New Years P4 Radio Broadcast Thursday 01/04/2024

Classic Christianity – New Years P4 (01-04-24)

Jesus Came to Divide ~ Set You Apart From the World ~ Truth Divides

~ Most people today think that Jesus came to bring peace to the world. He did not come to bring peace, but a sword. He came to divide people. He came with His Word of Truth that will always cause division today. Why? Because Truth always divides. And when Jesus returns, he will divide the sheep from the goats. Today, many are able to see the tares from the wheat. Those that are abiding in the Holy Spirit, and with the increase in knowledge, we are seeing those that are really the tares. And as we get closer to the harvest, the tares are sticking out like a sore thumb. The tares are not interested in the Truth, but they are interested only in the spreading of Satan’s lies. They are Judas goats, leading the sheep to the slaughter. And be aware that the tares are in the churches today big time. They are gate keepers, keeping people from depending on the Holy Spirit for ALL truth, but instead are agents of Satan, spreading Satan’s lies.

Yet when a person is in Christ, and Christ is living in them, the Holy Spirit teaches all truth. Because in God there is no lie. And for the person that is in Him, the Holy Spirit will keep you set apart for all time. And if a person lacks wisdom, simply ask God for wisdom and it will be given abundantly, without finding fault in a person.

~ If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.^{James 1:5}

~ “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword [of division between belief and unbelief].” ^{Matthew 10:34 AMP}

~ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” ^{Matthew 25:31-46}

~ “So folks, we have to understand that Jesus becomes a divider of mankind, and you cannot compromise that there is no compromise in the Gospel. Jesus is God or isn’t God, if he if you don’t think he is joining the rest of the world, but if you believe he is who he is, and that is God, and you believe he’s the savior of the world, and you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has come to save you, you are by that very nature going to be controversial. And you are by that very nature, you’re going to be separate from the rest of the world. So he says that this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be assigned that will be spoken against. So at the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. Guys, what does the thoughts of God do to your by heart? It reveals what we’re thinking. Isn’t that fun? But you know, that’s what the Spirit of God living in us for. He shows us when we got stinking thinking, doesn’t he? He points that out to us. And there’s where the Holy Spirit of God lives, He lives to renew your mind on truth, and set you free from the error on truth, the only thing that will separate me from the error of the world that’s constantly bombarding my mind, I don’t know about yours, is the truth of the Word of God. Now, that gives us a plumb line.”

~ Thank you so much for tuning into Classic Christianity with Bob George through our Classic Christianity Radio program and the books Bible study CDs and DVDs we have available for purchase online at BobGeorge.net. It is our desire in prayer at Bob George Ministries that you continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory, both now and forever. Amen. Let’s join Bob. Now as he gets started with today’s lesson.

Bob George 0:41

And so we have to understand what he’s dealing with here. And that is that your hearts are going to be revealed. You know, you can go to people and talk about God all day long. But you mentioned Jesus, and you’ve got a division on your hands here. Ever notice that I know of how easy it is for people talking about God, or the big boy upstairs, or the good Lord, we got all kinds of expressions, but talk about Jesus say, Jesus, and see how easy that is, if you don’t know Jesus, and see how accepted that is, to people that you’re mentioning Jesus to. So folks, we have to understand that Jesus becomes a divider of mankind, and you cannot compromise that there is no compromise in the Gospel. Jesus is God or isn’t God, if he if you don’t think he is joining the rest of the world, but if you believe he is who he is, and that is God, and you believe he’s the savior of the world, and you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has come to save you, you are by that very nature going to be controversial. And you are by that very nature, you’re going to be separate from the rest of the world. So he says that this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be assigned that will be spoken against. So at the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. Guys, what does the thoughts of God do to your by heart? It reveals what we’re thinking. Isn’t that fun? But you know, that’s what the Spirit of God living in us for. He shows us when we got stinking thinking, doesn’t he? He points that out to us. And there’s where the Holy Spirit of God lives, He lives to renew your mind on truth, and set you free from the error on truth, the only thing that will separate me from the error of the world that’s constantly bombarding my mind, I don’t know about yours, is the truth of the Word of God. Now, that gives us a plumb line. And it gives us something that we can gauge whether this is proper thinking or improper thinking, is the word of God. And you can’t compromise that. So when the Word of God is in you, and you’ve internalized this word, you have something and someone inside of you, that is constantly in the process of renewing my mind, teaching me truth, and setting me free from the error that keeps me in bondage. Now, that’s important, isn’t it? And that’s what Jesus said, When I go away. I’m going to send my counselor to you. Well, what’s a counselor? Someone they’re supposed to give advice. Do we need advice? I would think so. We all need advice. And folks, incidentally, that’s what discipline is. Discipline isn’t going out and beating the daylights out of somebody. When it says that we are disciplined by the Lord everybody shutters. No discipline is wonderful discipline is discipleship. That’s where the word discipline comes from. discipling someone. So what is this word of God continually doing to you and me? discipling us, disciplining our minds, by teaching us truth up against what we’re trying to hang on to as truth, which is nothing but error. Do we understand that? It’s not a bad word. Nor is discipline, something that comes upon you. Discipline that says something that remains upon you. You and I are continually if the Spirit of God is alive, living in us are under the discipline of the Lord. He is He doesn’t sleep, he’s always there. And he is always teaching your in my mind, truth that is setting us free against the error that is also bombarding our mind, because I don’t think Satan is sleep and eating.

