Christmas P1 Radio Broadcast Monday 12/23/2024

Classic Christianity – Christmas P1 (12-23-22)

Getting to Know Jesus ~ Understanding What the Word of God Means

~ Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George. As we celebrate the Christmas season together, we are reminded of God’s greatest gift to you and me, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, that He gave His Life for you and me, so that in His resurrected Life, we could become the righteousness of God in Him. We are told in the scriptures for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. And Eternal life happens at the very moment of place faith in Jesus. It is our prayer at Bob George Ministries that you would accept God’s gift of eternal life and know how much you are deeply loved by God. Go to shop.BobGeorge.net online to find out how you can grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ. We have many books, CDs, and other teaching materials available for your personal growth as you discover more about God’s unconditional love and forgiveness for you. Let’s now join Bob as he presents practical biblical insights as he helps people experience a life of faith, hope and love in Jesus Christ.

And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee whose name was Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the name of the virgin was Mary. And having come to her, he said, “Greetings, you favored with grace! The Lord is with you.”

And she was troubled at the statement and was pondering what kind this salutation might be. And the angel said to her, “Fear not, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in womb, and will bring forth a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and He will be called Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob to the ages. And of His kingdom there will be no end!”

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I do not know a man?”

And the angel answering, said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the Holy One being born will be called the Son of God. And behold your relative Elizabeth, she also has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month to her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”

And Mary said, “Behold, the Lord’s handmaid. May it happen to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. Luke 1 26-38

Bob George 1:00
Well, let’s all turn together, we’re going to always say, Well, what do you do at Christmas time? What do you study about the birth of Christ. So that’s what we’re going to do. Not a new message, but it’s one that is a continual need for reminder. So let’s turn to the Gospel of Luke. And we’re going to pick up there in the first chapter, and begin in verse 26, you will have it Luke one, verse 26, it says, In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. Now, once again, what is the important of these kinds of statements that David was a descendant of David, the reason for that, and the importance of that is because all through the Old Testament, the prophecies concerning the coming Messiah was that the Messiah must come through the bloodline of David. And if a man came along and said, that I am the Messiah, but he was not from the bloodline of David, you would know immediately that that was a false claim, because by prophecy, the Messiah had to come from the bloodline of David. Now this, incidentally, is why it is so important today, to realize that the Messianic Jew or the Orthodox Jew, in Israel, as well as in all parts of the world, where Orthodoxy is practiced, that these people are students of the scripture, and they know that in the Scripture, the Messiah is going to come, Orthodox Judaism is still looking for the Messiah. Now, once again, just as back then they’re not looking for a Messiah to bring salvation to their souls, because the majority of them believe that their souls are saved because they’re Jewish. But they are looking for that political Messiah, just like they were 2000 years ago, looking for a messiah to come and truly restore Israel from all oppression in the world, and to be their political leader. And so they’re looking, but they do know that a Messiah is coming. Now the issue is, if there was a man, and there will be a man who appears, and let’s say a man appears over in Israel and says, I am that Messiah. The answer is, how in the world, would you ever be able to trace his ancestry back to David, when Jerusalem was totally destroyed in 70 AD, all genealogies were destroyed with them? That’s where they kept genealogies. That’s how you knew whether or not you came from a specific bloodline or whether you did not. And when that temple was destroyed, in 70 AD and all of the genealogies were destroyed in 70 AD, that was the end of any man being able to trace his ancestry as an example back to David. So when you’re talking about still looking for a Messiah, the answer to that is, how would you know it was him? Another thing that you think about sometimes is if you’re still looking for a messiah, how much kinder is he going to have to be than Jesus was? How much more loving is this Messiah that you’re looking for going to have to be than Jesus, how much more forgiving? Is he going to have to be than Jesus? How much more of everything is he going to have to be than Jesus was? How are you going to improve upon this man called Jesus of Nazareth? As I said, first of all, you’re never going to be able to trace their ancestry back to coming from the Davidic bloodline. And even in their works, how many more miracles is this man going to have to perform than Jesus? How many more times is it going to have to be raised from the day than Jesus? And so when you’re looking at truth, folks, and you’re looking just at the sheer observation of data, you look at this man called Jesus of Nazareth. And according to the scripture, you cannot, nor will you ever be able from 70 AD on ever be able to prove that this man is the Messiah. And so when it talks about that Joseph came from the bloodline of David, that was traceable, by very well kept, genealogies. That was not something that you could put in a book like this and say, Oh, well, you could go back and trace the bloodline of Jesus and of Joseph, right back to King David. And so these are not just words, just to be kind of filling in these words, all have terrific meaning to them, in regard to the identification of this man, Jesus.

