Classic Christianity – Book of John Part 57 (08-12-19)
Synopsis
We have been born dead with an opportunity to choose life. So man’s most basic need is that he is dead and in need of life. But people do not understand these things unless someone explains things to them. The Holy Spirit must reveal truth to men. Many people not only lean on their own understanding for truth, but are ignorant of the things of God. Bob testified that he had a shallow understanding of God. But God initiates His love toward us. He did so when He sent His only Son into the world to reveal truth to men, to die to take away our sins only in order to rise again to offer new life, His resurrected life, the only life available to man. God orchestrates the affairs of men so that they might seek Him and find Him even though He is not very far from any one of us.
One day truth is told. Either we read from the scriptures and God reveals truth to us or someone explains the scriptures to us from what the Holy Spirit had taught them. However we heard truth, the Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus makes the truth come alive to us personally. We simply believe the truth and are born again.
Many people believe the lie of the world, such as lies from religious leaders, whether well meaning and just simply ignorant of truth themselves. People also simply believe what is just the natural thinking of man devoid of the Spirit of God. Many people think they will miss out on the fun down here. They never think to ask the right questions. “How does that apply to me?” “What does that mean to me?” “How is that going to affect my life?”
Many others never even think about the after-life. If you are not prepared for death, you are not prepared to live. Many deny there even is a hell. Who wants to believe in that? That is sure hard ot accept. But we know there is because Jesus told us of a place for the wicked where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth and a place of unquenchable fire. Logic and natural observation of the world also testifies. If there is light, then there is darkness. If there is an up, then there is a down. If there is a heaven, then there is a hell.
So let us reason together says the Lord through the prophet Isaiah. If your sins be as scarlet they will be made white as snow. What an appeal to men! Think about it. Why take a risk in believing something that could be a lie and if you are wrong about what you choose to believe, you would face eternal consequence of being separated from God forever. But if there is a God and there is a heaven, consider also what kind of life that would be!
Consider who God really is! Jesus is God in the flesh, perfectly loving and perfectly just. He has sacrificed his own life for you, so as to satisfy the perfect requirements of the law we could never meet. Not only do you not have to go to a horrible place called hell but you can be with someone who loves you so much. Is not love more important than life, and certainly what we call life down here. This is eternal life, to know God and His Son Jesus Christ, and God is love. Would you not want the love of God poured into your heart?
Think about the depth of His love! He died for us while we were yet sinners. You and I were without hope and without God. Before we were even born and even while yet sinners even now as a lost person, he reconciled the world to Himself. He did this so He can offer eternal life as a gift to be received by faith. Salvation is the receiving of life.
The lost person sees life from a different perspective. He thinks fun is hanging out with buddies on New Year’s eve, only to face a hangover the next day. He thinks of fun is jumping into all kinds of evil behavior but there are always undesired consequences, sooner or later. Sin begets more sin with more serious consequences. Bob testified of his life, and many other believers can testify also, that there is so much more fun being with a believer.
We are not natural and total until we give our life to Jesus. That is just like a light bulb that is not functioning until it is plugged into electricity. You and I were designed to function with God living in us. You take God out of the man, you have a man on your hands that cannot behave like one. God in the man is indispensable to the humanity of the man, as God intended us to be made. This is only accomplished when we are made complete in Christ, which is the Spirit of God living in you.
How the attitude changes when someone becomes born again! You have the love of God poured into your heart. Your heart is changed from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. Instead of getting everything you can out of life for yourself, your attitude changes to that of Christ Jesus. As a non-believer, all you can really think about is to eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you die. What kind of life is that?
Consider him who humbled himself and came to earth in the form of a man. He chose to lay aside his divine attributes and lived like a man totally dependent on the Spirit of God to direct his path, to say and do what His Father wanted him to do. He lived as man was originally designed to be created and to function with the Spirit of God living in him, except Jesus, of course was not created. Jesus is God in the flesh, an eternal being. He was obedient to death, death on a cross, and all for you and me, to the glory of God. He did not seek his own glory but the glory of His Father who sent him. Having a life, with the Spirit of God living in you, is an exciting life!
As a believer, you will not be free of troubles down here on earth. You will sometimes still sin, sometimes swearing on the freeway, but you are free to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. With a new heart and attitude of Christ in you, you want to live in the newness of life. Yet, sometimes your thinking is off. You and I will sometimes give in to the flesh, where sin still dwells. But God’s Spirit deals with you and me as a beloved child. Indeed, you and I have become a child of God. A child falls when learning to walk and so do you and I while we are continually learning how to walk in the Spirit we have been given. But we have the confidence of having someone living in us who perfectly loves us, who will never leave us and will guide us through the life we have been given. The truth will set you free.