It says there was also a prophetess Anna, and the daughter of Penue of the tribe of Ashure. And she was very old. And she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was 84. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day fasting and praying. Now coming up to them at that moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who are looking forward to the redemption in Jerusalem. Now, guys, let’s go from there over to Matthew, in the second chapter of Matthew, because we have to pick up at that moment. Now at this particular juncture before you go over there did hang on to where we were for a moment in in verse 39, of Luke. It said when Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee. to their own town of Nazareth, and the child grew and became strong was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him. Now, in these gospels in the synoptic, gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you’re going to see that only in Matthew and Mark is it now picked up these particular events, or excuse me, in the book of Matthew, are these next events picked up. And that is what took place in between the time that Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the law, Jesus had been born, went back to Nazareth, we know. And we’ll cover this in a moment, we know that there is now a two year period that we’re going to deal with here approximately a two year period. It was customary for the Hebrews to return back to Jerusalem on a yearly basis. And I’m assuming this is an assumption that this would have been about a year later, when Joseph and Mary would have gone back to Jerusalem, and probably stayed in Bethlehem, which is just outside of Jerusalem. Bethlehem and Jerusalem are just neighbors. And so this, this is a possibility that this was a year later. But whenever it was, it was at a later period after the birth of Christ. And so let’s pick up in chapter two, in Matthew, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and ask, where is the one who has been born king of the Hebrews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. So they were inquiring of people in regard to where is this one who has been born king of the Hebrews? Now, guys, another thing that we have to see is there’s no place in the Scripture talking about there being three wise men. Now we sing We Three Kings of Orient are. But that’s tradition. Because there’s nothing in the Scripture talking about how many Magi were there. It could have been three, it could have been 13. We have not a clue how many were there. We’ve just kind of made it up. But the fact is, we don’t know how many were there. But we do know that the wise men or the Magi were there. How many we don’t know really not very important. And I want to talk guys, they call him Herod the Great, he was the most vicious man, probably one of them that has ever lived. If you ever wanted to try to pick an antichrist, this would have been the one. He was a horrible, mean, detestable, vicious, human being.

And so he heard this and he was disturbed, he was also a maniac, and all of Jerusalem with him. Now, when he had called together all of the people’s chief priests, so he said, I’m gonna get together these Hebrews and find out about this thing. So he pulled together their chief priests and their teachers of the law. And he asked them where the Christ was to be born. Well, their answer was in Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, before, this is what the prophet has written. Now there again, guys, do you think the people who lived in Israel at that time were familiar with the scriptures? They knew what it said, didn’t they? And did they believe the scriptures were reliable? Absolutely. They quoted they said, Where’s this Messiah gonna be? They didn’t go to the Reader’s Digest, to find that out or Life magazine articles, they went to where it told where the Messiah was going to be. And that was in the Old Testament. And so they quoted to Herod out of the scriptures, But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, or out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd over my people, Israel. Now was that good news to Herod? This egomaniacs sitting there saying, some kind of a king’s going to come and replace me. Guys, do you remember what we talked about? What is it that killed Jesus? Job security, job security. They said, If we allow this man to continue before long, everyone’s going to follow Him and we are going to lose our place and our position. So in other words, if this man Jesus, if we let him go on, we’re going to lose our position number one, deposition was teachers of the law. He’s teaching grace, if he’s teaching grace, who needs a law teacher. So if we let this grace, teach and go on, we’re gonna lose our jobs, because I’m not going to teach grace, don’t know anything about it. Besides that, in order to enter into grace, you got to humble yourself. You’ve got to be willing to put aside your education. And as Paul said, to consider all things dung in comparison to that of knowing Christ. And I’m not about to do that. I got my PhD from Jerusalem U. And I know the Scriptures, and I’m going to, I’m going to act on those. Don’t tell me that’s done. I’m proud of those degrees. Now, what you’re dealing with there is the fact that job security is much stronger than what you and I think. And in these particular cases, these were religious rulers that were saying, if we allow Jesus to continue, we’re going to lose our place. And Now Herod is saying, if there’s supposed to be a king, and it’s prophesied in the Scripture, then that means I’m not going to be king. And if anyone thinks they’re, they’re going to take their kingship away from me, even God, and that’s an essence what he’s saying, if this God of these Hebrews think that that God is going to remove me from office, he’s got another thing coming in. So he developed a plan. And here was his plan. He said, Herod called the Magi secretly. That’s the way people like that always deal secretly, and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem. He said, Go and make a careful search for this child. And as soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him. What a hypocrite. Go find him so I too, could worship him. He just seemed saying that.

