Radio Broadcast Monday 07/15/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Hebrews P131 (07-15-24)

The Body of Christ is Made up of Many Parts

~ Let the word of God speak to your heart. As we near the completion of our study on the book of Hebrews, Bob shares with us the truth about the body of Christ. Here are the key verses we need to focus on for today. The body of Christ belongs to each other. And there are gifts given to different members, and not all members have the same gifts. But all of us do share in the Holy Spirit, for He lives in every true believer today. We are to abide in Him, and allow the Holy Spirit to live His life in and through us. We are One with Christ Jesus. Once you understand the meaning of that, it sets you free completely to live as God intended Man to live, with God living in the Man forever and ever! For nothing can ever separate the believer from Him, once they are in Christ Jesus and He is in them. God, Jesus cannot deny Himself! And God is TRUE, and what He has said stands forever.

Details matter on everything. The original words of God are key on the details. Ask for wisdom and understanding today from God, and He will give it to you with great abundance. Lean NOT on your own understanding of anything today, but go directly to God for Understanding. For only the Holy Spirit can teach you the true meaning of the word of God. And that is key to everything.

The Body of Christ

For just as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For also in one Spirit we all were baptized into one body, whether Hebrews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink one Spirit.

For also the body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” not on account of this is it not of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” not on account of this is it not of the body. If all the body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If all were hearing, where would be the sense of smell?

But now God has arranged the members, each one of them in the body, as He desired. And if all were one member, where would be the body? But now indeed, there are many members, but one body.

Now the eye is not able to say to the hand, “I have no need of you.” Or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” But much rather, those members of the body seeming to be weaker are necessary, and those of the body we think to be less honorable, these we bestow more abundant honor. And our unpresentable parts have more abundant decorum, but our presentable parts have no need.

But God has composed the body, having given more abundant honor to the parts being deficient, that there should be no division in the body, but the members should have the same concern for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

The Greater Gifts

Now you are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And some indeed God has appointed in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the greater gifts.

And I show to you now a more surpassing way. ^{1 Corinthians 12:12-31}

“Now I rejoice in the sufferings for you, and I am filling up in my flesh that which is lacking of the tribulations of Christ for His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the administration of God having been given me toward you, to complete the word of God, the mystery having been hidden from the ages and from the generations, but now having been manifested to His saints, to whom God has willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ. Unto this also I toil, striving according to His energy, working in me in power.” ^{Colossians 1:24-29}

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 it goes ahead to say, the body is not made up of one part, but many. And if the foot should say, because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body, it would not, for that reason, cease to be a part of the body. You may think that you’re not, but it wouldn’t cease to be. And if the ears should say, because I’m not an I, I don’t belong to the body, it would not, for that reason, cease to be a part of the body. You may say, I’m not a part of it, but you are. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? Just walk around one big eye. You got a head and just an eye. That’s all just big old eye staring at you. If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? Just big one, one ear? What’s a Christian world doing? Well, we got all the noses over here worshiping on Sunday, blowing up a storm, and got all the ears over here, just wiggling, just hearing up a storm. You got all the fingers over here and everything he said, Is that the way he meant the body to be, take the body out and just get all the ears over here, have the ear Church and the nose church and a tongue, church and a mind? What are you people thinking of? If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts but one body, the eye cannot say to the hand, I don’t need you. And the head cannot say to the feet, I don’t need you. On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable, we treat with special honor. I think we can all figure that out. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with spatial modesty. While our presentable parts need no special treatment. There are parts of your body that you don’t really just don’t walk around exposing; vital but not up for public display.” ~ Bob George

Bible Study Booklets

Join Bob George in this chapter by chapter exposition of the book of Hebrews. Available for download the complete series on the Book of Hebrews. The Book of Hebrews is key to understanding the New Covenant.