Bob appeals to the non-believer to receive new life in Christ Jesus. Are you ready for some reality in your life? Are you tired of playing church or playing “Christian”? Are you ready to put your trust in someone you can truly count on for the rest of your life? We have a time to be born and a time to die. When that time comes, are you ready to come to Christ with nothing you have done but solely in what He alone has done for you? Do you want to know that when you leave this earth, you would enter the presence of God? In the event you have not as yet fully accepted new life in Christ Jesus and His death for you, ask him to be your Lord, Savior and best friend.
Transcript
It is a very practical issue. If you are dead, then you need life. The issue is this. Where are you going to get life? Is Buddha going to give you life? No. He is dead. Is Mohammad going to give you life? No. He is dead. Is the pope going to give you life? No. He just looks like he is dead. Can Billy Graham give you life? No. Can Bob George give you life? No. The only man who can give you life is the one who was raised from the dead, and that is Christ Jesus.
Acts 4:12
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.
It is a very practical issue. It does not matter where you are coming from or what background you came from. When you are dead, you are dead. A dead German is as dead as a dead American. A dead African is as dead as a dead China man. A dead China man is a dead China man. When you are dead, you are dead. And when you are dead, you need life. The only life available to us is the resurrected life of Jesus.
1 Corinthians 15:12-19
12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
The resurrection is the centrality of the Christian message. That is why the apostle Paul said that without the resurrection we are to be pitied of all people and are still dead in our sins, knowing full well that a cross had occurred.
That is just like Satan to get us to just deal with the preparatory issue and to forget about the resurrection. Just get people to get forgiven. So we have thousands of people thinking they are alive, born again, when all they did was come forward to get their sins forgiven. It is just like a life insurance policy. I sure do not want to go to hell. How do I keep from going to hell? Come down and get forgiven. That is the wrong message that has been preached. The person says, “Okay, I will do it” and he goes back to the pew as dead as when he first went to the altar. That is why they call them pews because there are dead people in them. You do not come to Christ to get forgiveness. You come to Christ because you already got forgiveness but that forgiveness is only received in His resurrection.
Ephesians 1:7
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
It would be like saying to Richard. Richard, I put a billion dollars in your bank and I also provided a replenishing deal so that every time you spend it, I just keep putting it back in. Thank you, Bob. Where is that money? Well, it is in the First National Bank of Little Elm. I do not like that bank. I like Bank One. Well, I am sorry. It is not in Bank One. It is in the bank of Little Elm. I cannot stand that. I like other banks. Well, Richard, until you go to the bank in Little Elm, you are not going to get your money. I am not going. So what will he do? Die in poverty. Why? Because the money isn’t there? No, because he does not go there. He does not like it. Same thing. I do not like it. I do not like Jesus. I like Buddha. I like religion. Do not give me a relationship. Do not tell me about these banks where money is. I do not like the whole idea of banking institutions. There are millions of people in that boat.
The only way you and I will be made alive spiritually is when we accept the fact that we first of all, we were and are sinners, but by the grace of God, Jesus went to a cross 2000 years ago. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in his resurrected life we might have the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
John 1:12-13
12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
I do not have any righteousness of my own. I do stand clothed in His, not because I earned it or deserved it or even because I act like it, but because he made me a child of God. A child of God is our true identity. People like to put labels on a jar, such as Baptist or Presbyterian. What is important is not the label but what is in the jar. We come to Christ and we are born again. The Spirit of God comes to live inside of us, literally.
1 Corinthians 1:30
30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
When the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us, we have the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ lives inside you and me. He came to guide and direct our paths. He came to guide us into all truth. The person inside of us has a voice. Why am I not always hearing? I have no trouble hearing in my flesh.
1 Corinthians 2:16
16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
John 16:13-15
13 “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
Bob gave an illustration, how in Indonesia, a tsunami took place. Not one animal was killed but over 100,000 people were killed; not a frog, not a horse, elephant or dog. They went to the high land. Why? Instinct. Who gave them instinct? God.
1 Corinthians 2:16
16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
John 16:13-15
13 “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
A Missionary, the son of a friend of Bob’s, was a missionary at that time. He was out at the beach that day. All this water came out and everyone ran out to see what was going on. As a born again believer, God said to him, “head to the high ground”. He headed to the high ground and watched all those people drown. Why? God told him. Who else was God telling? We do not know. We know he listened. I do not know if there were other believers who did not listen. But the ones who did are alive and the ones who did not are dead.