It is interesting today that when you hear Jewish theologians and, and people who are students of the Bible, that is, to me what is so interesting about that is the fact that you can have people who study this book. And there was no group of people that studied the scriptures anymore than the the Pharisees the Sadducees. They were all terrific students of this Bible. And they could quote to you what it said, but the Bible says they didn’t have a clue what it meant. And today is the same thing. You can have people quoting what the Bible says. But knowing what the Bible says, and knowing what the Bible means is two entirely different things. And the Apostle Paul said that until you are born again of the Spirit, natural birth, spiritual birth, we have no problem at all, with natural birth, why should we have problem with spiritual birth, there are two births that have to take place, in an individual to restore us once again, to what our true humanity is, and was supposed to be from God’s perspective. For a man to be truly a man, he had to be indwelt by God, God designed man in such a way whereby God in the man is indispensable to the humanity of the man. So you cannot be a true man, a true human being, apart from being indwelt by God. And that’s why the Apostle Paul said, that natural man and that’s a man without the Spirit of God living in him, who’s that? every human being who’s ever been born on the face of this earth, until he recognizes his spiritual death, and receives the life of Christ Jesus, not the physical life, but the spiritual life of Christ Jesus. So until you and I come to a point where we are indwelt, by the Holy Spirit of God, we cannot understand what the Bible means. We can learn what it says, an actor can learn what it says an actor can learn lines, and quote those lines as if they knew what they meant, but they don’t have a clue. Unless we are born again to the Spirit of God. And that’s why folks, many times people say, hey, look, I bought this Bible and try to understand it. It’s a mystery book to me, it doesn’t make an ounce of sense to me. And you can say, Good, that’s just proof that the Bible is true. Because it says that no eye has seen no ear has heard nor mind is conceived of those things that God has prepared for those who love Him. But it must be revealed by the Spirit. It cannot be taught, it has to be revealed. And when something is revealed to you, that’s something that has to be revealed from within, not from without. And so until a man comes to a point in his life whereby he is indwelt by the Spirit of God. He cannot understand what this scripture means. You can quote what it says, but you do not know what it means.

I was thinking the other day, I don’t know whether any of you watched that on Television but these men sitting around debating with these huge debates, evolution, and creation, did you watch those things? Here? are RSPs are supposed to be smart. They’re educated. And it’s a dumbest conversations you ever want to hear in your life. And it’s people sitting around trying to outguess God. And you see people who stand up, and they say, Well, I’m a believer, believer in what? Because if you’re a believer, and you had believers on both sides, and one guy was saying, I’m a, I’m a Catholic, and so I’m a believer, and the other guy on the side that’s there promoting evolution says, I, too, am a Catholic, and I’m promoting this evolution. And I thought to myself, you can say I’m a Catholic, or you can say I’m a Baptist, or you can say I’m a Jew, you can say I’m a Presbyterian or whatever else. I mean, it doesn’t mean anything, unless you understand what are the Catholics supposed to believe? In? What are the Baptists supposed to believe it? What are the Jews supposed to believe in? Jesus. Now, if you are a true believer in Jesus, and you believe that Jesus, this baby that we’re talking about is who he claimed to be God, and that’s who Jesus claimed himself to be God, and if he claimed to be God, and he isn’t God, he’s either a Zulu who thought that he was God when he isn’t, and he needs to be put in a straitjacket. Or else he’s the biggest imposter that ever walked on the face of this earth who knew full well he wasn’t God but claimed it anyway. Or else he was God. Those are the only options you have in regard to this man called Jesus of Nazareth. He was either insane, he was either an imposter or he was precisely who He claimed to be God. Now if you say I am a believer, who are you a believer in this Jesus that you’ve made up on your own? This nice guy who wasn’t God, I’m sorry that Jesus is not in existence. He never was in existence. You don’t find him in a Bible. You don’t find him anyway, why? he isn’t in existence. You’ve made up your own Jesus. And you say, that’s the Jesus I believe in is the one I want to believe in. He is a nice guy, that’s my Jesus, he was a nice guy. I’m sorry. You can say that if you want to. But that is a believer in Jesus of your own making. But it’s not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the Bible claimed himself to be God. The apostles said, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God and the word God became flesh and dwelt among us as the only begotten Son of the Father full of grace and of truth. All things were created by Him and all things were created for him. Now, if Jesus is God, and Jesus said, That man was created in the image of God, that ends the argument of evolution, if he is God, you there’s no use talking about stupid evolution anymore. If he’s God, if He is God, He did not say that man was created in the image of a fish, or of an ape. I know we act like him sometimes. And there are some that look like us. But it has nothing to do with the fact that God said we were created in the image of God. He did not say anything about an ape, or a fish or a molecule or anything else, but God created us.