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
So over in chapter 12, he picks up again, just adding to what we’re just talking about, chapter 12 of First Corinthians. Right after he talks about the Lord’s Supper, he again, he says the body’s a unit, and though it’s made up of many parts, and though its parts are many, they form one body. And so it is with Christ, for we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body. Now folks there again, when it talks about strange teachings, you will hear people and come up and say, Have you ever been baptized in the Holy Spirit? There is no such thing as being baptized in the Holy Spirit. You are baptized by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, not in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God comes to lives in you, and then places, which is what baptism means, places you into the body. So you are placed by the Spirit into the body of Christ. You’re not baptized in the Spirit, as evidenced by some manifestation that if you don’t have you’re not saved. There’s all kinds of strange teachings that have fallen upon the Christian world. When you and I come to Christ, you come to Christ by one way only, and that’s by faith. And if I need a sign, then it’s a repudiation of faith. The minute I need a sign. I’m repudiating faith. It’s the very thing that Jesus said to the very people he was talking to. He said, You’re an adulterous generation constantly looking for a sign. And he said, I’ll give you a sign. And that’s when he said, Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights. So I, the Son of Man, will be in the ground. In other words, if you need a sign over and above my resurrection, there’s something wrong with you, there’ll be no sign over and above my resurrection. You’re an adulterous generation. What is adulterous generation mean? Well, it means you’re playing around with two different people. You say you’re married to Jesus, but you’re over here playing around with something else, and you can’t be married to Jesus, and playing around with something else, if you’re going to play around with that’s with with signs and wonders, and that’s all you’re going to think about. Get married to it. But if you’re going to be married to the Lord Jesus Christ, then you’re going to have to understand something, that there’s nothing more than Jesus. When you and I have been made complete in Him, you don’t add to completeness, nor do you subtract from completeness. You have been made complete in Him.

Now, if God in the placement into his body places a gift, use that gift as God gave it to a person in the body. But don’t ever get into the mindset of thinking more highly of yourself than you ought, or buying this teaching that everybody is supposed to have that gift. If you’re a toe wiggle and quit trying to get the ears to be a toe, they don’t look good wiggly unless you’re a rabbit. And that’s what he’s saying to us. And people get all hung up on gifts instead of the giver. I mean, how intense would be for me to walk up to you and say, Hi, I’m Bob George. I have the gift of teaching. Do you have that gift of teaching? You don’t let me teach you. Hey, you got it. It’s idiocy, you see, it gets your mind off of you or onto you instead of onto him, and he is throughout Scripture warning the Christian body as to what that does to the body. It divides it. There is no super saint. There is no one person that has because of the gift, whatever it might be, that makes them more higher than someone else, higher than someone else. There’s no such thing you’re in Christ period. And if you’re in Christ, you’re his son. If you don’t think your little toe’s important, let somebody cut it off and see how you like it. You realize how important that thing is.

Now it says we were all. We were all baptized by, not in by one Spirit. And that has nothing to do with water folks either. That’s That’s spiritual baptism. That baptism is identification. You have been identified by the Spirit of God with the body of Christ, Jesus. That’s who you are, the body of Christ, whether Hebrew or Greek slave or free. So you’ve got three categories of people. You got Hebrew, you had Gentile, and you got the church, the ecclesia, the children of God, who are the children of God, made up of? Both Hebrew and Gentile, both slave and free, are children of the living God. Now I as a Gentile when I come to Christ. Need if I was thinking about it, need to forget about being a Gentile, because that’s not who I am anymore. I’m a child of the living God, and if I was born of Jewish heritage, I need to forget about being a Hebrew, because I’m no longer, from God’s vantage point, a Hebrew. I’m a child of the living God. In Christ there is neither Hebrew or Gentile, slave or free. Now, if in Christ there’s neither one of those two, then why do we get so hung up on being either one of them? And we got that group of people just proud as punch of either being a gentile or being a Hebrew. Or being whatever they are. If you’re in Christ, forget about that stuff as we talked earlier. We’re not looking for an earthly city. We’re looking for the Heavenly Jerusalem that’s going to be made up of only children of God. So in Christ, you’re in the body of Christ, and in this body that you’ve been placed in, there’s no Hebrew, there’s no Gentile, there’s no slave, there’s no free, and we were all given that one Spirit to drink. So how many of us were given that spirit to drink? All of us, anyone who is in Christ, Hebrew, Gentile, slave or free, have all been placed into the Body of Christ. And who’s the head? It’s Christ Jesus.