Click to Donate to Bob George Ministries

Go to BobGeorge.net to find the best selling book Classic Christianity by Bob George, this book will change your life as you read about God’s unconditional love and His forgiveness. Let’s rejoin Bob now as he continues with today’s lesson.

Bob George 13:20
Well, after they had heard the king, they went on their way. And then the star, that and then the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them, until it stopped over the place where the child was. Now folks, we could sit here all day long, and talk about that being just a normal star in the sky, and you got people to talk about the planets are all lined up. And, and that’s what happened. And you got all kinds of studies on that type of thing. I don’t care how you line up the stars, a star doesn’t lead you to a place. And so this star that we’re talking about was something special that God put there. It wasn’t something that could be explained by the study of stars. It was a unique thing in the sky. And that star, the only thing you could call it was a star, but it was something up there of a light that led them to the place of Christ Jesus, and then stopped. Stars don’t start and stop. Have you noticed that? So it stopped over the place where the child was. Now when they saw the star, they were overjoyed. And coming to the house, saw the child with his mother Mary and they bowed down and worshiped him. Now that’s why I say folks Jesus was not born in a house he was born to manger wasn’t he? And so and then it said that Joseph and Mary returned back to Nazareth, after they had completed all the purification things. So now if for some reason and their Scripture doesn’t tell why they’re back in Bethelem, we don’t know, it could be that they moved back there after being in Nazareth, they move back because being close to the temple, recognizing the fact that their son was someone somewhat special. And recognizing that Jerusalem is the holy city, it could have very well been say, we need to go live there close to Jerusalem, and educate this boy in Jerusalem. We don’t know those things. And we don’t need to know them. What we do know is they were back in Bethlehem, for some reason or another, living in a house. This is after the birth. This was within a two year period. And so we don’t know when within that two year period. But as we read on as to what Herod did, I would assume it was closer to the one or two year period that we’re going to talk about in a moment.

Now they saw the child they bowed down and worshiped him, and then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, incense and myrrh. Maybe that’s why they get to three wise men. One wise man had gold, and another had incense and other had myrrh. I just like us to come up with that. And But at any rate, they all had those things, and they laid them at the feet of Christ. And having been warned in a dream, not to go back to here, they returned to their country by another route. So what you assumed took place there as they were in Bethlehem. And instead of going back from Bethlehem through Jerusalem, they took an alternate route, and escaped Jerusalem for fear of their lives.

