Radio Broadcast Monday 10/09/2023

 

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.

 

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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 0:30
Well let’s turn to the second chapter of Hebrews pick up where we were talking last week, we’re going to be discussing this whole subject of the Body of Christ and, and spiritual gifts and how they fit into the body of Christ. In order to do that, it’s vitally important for us to understand just what the end of the song said, it’s because he lives that we can face tomorrow. And the emphasis of the Christian faith is not on we and what we’re doing, but it’s on him and what he is doing. The emphasis on the Christian faith is not on our gifts, it is on him as the giver, the emphasis of the Christian faith is not on me, it’s on him. It’s on him, or you, it’s on him. And when we keep that in mind, why then all of these different things fall into practice, when He said that He is the vine, and we are a branch, that is a very true thing. And it is true that there are branches, but the emphasis and the real life is in the life of the vine, not in the branch. And so when we keep that in mind, why our emphasis will shift off of us and what we’re doing on to him and what he is doing. And all of these things fall into place and keep their proper perspective. So he’s saying we must pay more some careful attention to what we’ve heard so that we don’t drift away for if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment. How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? And this salvation, which was first announced by the Lord was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, the Lord also testified to it by signs wonders, various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to whose will? His will. So gifts are distributed, not in accordance with our desire is not in accordance with our teaching somebody what God’s gifts are, and sitting around and trying to study your spiritual gifts. It is distributed according to His will, when you and I are walking abiding in the vine, he’ll be revealing to us probably without us even noticing what in the world our special gifts from God are. And, and most of the time, people will be noticing it far before you do. So it is not one of those things where we need to place great emphasis, we need to know they are there. But as we’re walking into dependent relationship on him, he will be using our special gifts to the body of Christ.

Now let’s turn back to Romans 12. And again, I want to establish this fact that that gifts do not tie in to being a part of the body of Christ. Chapter 12 Romans seven. Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. This is the whole key to this thing. If you are in Christ Jesus and Christ Jesus is alive living in you, then the most intelligent thing for you to do is to just merely offer yourself as a living sacrifice. In other words, offer yourself to God. All that is, is an attitude of saying, Lord, here I am, you live in me now do what you want to do in and through me. And, and that is the most intelligent thing it says that we can do. We offer ourselves, our bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to God. This is your spiritual form of worship. It is your spiritual worship. It says, Don’t conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. In other words, seeing things from God’s perspective rather than man’s perspective. And then and then alone, it says, Will you be able to test and approve what God’s will is. That is His good, pleasing, and perfect will. Now by the grace given me, Paul says I say to each one of you, first and foremost, when you’re dealing with any of these things, do not think more highly of yourself than you ought. But rather think of yourself with sober judge in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. So we find out that the for any faith that you and I have is also been given to us. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t Paul say I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in this flesh of mine and his body of mine, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me, we don’t even live by our own faith, we live by his, he is our life. He is our everything. And as the song said, it is because he lives that we can face tomorrow. So don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought. Whenever you see anything, whether it’s even an understanding of the grace of God, or some people get all hung up on different spiritual gifts and think, Boy, I’m a gifted person, then I got the gift of teaching, or I have the gift of what whatever our gift is, we think it’s the best and everybody ought to have it. Isn’t that the truth, you know, the standard of truth is what I believe, don’t confuse me with facts my mind’s made up, and we have that tendency to equate everything inward. No. And if I believe that brother, that’s it, that’s the standard of truth is I’ve got it. If it’s the gift that I have, boy, that’s the only one it’s really important as some of these others aren’t bad, but the one I have that’s, that’s the biggie. And what God is saying to us is, look, if he could say it, idiot, I don’t say it says that. But quit getting hung up on what I have given you. And if I’ve given you something, use it to the glory of God. But don’t get all puffed up over. If you’ve got a gift of teaching, big deal, don’t it in some for you to get puffed up over, God gave it to you use it and forget it. If you got the gift of giving, don’t get puffed up over it, use it and forget it. If you got the gift of speaking in languages, don’t get puffed up over that. You can go to school and learn those things. Go don’t get puffed up over anything, use what you’ve got and move on and see yourself as a part of this body. Otherwise, you’re going to cause divisions within the body of Christ, you’re going to cause one upmanship within the body of Christ, you’re going to be causing this thing that I’m more spiritual than you are, and you’re more spiritual than I am and all that type of junk. And then a final analysis all of it comes from God if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have anything. And so get your eyes off of you and what you’re doing and get it onto him and what he’s doing. And that’s what he’s trying to say to us offer your body you don’t offer him a proud body offer him a body that’s been made holy and acceptable by God alone, not by you. It’s a humble body it’s a to realize our own limitations. And to realize that we are a vessel through whom the living Christ can live his life in and through but in and of ourselves there’s not a person in this room who has a big deal. And when we come to understand that that Faithful is He who began His work in us he’s the one that’s going to complete us we don’t have anything to get all puffed up over. Person says Yeah, but I’m smart saying watch and be smart and everything. I know some people are mad baby smart and medicine dumb as a cluck in something else. I know a person can be smart in law dumb as can be in something else. Some people think that’s everything but I’m not sure about. Excuse me. Some people say I’m smarter than the byway, Yeah, you can be there but I don’t know anything about something else. So we get down to say how smart we are. It just depends on what subject you happen to be talking about there isn’t anybody that’s smart and all things. And everybody comes around you say you’re a big deal you know well who are we a big deal to well wherever our particular sphere of influence is. You know if I’m in a telephone business why if I was President of AT&T law I’d be a big deal in the telephone business most people don’t even know who he is. If you’re in another thing Don’t be a don’t know who it is to how many of you know who the President of AT&T is or how many know who the president of General Motors is or whatever it might be. We don’t know who they are. I guarantee there’s probably not person in this room unless they work for him, could tell me who that is. But in their sphere of influence big deal, big deal. See there aren’t any big deals all you got to do is get an airplane go about 10,000 feet and look down you’ll see what are the big deals are they’re all gone can’t see any.