Now it goes ahead to say, the body is not made up of one part, but many. And if the foot should say, because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body, it would not, for that reason, cease to be a part of the body. You may think that you’re not, but it wouldn’t cease to be. And if the ears should say, because I’m not an I, I don’t belong to the body, it would not, for that reason, cease to be a part of the body. You may say, I’m not a part of it, but you are. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? Just walk around one big eye. You got a head and just an eye. That’s all just big old eye staring at you. If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? Just big one, one ear? What’s a Christian world doing? Well, we got all the noses over here worshiping on Sunday, blowing up a storm, and got all the ears over here, just wiggling, just hearing up a storm. You got all the fingers over here and everything he said, Is that the way he meant the body to be, take the body out and just get all the ears over here, have the ear Church and the nose church and a tongue, church and a mind? What are you people thinking of? If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts but one body, the eye cannot say to the hand, I don’t need you. And the head cannot say to the feet, I don’t need you. On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable, we treat with special honor. I think we can all figure that out. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty. While our presentable parts need no special treatment. There are parts of your body that you don’t really just don’t walk around exposing; vital, but not up for public display.

In other parts of the body, it’s very acceptable for public display. So it’s saying you’re going to see some parts very visible, and some parts that aren’t so visible. But are they all a part of the same body? Absolutely. But God has combined, it says, the members of the body, and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in that body, but that all its parts should have equal concern for what? One another. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Well, I’m wondering if we do that. I wonder if that’s attitude has hit our hearts where we are rejoicing when there’s a time to rejoice, suffering, when a part of the body is hurting, trusting each other in our decisions. It says, now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Well, he goes ahead to say, and in the church, the ecclesia, God has appointed, first of all, apostles, second, prophets. The apostles were first, then came prophets, then teachers and workers of miracles, those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, those with speaking in different kinds of tongues, Are all apostles? No. Are all prophets? No. Are all teachers? No. Do all work miracles? No. Do all have gifts of healing? No. Do all speak in other languages? No. Do all interpret? No, but eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now he’s going to talk about the greater gift of all, and that’s love. Because, as he says, If I had all of these gifts that I could speak of the tongues of men and angels, but I don’t have love. I’m only a resounding gong and a clanging symbol. People come down, and some people say, if you don’t have this gift, you’re not spiritual. But if you do, you’re really spiritual. He’s, can you imagine calling someone that God thinks is spiritual, hello, though, there you spiritual noisy gong and resounding symbol. Has nothing at all to do. Our gifts and the exercise of our gifts have nothing to do with spirituality. Every spiritual gift mentioned here can be done in the energy of the flesh. Every single one of them. You can camouflage every gift. I can teach in the flesh. I’ve done it numerous times. You can have mercy in the flesh in order to draw attention unto yourself. You can, you can do all kinds. You can exercise administration in order to draw attention to yourself. You can exercise every spiritual gift in the energy of the flesh. So gifts aren’t evidence at all of where you’re walking. What’s evidence of where you’re walking is the fruit of the Spirit, not the gifts of the Spirit, because the fruit of the Spirit can only come from the Spirit. You see, a gift is like the law. As an example, the law is given by God, but it’s given to man, and so whose hands that law goes into depends on whether it’s going to be used in accordance with the way God intended it to be used, or whether it’s going to be used in accordance way man wants it to be used.

