comprehend.

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Bob George 14:26
I cannot comprehend as a man if I was living with somebody ever telling anybody about it, for the sake of the woman. I can’t imagine doing that. For the sake of respect for the woman itself. I wouldn’t want anyone to know that I was living with somebody because of what it would make her look like. We have come from so far. In this world today. We’ve come so far downwards. America used to be a leader looked at as a world leader. Well, we are again, we lead the world in crime. We lead the world in pornography production. We lead the world in AIDS. We lead the world in probably homosexual promiscuity. We lead the world a lot of things. And we have literally digressed and digressed and digress. And every bit of this, my friends started at the same place that sin started. And that was in the Garden of Eden, with man looking at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and saying, God, I know more than you do. I know what’s right, and I know what’s wrong. You see today, what we’re interested in is not what is right and wrong. But that I have my rights because I’ve been wrong. That’s the whole emphasis. Everyone’s got rights. And the whole emphasis of the world is in special interest groups that have rights. And so all of a sudden, if you’d like to have sex a certain way you got rights. You sit there and say, What is going on here? What’s going on? What kind of an environment are we producing for our kids and their grandkids? What kind of a jungle are we creating, for our kids to grow up in? Where school teachers are scared to death to go to school. And they live in fear in classrooms are getting attacked and beat up or raped or whatever it might be in schools, where policemen are scared to go on their job. You say what kind of a world have we apart from God created? They take a look at it. And you’ll see. You see when the Bible says to to us, and again we is the problem with this, my friends is we have Christians have gone right along with this whole thing. And instead of us being set apart, we have brought in and integrated all of the philosophies of the world and become no different. And why he is saying to us to be set apart is because if we’re not set apart, how’s anyone going to know that there’s still a right and wrong? And so what he is he is saying to us here in the scripture that see to it that we’re that no one is sexually immoral. It’s saying set, you’re a child of God do things in proper order.

Now, he also equates that with Esau, which is kind of interesting, because we say what’s Esau have to do with all that? And he’s talking about who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. And afterwards as you know, when he wanted to inherit a blessing, he was rejected and he could bring about no change of mind though he sought the blessing in tears. Now, let’s turn back to that story. Yeah, Genesis 25. Beginning in verse 19. It says, this is the account of Abraham’s son Isaac. Verse 21, said Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren and the Lord answered his prayer. And his wife, Rebecca became pregnant. And the babies jostled each other within her and she said, what is happening to me? Right, we’ve got a bunch of our staff wondering that right now, I think. So she went to inquire of the Lord the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb, the two peoples from within we’ll be separated one people will be stronger than the other and the older will serve the younger. You see, that’s out of sync as the way God made things. The younger always served the older in this particular case, he said no, the older is going to serve the younger. When it came time for her to give birth and they were twin boys in her womb. The first one came out was red and his whole body was like a hairy garment. He was a hairy kid. So they called him Esau. Which means hairy. Very original, the naming of the kids and after that his brother came out with his hand grasping Esau’s heel and he was named Jacob. And That word literally means grasping the heel or figuratively it means he’s a deceiver. Interesting isn’t it. Now Isaac was 60 years old when Rebecca gave birth to them. Now, when the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, the man of open country while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents. And Isaac, the father. He had this taste for this wild game man, he was a macho guy. I mean, he was, if you were to see him today, he had been his pickup and his rifle in the back and his dog. I mean, he’s macho and you know, the candle Lone Star in the hand and driving along there, and all that kind of stuff. So he liked that outdoor stuff. And so he loved Esau because that was kind of guy he saw was he was an outdoors rugged guy. He also liked his pickup and the hunting and then the cowboy hat and beer and everything. But Rebecca, she loved Jacob. The mother loved Jacob. The father he liked Oh, hairy. He was rugged and tough, but this is Jacob he just kind of you know, he didn’t like that stuff, he liked staying at home, play music. He also seemed like to cook. So when, when Jacob was cooking some stew Esau came in from the open country famished and he said to Jacob, quick, let me have some of that ribs stew, I’m famished and that’s also why he was called Edom, because again was red. Now Jacob replied, first, sell me your birthright.

Now guys in the under the law of God. And under the Hebrew law, the First Born had two thirds of the birthright. In other words, when inheritance was passed on, two thirds of the inheritance was always passed on to the firstborn son, and then the rest to the rest. So he was to be the leader of the flock, it was a natural progression that the oldest son would take over when the father died. And he would be the supervisor and then when he died, it would be passed on and on. And so the birthright the natural birthright was to the older son. And, and Esau was the first one to come out. And then Jacob was hanging on to his heel that called the deceiver, which we’ll see in a minute. And so Jacob there who was cooking up the stew, he had the restaurant going, and he wasn’t gonna sell oh, Esau anything, he wasn’t gonna give him any food until he sold him his birthright. He said, first tell me your birthright. He is pretty conniving wasn’t he? And, and so here’s what we saw, say, Look, I’m about to die, if I don’t get some food, and I’m gonna, I’m gonna perish right here on the spot. And what good is the birthright to me? And so Jacob said, Well Swear to me first. In other words, make a commitment on that, swear on your word, that this is what you’re going to do. And so, you know, Esau man, he had no problem with him, he sworn an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob, for a bowl of soup. And so Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. And he ate it and drank and then he got up and left back, back after the woods and he’s going back out hunting. And so Esau that says, despised his birth right. Now, what did what did all Esau do there? Well, he sacrificed did he not? He sacrificed something that was his for some instant gratification. He, his deal was I don’t care what’s going to happen in the future. That’s irrelevant. I’m hungry right now. And so if I get some food what’s birthright mean to me inheritance, man, that’s way down the line. I want some food right now. Does that sound familiar? In other words, he took for granted what he had. And and, you know, that is such a typical thing for us, isn’t it? We take for granted what we have. We have a wonderful wife, a wonderful husband, we have kids. We take them for granted. The grass always looks greener over on the other side of the fence. And so, instead of living in appreciation for what we have, we’re always looking for something out there something that can give some instant gratification, without giving any thought at all as to what are the repercussions of this? What are the repercussions of it? You know when the scripture says to be quick to listen and slow to speak, you know why it says that? Because of the damage that we can do with what we speak. Isn’t it interesting that we go out and it takes our money and our time and our effort to build up a home and we can tear it down with our tongue. You can destroy an entire company with your tongue, you can destroy a family with your tongue. Has it entered your mind sometimes when you’re really want to say something. I mean, you’re really wanting to say something. And God says Shut up. And the reason he gave us one mouth and two ears is it said, Please use it proportionately. And do twice as much listening as you do talking. Because sometimes we need in our conversations to say is that that I’m about to say edifying, or is it tearing down? Which is it? Is it necessary for me to have to verbalize my viewpoint? Now that’s hard for us. It’s hard for me. And so but again, it’s what it’s what you’re talking about, is what I’m going to say worth tearing down my family for? Is what I’m going to say worth causing problems within my family? And our tongues can destroy more than we could ever dream in our lives. And that’s why James said it’s like a forest fire that we speak in a equates it with a forest fire that it can set a whole forest on fire by just what we say.

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