Now, when they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Here’s another dream. And he said, Get up and take this child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you for Herod is going to search the child to kill him. So he got up and took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled with the Lord had said through the prophet Hosea out of Egypt, I called my Son. When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious. And he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem, and in its vicinity, who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. So here was Herod. And he had learned the time from the Magi, as to the approximate the time of the birth of the Messiah, the time then that they had seen this star leading them to the Messiah. And he knew that he if he set a rule to kill every boy, under two years of age, he’d be sure to get this one. And so on an attempt to kill one child, he ended up killing every boy under two years of age. How many of you have a child under two? How’d you like to take that little baby and have someone rip him out of your arms and go cut their heads off? Can you imagine the lament? the heartache of mothers and fathers, seeing their children dragged from their homes and killed for no reason? Just kill. Why? because of this madman. That was so egocentric, that he said, No one’s going to be king with me. And so it goes out and kills every one of the boys. Every one of you and I who have had boys, children, can imagine taking a one year old, almost a two year old and having them snatched out of your home, to be murdered by a maniac. That’s what took place. Folks, you ask yourself the question sometimes. Where was God in all this? Where was God when John the Baptist was beheaded? Where was Jesus says, this is relative. And we asked ourselves that question sometimes Oh, where was God and all this? Folks, the answer to that is God was exactly where he’s always been, on his throne. When God created man, He created man with a free will. Did he not? He could have created us as a robot. And we would just be little robots running around down here. If you were a robot, could you love God? By freewill? No. And if God was going to create a creation in whom he could love and interact, then he had to create a creation in such a way who could respond to that love and interact with that love. And in order to do that, in the foreknowledge of God and His creative work, He created man with a will, he also created the angelic beings with a will. And some of those, 1/3 chose to follow satan to this earth, in rebellion to God right out of heaven. Angels were not propagated. They were created individually by the hand of God. And yet, with a will chose to turn their back on God. So you and I were created with a will. And I have to say, thank God for that. Because if I didn’t have a will, how can I be choosy? To love God? How could you make choices? The answer is you couldn’t. You’d be a robot, just like these little things. Did you turn the remote control on. Now was there a gamble with that? Is there a gamble in giving man a freewill? And what is the gamble? The gamble is that even though we are created by the hand of God, we can choose to rebel against God. Is that right or wrong? We have a will today, don’t we? I could choose to live a life that is commensurate with who I am as a child of God. And I can also choose on occasion to live contrary to that. That’s some of the things James was talking about. How can this be out of the same mouth? I can praise God and with his same tongue curse man. And he said that should not be?- That’s true. It should not be but is it possible? Sure. Why? Because one day I choose to praise God. And another moment I choose to blast you. Is that true or not? And so Free Will was given to man. God had to do that. Now if freewill is given to man, then can people like Herod choose who needs God? Can a man say I want to be God? Well, I want to tell you folks, if Lucifer said, I want to be God, for sure we can do can we not? And is not the temptation that was given in the Garden of Eden, that you can be what? Like God, you can choose, you don’t need God to teach you right from wrong and good from evil. Choose it yourself. You don’t need God for those things. You determine right from wrong and good from evil. You control what’s going on. And I am absolutely convinced that what indwelling sin is is nothing more or less than that propensity inside of each and every one of us to want to control everything.

We want to control Do we not? I want to be in control. After all, if I’m the center of the universe, that I want the universe to flow around me. Isn’t that right? And that the way we are? Right, the center, I want everyone to please me. I want everyone to do what I want to do. I want everyone to treat me the way I deserve to be treated wonderfully. Is that not right or wrong folks? We are self centered, egocentric, and we want to control everything. That’s indwelling sin. Now, is that what not is that? Not what God does? Does he not control the universe? We say I could do it better. I love that song that Tony Bennett did years ago if I ruled the world, what a wonderful place it would be. If I just ruled the world, and I look at that and say that’s a good song just kind of describes me. But that’s the way we are. And so we have to understand that folks, that that is a desire that is in your flesh and in my flesh that is there. And it raises its ugly hand. Anytime you lead. Anytime we’re not allowing Christ to control our lives. That propensity to want to control is right there isn’t right. Am I right or wrong guys? So what you’re dealing here is, are we going to allow Christ’s to control our lives? Or are we going to allow our flesh to control our lives? He gave us a will. Now if God gave a will, how is he going to stop a Herod from killing those babies? What’s he going to have to do? Take away the will of Herod for sure would he? Or just blast him? Well, if you start just annihilating everyone who chooses to do something contrary to God, what are you going to have left? Apes fish. Not people. Where does he Where do you stop that? You see? Where do you stop it? Say, where was God, when Hitler was annihilating the people, same places always been. And he gave Hitler a free will. And Hitler had a choice. All of his life, he had a choice. I could walk with God. Or I could feed my own evil nature. Guess what he chose? The feed his own nature, what to do with the result of that? Well, you start out killing one and you kill two. And after a while, it’s easy. And you kill millions. Where it was God? Same place, he’s always been. How can he stop that? kill Hitler? What Lord? Why can’t you figure that out? kill Hitler. He killed Hitler, there’d be another one right behind. You didn’t end up having to kill all of us. And so what you have to understand, folks is as long as God chose to give man a will, you’re going to find evil in the world. And you’re also going to find righteousness. And all of it’s a choice. And we’re in the we’re in the driver’s seat, so to speak, in regard to making a choice. Am I going to be controlled by God? Or am I going to be controlled by Satan? Stop it. I gotta stop. If I gave you will, the only way that you would see total non whale on this earth is if God just jerked the freewill away from every man on the earth, every man who was ever born and make robots, they wouldn’t see any evil at all. But as long as we have a free will, you’re gonna see good, you’re gonna see. So true in your own family. Well, then, if it’s true in your own family, why wouldn’t it be true in the world?

Thank you for listening to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George. We are a listener funded program and your financial support is greatly appreciated. Your generous gifts keep us on the air and they help so many people find hope in Jesus Christ. Go to BobGeorge.net online for more information about how to purchase helpful books and Bible study materials to guide you as you grow in your relationship with Jesus. Thank you again for listening. We look forward to our next Classic Christianity Radio broadcast with you. In the meantime, remember to always put Jesus first in your life.