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Bob George 13:55
You put the hammer into the hands of a talented carpenter, and he’ll build you a marvelous home. You put that hammer into the hands of a murderer, and he will hit you in the head with it and kill you. It’s not the fault of the hammer, it’s the fault of whose hands it’s in. That’s the law. You can use the law as God intended it, to lead people to Christ. Or you can lose use the law to continue to kill people with it, as the Pharisees and the legalists do. A gift is something else given to man, for man to use. How man uses that gift. He can use the gift as God intended it to and bless the body. Or he can use that gift and according to his own evil desires and curse the body, either one of those two can be used. But when you’re talking about the fruit of the Spirit, that is something that is not given to man so that man can use it, it is Christ in you manifesting his own life in and through you. I’m not using the gift of the Spirit. I’m using the gifts of the Spirit, but I’m not using the fruit of the Spirit. You see, what I’m getting at? The fruit of the Spirit is something he is doing in me. So gifts are something I can take from God as it’s spatially given to me and use it, but I can use it for evil, or I can use it for good. Fruit of the Spirit is totally opposite, only he manifests that fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, long suffering. All of those things listed in the scriptures are fruit, singular fruit, that comes from the life of the only one that can produce those things. You and I can’t go out and camouflage those. And so we’re seeing here that when he’s talking about this area of gifts, of how we then are to function in this body, it’s saying you can have these gifts, and I’ve given them to you, but if you do not use these motivated by the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, then you’re going to use these motivated by your own selfish ambitions and do more harm to the body than you do good. You see what he’s talking about here. So he talks about love, and he gives the definition of it, of love being patient and kind, not envious and boastful, not proud. It’s not rude, it’s never self seeking, and it’s never easily angered, and it keeps no records of wrongs. And I wonder how many of us keep records of what we think others wrongs are? Love does not delight in evil, but it rejoices in truth. It always protects, it always trusts, it always hopes and always persevere, and love never fails.

Now let’s turn back to the book of Ephesians, chapter four, as a prisoner for the Lord. Then he said, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you’ve received. You’re in Christ. Live that way. Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Bearing with one another means realizing that we all make mistakes. Have you ever noticed that? And if you’re and I are going to bear with one another, we’re not going to bear with each other, because everyone does what we want them to do. Because how in the world are you going to do what everybody wants you to do? There’s no way, because, like in this room here, you just got hundreds of desires, and so no one’s going to be in a situation of being able to do what everybody wants them to do. That’s impossible. But he said, we bear with each other on that. And it also talks about that spirit of submission to if there is decisions made, to realize that if it is wrong, God’s going to correct it, and if it is right, to submit to it. That’s what it’s talking about, the body, get into it might be right. Make every effort to keep unity so important in these scriptures of the body, unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. In other words, living at peace with each other, not at odds, but peace. There’s one body and there’s one Spirit. And just as you were called to one hope when you were called one Lord, one faith, one baptism, that’s your being placed into his body, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Now do we all see that when God called us, then he’s the head, we’re the body.

Now in verse chapter four, there, beginning now in verse 11, now within this body of God’s children, with him as the head, and you and I as the body within this body, just as he talks about that government has to be given by God, because if people aren’t governed, they it’s absolute total chaos. Is that right or wrong? Or do you think everybody we just tear down all the signs and just say, you know, just go live as you want to, you know, just be free. You wouldn’t be free. You’d be in bondage. There’s not a a country in the world as remote as it could be that isn’t governed, because it has to be in order to survive. Otherwise, total anarchy and chaos takes place. So within this body, as it started, he gave some to be apostles. What was the job of the apostle? The Apostle were the men that God spoke to directly. Gave the Word of God to promised that it’s good for you apostles, that I am going away. Because when I do, I’m going to recall you’re going to bring, I’m going to bring back to memory every single thing that I said to you, and you’re going to take those things and you’re going to write them down, and you’re going to give them to the world forever and forever, and my Word will never end. That was a job of an apostle, the book that you and I hold in our hands today called the Bible, the Bible, and the criteria for the Bible called a canon. And the word canon is universal in scope. The word canon means a determination of what is scripture. And in that Canon, the criteria for the writing of Scripture was that the New Testament had to be written by an apostle or an amanuensis of an apostle, meaning a scribe or a writer. So the Bible, the New Testament we hold in our hands, was written by an apostle who had to be with Christ from the beginning, witnessing his baptism, death, burial and resurrection. Now the only exception to that was the Apostle Paul who was recognized by the apostles as the revelation given to him coming direct from God, who God appeared to him in his supernatural realm and called him an apostle, and he was recognized as such, and therefore you’ve got the Pauline writings that we hold in our hands today.