Fish go back and spawn. The swallows come back to Capistrano every time. How can God give instinct to the animal kingdom with a stronger voice that He gives to us when He gives us the Holy Spirit? There is nothing wrong with God and your voice. There must be something wrong with me. There is something wrong that is keeping me, many times, from listening intently to this voice of God that is living in me because He is there and we know He is there.
I know indwelling sin has something to do with that. Our flesh is inhabited with indwelling sin that sometimes keeps us from listening to the truth of the word of God. One way we are going to know what God is saying, whether it is of God or of the flesh, is by the word of God. The Spirit of God will never be leading you to something contrary to the teaching of the word of God. It is so vitally important to study the word of God with the attitude that if the Spirit living in me does not reveal the meaning to me I will not know what it means.
1 Corinthians 2:8-10
8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written:“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived” –
the things God has prepared for those who love him –10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
It must be revealed by the Spirit. The Spirit of God must reveal what the bible means.
Why do we have so many denominations in this world today? Why do we have one group that believes this and another one that believes that? It is because of leaning on your own understanding. Instead of acknowledging Him and allowing Him to direct your path, and to reveal the meaning of the word of God, we lean on our own understanding. That is why we have people adding to the things of the bible.
Proverbs 3:5-6
5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Is there anything in the bible about baby baptism? No. Where did it come from? Somebody says, “What happens to a baby if they die before they heard?” “I do not know. We better do something to prepare them.” “What are we going to do?” “Let’s dunk him with some water. Baptize them. Maybe that will preserve them.” So what do we have? Infant baptism. Is it biblical? No. What is biblical? I do not know the answer to that. I do not know what happens to a baby who has not heard. What I do know is this. That decision goes into the hands of a God who is perfectly loving and perfectly just and I cannot believe He will not make the right decision concerning that baby. I do not need to dunk him or sprinkle him. I trust God in that.
Anything in scripture about slaying people in the Spirit? The Spirit came to give you life not to knock you over. Did Jesus come around knocking people over? No. It does not happen. It is not there. Why do people do it? You got me. There are people leaning on their own understanding, who come up with a hair-brained idea knocking people over and saying, “We have Pentecost all over again”.
That is why you have different denominations. People are leaning on their own understanding as to what the bible means instead of relying on the Holy Spirit to explain to you what it means.
We are a privileged people to have the word of God in our hands. One thing I can know when I do hear the voice of God is I have a plumb line. If it is of God it will not be contrary with the scriptures.
2 Peter 1:21
21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
One reason we do not trust the Spirit of God is because we are so accustomed to live only in the natural world. It is almost like we want to be animals with instinct who always seem to act on it. There are times when God tells us something. You have a situation where a dog is howling, knowing something is going to happen. I do not understand all that but I can observe it. When dealing with the Holy Spirit of God in us, we do have a plumb line.
But at other times we have the Spirit of God who tell us to go to the highlands. We are not going to find that in the bible. That is how he guides us living in this life. How many times do you have the Spirit of God tell you to call somebody? When you do, he says, “How did you know to call me?” How many times have we not called? If I am indwelt with the Holy Spirit, then you have someone inside you to guide you into all truth. Why do we not trust this? Sometimes we just do not trust this. It is supernatural. I am more accustomed to the natural. This is supernatural. It is a supernatural way of living to be guided by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Is that not what God has come to give, the supernatural? So God says, “Do not lean on your own understanding and I will guide and direct your path”.
John 16:13
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
This missionaries’ son is alive today because of that. How did he know to go up to the hills? God told him. Was he smart enough or was he dependent enough? God told him and he listened and did what God told him to do.
John 16:33
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
We have to realize God is interested in our day to day activities. It is not if we are going to have tribulation but when. It is hard when those who leave this world are believers. Not because they are in a better place but because you miss them. That is not easy. If you are married, unless there is some kind of accident where both are killed at the same time, one of you is going to look at your spouse in a coffin someday. If you have a parent, you will probably look at your parent in a casket some day. Your son or daughter might even die before you, and you may see him or her in a casket. That is a part of life. We are born to die.
Are you prepared for death? If you are not prepared for death then you are not prepared for life. If there is no after-life then eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you die, for that would be all there is. But there is an after life. Scripture testifies that there is.
1 Corinthians 15:31-33
31 I face death every day – yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”[Isaiah 22:13]33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
Jesus, who is God says there is an after-life. If there is an up, there must be a down. If there is light, there must be dark. If there is a heaven, there must be a hell. When you die you will either be separated forever from God or be in the presence of God forever.
Matthew 13:49-51
49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.51 “Have you understood all these things?” Jesus asked.