So it’s saying to us is guys, think soberly keep your mind soberly. Don’t let it get out here in Zulu land someplace. Think of things from God’s perspective see things properly. If, at the very best, we’re not going to be on the face of this earth very long, at the very best at the very longest of longevity, it isn’t very long, it’s a short little span of time. And therefore don’t get all hung up on the things down here, there isn’t anything on this world to get in love with to begin with. We think there there that there’s a bunch of stuff to get in love with, it all disappears, it can be stolen from us, it can be eradicated through a flood or a storm or whatever it might be a fire just like that everything you got, gone. And so let’s not get all confused and hung up on the things of the world. And that’s what Paul was saying, you’d be in the world. But you don’t need to be off the world. You know, it’s the same thing when it deals with his body. We’re in spiritual warfare, my friends, whether we want to realize it or not, when we stepped out of Adam into Christ, and Christ stepped out of heaven into you, you became a child of the living God. And literally, he stole us from a possession. And who owns you before you were in Christ? Satan owns you. And he’ll spend the rest of his life trying to get you back. He’ll spend the rest of his life trying to recapture territory that was lost, just like a dictator will spend the rest of his life trying to recapture territory that’s been lost in a war. You can see that going on right now over in the Mideast, that the land that Israel took over in order to get free, has never been anything except trying to get it back and get it back and get it back. And so whenever you came to Christ, Satan lost you. And he will spend the rest of his life trying to get you back. And that’s why it’s saying, Don’t be conformed to the world. Don’t let him do that. He’s subtle, he’s insidious. He’s convincing. Don’t let him do that. Don’t let him get a hold on you. Don’t be can, Don’t be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind be transformed by the truth of God and His Word. It’s your reasonable thing to do.

Now, he goes ahead to say then, after telling us don’t think more highly of yourself, than you ought. Just as each one of us has one body with members, and these members do not all have the same function. So in Christ, we who are many form one body, we are the body of Christ, and each member belongs to the others, we not only belong to Christ, we belong to one another, we are a part of the body of Christ. You want to know how God looks at us, as attached to the body of Lord Jesus Christ, Christ is the head we are the body. That’s why it doesn’t make any sense for us to be fueding and fighting and fussing with each other is because it would be as stupid as the hand person with the foot because the fluid in doing what the hand is doing. Were a part of the body of Christ, we’ve all got specific functions to do. They’re not all the same not supposed to be. It’s as each part is doing its function that the body behaves normally. And so it says that we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. In other words, God gives certain gifts to his body, he gives a function and about and a gift to it. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it to the proportion of his faith. That’s fourth telling that’s teaching. If it is serving, let him serve. If it’s teaching, let him teach. If it’s encouraging, let him encourage there are many people with the gift of encouragement, marvelously used in the body of Christ. If it’s contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. If it’s leadership, let him govern diligently. If it’s showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. In other words, each and every one of us are a part of the body of Christ. Each and every one of us have received specific gifts within the body, exercise those gifts cheerfully, willfully contributing to the needs of other generously. In other words, go be who you are. It’s really confusing instruction isn’t it. [sarcasm]