Now. So in the body of Christ, he gave some to be apostles for that function, and then for prophets to proclaim those teachers, those teachings of the apostles. He gave some to be evangelists. And the work of the evangelist was to equip saints to come to Christ and then some pastor teachers. And that’s basically what we’re dealing with today, is the evangelist and a pastor teacher whose job is not to make up new revelation, not to sit around with words of knowledge, but to proclaim what is in this book in accordance with the gift that God gave him to do so, and the work of the evangelist, the work of the apostle, the work of the Prophet and the work of the pastor teacher, was, then, as it is today, to do one thing, and that is to prepare God’s people for the work of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, the work equipped the saints for their work of ministry.

Now there again, in my early Christian life, and with the exposure that I had, I got involved was saved by a very evangelistic type of an organization. And so there’s where I migrated to. And so to them, equipping saints for the work of ministry meant teaching people how to witness. And so I spent many years going around the world literally teaching people how to witness, because I was equipping saints for the work of ministry and very critical of pastors who weren’t teaching people how to witness. So I had the gift of criticism, working real well too at that time, and very judgmental, because I was so spiritual, because I was teaching people to witness. And after all, you’re not witnessing, you really can’t be very spiritual those that’s all that mindset so easy to get into. I became acquainted in that period of time with other organizations and that that concentrate on Scripture memory and small groups. And so if you got into their setting, why equipping saints for the work of ministry means get them memorized in Scripture. And so everybody’s got their little cards that are memorized in Scripture and you do that in small groups. And if you ever gotten a big one, it had no meaning at all, just small groups.

That’s how Methodist. The Methodist denomination, the word Methodist is because of the methodology that was brought in. And that Methodist methodology was small home groups. That’s how it got started. Wesley and the group, that’s how they perpetuated what they wanted to teach was in small home groups. So the method that they used became the name of their denomination. So they became known by their method, instead of Jesus. So you can go over to another group, and there’s another concentration. Now in each one of these, we have to was thinking through, what equipping saints for the work of ministry. How many people need to be doing that? And again, what does it mean to equip saints for their work of ministry? And and suddenly it flashed back when they the apostles came to Jesus and said, What is the work of the ministry? You know, if I’m supposed to be equipping, what is it? And he said, I’ll tell you what the work of the ministry is. Believe in me. Said, No, Lord, didn’t understand the question, what’s the work of the ministry? No, I understood the question. That is the work of the ministry to believe in what? Me. What’s the question a branch asking a vine? How do I produce fruit? What’s what’s my work? What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? What’s my work? Branch, Vine, what’s my work? And the vine says, Abide in me. No, no, you don’t understand the question again, mine. I mean, brand, I’m a branch, you know, I’m that thing looking sticking out there. What do you want me to do? So I just told you, Abide in me, and I will produce the fruit through you. It’ll look like you’re doing it, but you’re not doing anything except abide in me. And if you don’t abide in me, and you go out and try to produce your own fruit, it’s going to be wax fruit, and it’ll look good, but until someone comes up and takes a bite of it, then they’re going to have their mouth full of wax, because it’s artificial fruit. To equip saints for the work of ministry. What did the apostles do? Taught people to trust Jesus. What did Jesus do to the apostles? Taught them to trust him. What was the role of the prophets? To teach people that Jesus is trustworthy. What’s the role of the evangelist? To teach people to trust Jesus for salvation? What’s the work of the pastor teacher? To teach people to trust Jesus, not in how to witness, not in how to pray, not in the 49 how tos. Till, like he and Thomas said, you walk into a Christian bookstore. If a non Christian walked in there and saw the titles those books, all they could conclude is, do these Christians know how to do anything? Because all you see is how to do this, 49 ways to be sexy. 49 ways to do this. 89 ways to do this and how to I mean, just constantly like do. Does anyone not do anything? Is there anything on how to abide and abide? No, just how to function as a branch producing artificial fruit that hopefully will look good to the Christian world. The work of the ministry is to learn how to trust in Jesus. Period.

Announcer 27:11
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 BobGeorge.net. There you will 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.