“Yes,” they replied.
Do you want to take a chance of going there? Some say, “Yes, that is where my friends are?” People who say such things have believed a lie.
1 Corinthians 15:54-56
54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[Isaiah 25:8]55
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”[Hosea 13:14]56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
There is comfort in knowing where your loved one is, who is in Christ Jesus. We know he or she will be in a better place, living in the presence of God, with no more sorrow, suffering or pain.
Revelation 21:4
“‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Yet, many will say, “I will miss out on the fun down here?” What foolish thinking! Think about New Year’s eve. You have a fleeting moment drinking with friends, only to face a hangover the next day. Bob says he has never had so much fun until after he became a Christian. It is fun to be around believers. It is no fun trying to conjure up fun as a non-believer. Give up stuff? Yes, give up hangovers and arguments with your wife. Those are good things to give up.
We are not natural and total until we give our life to Jesus. That is just like a light bulb that is not functioning until it is plugged into electricity. If a light bulb is hanging up there without electricity, then might as well have a potato hanging up there, for you will get just as much light out of it. You may have driven a $60,000 dollar car here and it ran out of gas, then somebody will have to push it to get it move. We were made, just as a car was made to function with gas and a light bulb to shine light with electricity in it, you and I were designed to function with God in us. You and I were designed to function with God living in us. You take God out of the man, you have a man on your hands that cannot behave like one. God in the man is indispensable to the humanity of the man, as God intended us to be made. This is only accomplished when we are made complete in Christ, which is the Spirit of God living in you.
1 John 4:13-18
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
This all becomes more clear as you see Christ living in you. You are able to see life with a totally different attitude. You look at life totally different as a born again believer. It is how we think. It is not how we wear our clothes or wear our hair, but how we think. Our attitude should be like that of Christ Jesus.
Romans 15:4-6
4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 2:5-11
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:6
Who, being in very nature[form of] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[form of] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death –
even death on a cross!9
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
We function from our attitude. Our attitude is where our heart is. It is where we form policies. There are people who never form conclusions. They never put “therefore’s” to anything. It is just information and that is it. Many people never think to ask these questions. “How does that apply to me?” “What does that mean to me?” “How is that going to affect my life?” That is the heart. When you are lost, your heart is wicked and deceitful above all things and who can know it?
Jeremiah 17:9
9The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Hosea 10:2
2 Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones.
When you become a new believer, you get a new heart. You start forming attitudes with truth that will set you free.
Ezekiel 36:26
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
John 8:32
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
That does not mean you will forever be perfect. That does not mean you will never have problems or you will never curse on the freeway some day. It means you are in the process of Growing in Grace.
1 John 2:1-2
1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
2 Peter 3:17-18
17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position [before men]. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen
You are in the process of learning. You are a learner, a disciple. You are learning from Christ. That is the excitement as a child of God. And God is not through with any of us yet. That is good to know. So we do not need to beat ourselves in the face when we fall. It is just like a child learning to walk. He falls and you help him up and he learns to walk. That is what God does with us. He picks us up and sends us on our way.
Philippians 1:6
6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 2:13
13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Jesus is tender and kind to you and me. Why would we want to reject him? Ignorance of truth. Bob says he did not reject Him. How could he reject someone he did not know? He had a very shallow understanding of Him. When Bob came to know Him he began to deepen his understanding, and that is a continual thing. Maybe you never understood and just did not grasp who God really is yet?
God reveals Himself to people at different times. He orchestrates the circumstances of our lives so that we might seek Him and find Him even though He is not very far from any one of us.
Acts 17:26-27
26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ [From the Cretan philosopher Epimenides] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring. [From the Cilician Stoic philosopher Aratus]’
Maybe you have not understood how dead that dead really is? Maybe you did not understand what Jesus had to go through, in all his sufferings and eventual death on a cross, for your sins. He died on the cross to take away your sins, your sins that caused death, in order that may receive an offer of new life in Him. If you were the only one on earth, Jesus would have died personally just for you. He experienced physical death with you in order for you to enter spiritual life with Him.
Romans 6:4
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Are you ready for some reality in your life? Are you tired of playing church or playing “Christian”? Are you ready to put your trust in someone you can truly count on for the rest of your life? We have a time to be born and a time to die. When that time comes, are you ready to come to Christ with nothing you have done but solely in what He alone has done for you? Do you want to know that when you leave this earth, you would enter the presence of God? In the event you have not as yet fully accepted new life in Christ Jesus and His death for you, ask him to be your Lord, Savior and best friend.
John 1:1-13
11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