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Bob George 14:28
If that is true, and if Jesus is God, there is no more discussion in regard to evolution. Now you say that to Some so called pseudo intellectual who’s they’re looking through microscopes most of their lives, and they will say, Oh, that argument doesn’t even fly. Why? Because they deny the existence of God. And they certainly would deny the existence of Jesus. And so if there is no God, there is no creator. And we all came out of a big bang. Can you imagine that? Somebody you talk about faith, folks, you got to have a lot more faith to believe that then you do what we believe. Can you imagine that it’s just like two Cadillacs bang and then together with each other and making a bunch of Volkswagens. Now, how you gonna do that? Just how do you think that’s going to come about? You go and take a look at a rose. And you look at the intricate details and the beauty and the fragrance of that and said, How did that come out of a big bang. It is just sheer idiocy that we run into in the name of intellectualism. And that all of it is predicated upon the fact that the earth is billions and billions of years old. And because it’s billions, billions, and that’s why we evolved. And now if you don’t have billions and billions of years, you can’t talk about evolution, because nothing can evolve except over billions of years. And that’s why they predicate that that’s why it’s talked about. The Bible doesn’t say this place is billions upon billions of years old. But it to the evolutionist because we deny the deity of Christ, and we deny God Himself. We have to teach that kind of stuff, in order to justify our own conclusions. What is the problem? If your premises off your findings are going to be off? You start with a premise that there is no God. And what’s the Bible say about that? a fool says in his heart, there is no God. Those people are fools, according the Word of God. Now, if you start with a premise, there is no God, everything you come up with is going to be totally idiotic in the eyes of God, possibly look smart in the eyes of man. But it said, God says, it’s what plain foolishness to me. You start with a premise, yes, there is a God, that God is the Creator of all things, that God is the beginning of all things. And He revealed Himself to us totally in the person of his Son. And everything that God wants you to know about him has been revealed in his Son, Jesus Christ. That’s why He sent him so that man could know God. He also said him so that man could know himself. And that’s why he came in human form. So that man could see what a true human being was to be from God’s vantage point. And at the same time, looking at that same Jesus could know what God is like, Now, isn’t that something, I can look at Jesus and know what God is like. And I can look in Jesus and know at what I’m supposed to be like. And so until we begin with a proper premise, our findings will always be off. So if you’re starting from a scientific premise, there is no God. Everything you examine is going to be error, when you begin with the premise that there is a God. And what’s going to happen to if you begin with that premise, No man can come to God unless he believes that he is, and that he is a rewarder of all who diligently seek him. What does that say? Any man who truly, in his heart says, yes, there is a God. And I believe that there’s a God. And not only that, but I want to get to know that God. The Bible says to any man that that is his true heart attitude will be led to Jesus. And any man who denies Jesus is a man whose heart says, I don’t care whether there’s a God or not. I don’t know whether there’s one or not, I don’t care. And if I could know that there was a God wouldn’t want to know him anyway. That man will never come to Jesus, because his mind is in a state of rebellion toward God himself, but to any man in any part of the world under any conditions, whose heart is tuned toward, I want to know, God, somebody will get to him with the message of Jesus.