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Bob George 14:51
Let’s go back to Ephesians for a minute. Chapter Four Ephesians four or beginning in verse one. As a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of your calling that you’ve received. Again, just like it said, don’t be thinking more highly of yourself than you ought, it says, Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. Now, what do you need to bear with one another in love for? Well, because, brother, we need bearing with one another. There are just a lot of things that that we do that each other don’t agree with. And so we bear it’s patience with one another realize, and we’re not alike, are not all alike. God didn’t make us to be all alike. And so learn to understand one another, make every effort to keep unity of the Spirit, through the bond of peace. It says, There is one body, that’s you and me, there is one Spirit, who’s that? The Holy Spirit of God. Just as you were called to one hope, when you were called, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all, who was overall and through all, and in all, some people say, Paul must have been a Texan with that, that in all, you all but. One hope, one spirit, one body, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, one Father of all, it was overall and through all and in all. Now folks, if that is true. And we have one God, one Spirit, one baptism. And you see the divisiveness of a teaching, that would say that, first of all, you are born again on one day, and then receive the Spirit on another at another time. And when you do, you’re more spiritual than a person who hasn’t done that. Can you see the divisiveness of that kind of teaching? How many, how many times were you and I born again? What were you born again of? The Spirit. That’s why it’s called spiritual birth. So how could you be BORN AGAIN of the Spirit and then receive the Spirit later? And you tell me how you could do that? Now you see, folks, what people are trying for, and you will see that take place is somebody’s always looking for something more. And 9 times out of 10, what you’re looking for is something that will make me totally free of sin. It’s a sincere desire, isn’t it? I want something I want some experience that will be so great, like we see in the movies, where all of a sudden the light hits and and here we walk around like this, you know, I’ve just never think of another bad thought in the world. That sounds nice. But is that true? Any of you tried that and found it not to be true? Yeah, we have, there is no something else to seek. We have people who have been in this assembly listening to the truth of God’s word, and then get exposed to something else and out there seeking some other kind of experience in order to get deeper with God. Well, the only thing that’s going to happen to them is they’re going to fall flat on their face. In total disillusionment. Maybe that’s what we have to go through in order to die to self in order to come alive to God. But the fact of the matter is that if you’re seeking something more than what you’ve got, you don’t understand what you’ve got. It’s just that simple. When you have Jesus, how much do you have? All of it, there is nothing to add to Jesus. There is one body, there is one Spirit, not two. you were called the one hope to one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And that’s not water baptism. That’s the baptism of the Holy Spirit of God. At the time when you and I were baptized by the Spirit of God, not in the Spirit, by the Spirit, into the body of Christ. At the very moment of spiritual birth, the Spirit of God came to live within you at that moment placed you into him. That’s what’s that is what is called in the Scripture being baptized by the Spirit of God into the body of Christ.