I have told you the illustration many times because as a brand new Christian is that I came to Christ at age 36. Now I want to say something about that was my heart prior to 36 in rebellion toward God, I can tell you, without any qualification, no way was on rebellion toward God. As a young boy, I can remember Christmas seasons as well as if it were yesterday. In those days, we didn’t have television. Like Bob said. Probably too old to remember if we did. But we didn’t have television. We had radio went to a store the other day whereas the display of the history of radio and had one of those big old RCA sets there with are the early radio sets. And I remember that that’s the kind we had. I couldn’t remember like it was yesterday on December 7, 1941, of sitting around the radio hearing about the attack of Japan, upon the United States. I can remember sitting around during that Christmas season and listening to Christmas carols. Many times my mom and dad go to bed and I would stay up and listen to these Christmas music and just sit there with tears streaming down my face as a young boy. I can remember most of my young life of singing in the choirs, just like these young kids and singing about Jesus. I can did I ever deny the existence of Jesus? Not a day in my life? Not a day in my life did I ever deny or even given a thought that Jesus was not Jesus? I knew who he was. But I didn’t know him. I knew all I knew as much as I had been taught about Jesus and I knew that he was the Son of God never do I remember a day of my life that I would ever have denied that he was crucified on a cross I didn’t know particularly why you heard about for the sins of the world and I just kind of assumed that was your sins that he died for? Never had a clue that I had any to die for. But that was my thought was the sins of the world as for the world out there. Maybe I was included in that but I don’t know for sure. Never remember a damn didn’t have ever denying His resurrection. Say she was you think believe Jesus rasised from the dead? Sure, I believe what do you think we celebrate Easter? didn’t know him. But I didn’t never denied what he did. But I just didn’t know who it was who did it. And so folks, it wasn’t the case of being in rebellion toward God at all. I was not in rebellion toward God. Nobody had ever told me I could know God. I can know about God. That’s what you go to church for him to hear to hear about God and to hear a sermon about God. But no one ever told me in the churches that I went to that I can know God, or that I could be indwelt by God. Or that had I been the only person that ever lived on the face of this earth, he would have died for my sins. I never heard such a thing. In all the 36 years of my life, never heard such a thing in the churches that I went to never heard it never even came close to it. And as a result of that, I knew about God. But when I looked back, did God know that I knew about him? Yeah. Did I have a heart that was in rebellion to him? No, I wasn’t rebellious. And I will tell you another thing. I am just thankful to God I didn’t grow up in a legalistic church. I grew up in a liberal church that we never got taught anything. So I had nothing to unlearn. And I wasn’t in rebellion to anything because it didn’t have anything to rebel against. I’d never been taught anything. So there’s nothing to rebel against. I’d never learned anything. When I opened the Bible, it cracked. So I said, I thought John 3:16 was a men’s room on the third floor. I did not have an idea. What was in this Bible, never had an open. We never went to church and open Bibles never carried up, never had them in the pews. Never had anything. So I said in my church, the reason I call those things, pews is called all the dead people sitting in them. And that’s where we were, I was dead spiritually. But I did not have a rebellious spirit toward God.

And so God merely when I see my own personal conversion to Christ, it just it to me, it’s just representative of what the Bible says. Any man that has a heart to want to know God to just get some by to tell him about Jesus. And I came to a point in my life where I said, I want to know God. I’m tired of knowing about him. I want to know him. There’s something wrong with Bob George. It’s not just something wrong with what Bob George is doing. That’s evident. But there’s something deeper than what I’m doing. Because my problem isn’t in what I’m doing. There’s something wrong with me. And when you can come to the point in your life to recognize there’s something wrong with me you’re ready for him to give you the solution to that, and I can remember so many times of luck seeing in the mirror and saying to myself, What in the world is wrong with you? What’s going on? What’s wrong with you, Bob George? Why can’t you love? Why can’t you love? Why is the best that you can do is just give surface, you’re shallow. You’re a quarter of an inch deep and five miles wide. Why do you have to be out acting and pretending and be the Jolly Good Fellow and, and in all of this desperation of trying to get people to like you or to think you’re that you’re something that you’re not? What’s wrong with you not working with what you’re doing, but something wrong with me. And folks, when you come to understand that you’ve got a problem much deeper than what you’re doing or what you’re not doing, what the problem is in this heart. And how God then reveals the emptiness of your heart, is because your heart is empty. And the reason that you feel lost is because you are and the reason you feel empty is because you are empty. And folks, I want to say another thing, even though every person on the face of this earth that has not yet been filled, or indwelt by His Spirit through new birth. Not everyone is aware of that truth at the same time. It seems to me as I’ve observed that you can have people walking around fat, dumb and happy, just like everything’s okay. And you say aren’t you empty inside? Well, not that I notice. It’s everything seems to be okay with me. But there will come a time when that emptiness will be revealed.

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