Okay, let’s turn back to First Corinthians chapter 12. Let’s pick up in verse 12 there and then we’ll we’ll go back on that. Once again in First Corinthians the body is a unit. And though it’s made up of many parts, And though its parts are many, they form one body. Now, once again, who is that? What’s he talking about there? The body of who? Of Christ. Who is the head? The Lord Jesus. So it is with Christ, it’s going to tell us that now. For we were all baptized, placed into the Body of Christ by one Spirit. We were all baptized, by, see that one spirit into one body, who’s the body? Christ. Who did the placing of us into that? The Spirit of God. When did you do that? When you were born again, it isn’t the case that the Spirit comes to live in me today, and then places me into his body at another time. Otherwise, I couldn’t call myself a child of God, when I was born again. Whether Hebrew, Greek, slave or free, we were all given the one spirit to drink. So folks, what I want us to try to see there, see through this is, because there is teaching what the sincerity of it is, that is not up for you or me to, to, to decipher and determine. But the Bible is as clear as you could get on the fact. And it absolutely devastates your salvation if you believe that, or are taught that or believe that can’t, you can’t control what you’re taught, you can control what you believe. And that’s why I want you to get into the Word of God and to and to read it. I’m not the authority on this, the Spirit of God is. But to realize that there is the premise, there is no such thing, as in the Bible, talked about in the Bible, as a second or third or a fourth blessing. It is not there. There certainly could be the case of a person that has come to to Christ for forgiveness, totally was saved and later understood his life, and literally came into a saving knowledge of the life of Christ came into contact with the life of Christ. That’s when they were born again. But to be born again today, and then to a said, receive a spirit later. If you do receive a spirit later, I just got news, it is not the Holy Spirit. There is only ONE SPIRIT, as far as God is concerned, one baptism, one God, one Father of all, who is overall into all in all. And you and I were all given that one Spirit to drink. How many of us? All of us. Now guys, do you see, when Christ does something, do you see he does things and when he does, he creates unity, not division. There’s no division in that. If you’re in Christ, the Spirit of God lives in you, there is nothing more that’s going to happen. When you see an apple, little apple come out of the of the branch of an apple tree. It’s hard as a brick, if you ever noticed that. We used to take them back in Indiana and have rock fights with them. Or they were apple fights. It just clocks them on the head that made her day whether it’s hard as a brick now, was that a perfect apple? Wasn’t a pumpkin was it? It was an apple didn’t have everything he was going to get. Was there anything that God was going to add to that apple? No, it was perfect apple. Was it mature? No one material if it wasn’t edible, but it was perfect apple, the very moment that you became a Christian, God gave you everything that you’re going to ever get. It’s all there. Are you mature in that yet? Not necessarily. We’re growing in grace, we are growing in maturity, not to get something we don’t have. We got everything we’re gonna get when you’re in Christ. It says you are what? Complete. Now let me ask you a question. Can you add to completeness? Can you subtract from completeness? So when he says you’re complete, what’s the only conclusion you can come to? I’m complete. And in the Greek word means complete. Same word. Everything that you are ever going to get you get at spiritual birth. When a baby is born and grown new ears or new eyes or any of that type of stuff. He’s kind of stuck with what he’s got. Some of us that’s unfortunate, but it’s very true.

All right, Are we all together on that? Because again, the reason I’m camping on this, there’s a terrific amount of teaching that is to the contrary of that. I just don’t know where they find it out the Bible So I want us to understand that salvation is his business, there’s nothing for us to get puffed up over. It is his business, the faith that you and I even have, we live by his faith, not even our own. It’s the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He placed us into the body of Christ, to live on this earth to represent him in this kingdom, you and I represent the kingdom of God, here on this earth. We are in spiritual warfare, we need to understand that there’s an enemy out there, and it’s the world and all you have to do is to listen to the philosophies of the world. That’s what is going on. And you’ll hear that. I did an interview yesterday, yesterday with, Friday with a gal that out of Georgia, outside of Atlanta that has a radio program there, and she also is a school teacher, telling me how excited she was about Classic Christianity and how what an impact it made on her life to understand her identity in Christ. And like she said, I do a lot of counseling, I’m a school counselor as well. And obviously, she said, I can’t tell those kids about Jesus. As she said, I’m going to a national convention out of California, and one of the things their going to do out there is to have an Indian to come in and dance and conjure up spirits for us. And we can talk about new age, and we can talk about Eastern mysticism. And we can talk about all those things. But we can’t talk about Jesus. And you say, what kind of a world is this? You cannot tell kids about a person who lives in combat Abe Lincoln, George Washington, Martin Luther King, you can go back as long as you want and tell them about people who have lived historical characters. But you can’t tell them about Jesus. Even as a historical character, you wouldn’t even have to present Him as God just present He was who He is. He’ll present Himself to us he is God.

Announcer
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’ll also find available CDs, DVDs and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith be good to one another in praise the Lord. Amen.

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Listen to the Salvation message today!

Stand on the firmness of truth. Don’t keep going back and forth. Thank Him that the forgiveness issue is settled.

Let’s pray together:

• Lord Jesus,
• I thank you for taking away my sins on the cross,
• never ever to see them again.
• Having done that, I now thank you for giving me eternal life,
• through your resurrection.
• I now receive that life.
• And I am going stand in the fact that I am a child of the living God.
• In Jesus Holy name I pray.
• Amen

All believers are now brothers and sisters in Christ.

John 3:3
³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

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