Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P596 (01-07-21)
Synopsis
So many people call in and ask questions about salvation. They are often confused by what they hear in their particular denomination or various preachers on television. Again, it is so important to rely on the holy spirit to reveal truth to you through the scriptures He has given to us through the prophets and apostles, who were eyewitnesses, when Jesus was alive walking on this earth. Ultimately, that is where truth has to come, from the Spirit of God in Jesus, who Himself is God in the flesh.
So often we hear from people that you can lose your salvation or that you have to do something to keep yourself right with God, or you have to be obedient to the law so as to keep in God’s grace or to do some religious practice to get more grace. All of that is simply not true. If anyone says you can lose your salvation then they do not know what salvation is. If anyone says that salvation depends on what you do then he does not understand salvation. If you are in Christ, you cannot get any more than what you already have, which is Jesus, full of grace and truth, who is your wisdom, righteousness and redemption. You have every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Salvation is being saved from the consequence of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is life. And it is not a temporary life, but eternal life. He who has the Son has the life and He who does not have the Son of God living in you does not have the life. Since God is eternal, when you have Him living in you, then you have a life that can never be taken away. And since Jesus took away forever the sins of the world, and that before you and I were ever born, through His shed blood on a cross, there is no sin that can keep you from God except the sin of unbelief in Him, in His death, burial and resurrection for you.
But to be clear, you are not saved by the death of Christ. You are saved by His life, living in you. His death was a necessary preparation for life to be given, but in and of itself it is not salvation. So, are you in Christ? Is Christ in you? If not, would you recognize your condition of spiritual death, not that you are just a sinner, as bad as that is, but that sin is what caused your death, and death can only be corrected by life, and not just any life, but by the only person who had a life to lay down for you and me, but also who never had any sin of His own, so that being raised to new life for our sakes, He can offer that same life to you and me. Would you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior today?
So listen as Bob expounds on passages of scriptures from Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10, that gets so many people all confused, because it is so often misinterpreted out of its context. As you read it yourself, and with the Holy Spirit guiding you into all truth, you will discern they are actually passages encouraging you that you have eternal life.
If you like what you hear from radio or the reading of transcripts expounding on the word of God, and the Lord so leads you, consider giving to Bob George Ministries. Again, this is the Spirit of God leading you. Our trust is in Christ, who provides our every need for what He calls us to do. He does that through listeners, those who have benefitted and have been helped by what they have heard, that has changed their lives, and is changing the lives of many as the word of God reaches more and more people.
Transcript
Rodney
Rodney: I just have a question on salvation. I am struggling with this. I believe you cannot lose it, but I hear people say that you can. But it is kind of hard. They show me scriptures that are kind of saying that you can.
Bob: Well, Rodney, a person who believes you can lose salvation does not understand what salvation is. I can say that with no exception. They just plain do not understand what salvation is.
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Bob: What you are saved from is the wages of sin, which is death. The way you are saved from the wages of sin, which is death, is by the gift of God, which is life. It says so in the scripture.
1 John 5:12
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Bob: You are talking about the life of Jesus, the one who said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” and “Nothing can separate you from the love of God”. Even more importantly is the reason that you cannot lose life. Forget about the term salvation. Salvation is life. The reason that you cannot lose the life that has been given to you by God is because the only thing that could cause that life to depart from you would be sin, and your sins have all been placed behind the back of God, never to see them again at the cross. The reason you have eternal life is because of the eternal consequence of the cross, where there He who knew no sin became sin for you so that in His resurrected life you could become 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.
Bob: Some people confuse that with people who say you walk away. If that is true, that someone walked away, it is because they were never there to begin with.
1 John 2:19
19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
Bob: They went among us because they were never a part of us. That certainly could take place. But that is not salvation. But if a person who has truly come to Christ by faith for life, not for forgiveness. You come to Christ for life. The cross is what cleared the deck for divine action of bringing life from the dead.
Colossians 1:20
20 It was through what his Son did that God cleared a path for everything to come to him – all things in heaven and on earth – for Christ’s death on the cross has made peace with God for all by his blood.
Bob: In Romans, we read this.
Romans 5:10
10 For if, while we were God’s enemies [lost], we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Bob: You were born into this world reconciled to God through the death of His Son. How much more, having been reconciled, that being an accomplished fact, shall you be saved by His life. You are not saved by the death of Christ. You are saved by the life of Christ. What are you saved from? The consequence of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is life.
Bob: I repeat. In order to have eternal life, and the reason you have eternal life, is because of the eternal consequence of the cross. So a person saying you can lose salvation is denying that Jesus took away the sins of the world. Sin is the only thing that can cause life to depart from you. So, in essence, they are denying, saying “Jesus, you lied when you said, ‘it finished’. You lied when you said, ‘Father, forgive them, they know not what they do’”. God did not answer that prayer. So you are denying what Jesus accomplished by dying on the cross and what he accomplished at the resurrection. So if you really want to know a sin that can send you to hell, then that would be it, if that were possible. Many times people saying you can lose salvation are committing greatest sin alive and this is the denial of the completed work at the cross and His provision at the resurrection.
Rodney: Okay. A couple of examples they pointed out to me was Judas. They were saying that he was saved and he lost his salvation.
Bob: Judas never had salvation. None of the disciples had salvation until the day of Pentecost.
Rodney: They were saying also that in the Old Testament that they believed in Jesus. Therefore, they had their salvation.
Bob: How could they believe in Jesus for salvation when Jesus wasn’t there. You are talking to some people who do not know what they are talking about, Rodney. You need to get some new friends. You are talking with people who are far out with those two questions alone. I would say to them they are on a different planet.
Bob: Rodney, the question you are asking is exactly the reason that more and more people need to come to our seminars, to get a thorough picture of what salvation is, so they do not ever have to question these kinds of things. I said to people, if you come to the seminar, you are going to get a foundation that is unshakable. But that is another subject. Let us get back to what we are talking about.
Bob: Rodney, a person has to realize that the people saved in the Old Testament are day and night from the way someone saved in the New Testament. Otherwise, why would God have to use a New Covenant? Most of the people you are talking to have no clue that there is a New Covenant ushered in and talked about in the book of Hebrews. The New Covenant explains the meaning of the cross.
Hebrews 10:15-17
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”[Jeremiah 31:33]17 Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”[Jeremiah 31:34]
Bob: To the Jew, put aside the day of atonement. To the Catholic today, put aside the confessional booth. To the Protestant, put aside 1 John 1:9. It is over. It is finished. There is no more sacrifice for sin. That having been accomplished on the cross, enabled him on the day of Pentecost to send His Holy Spirit to us. If he had done that before then he would have no need to have done it, to permanently indwell the believer. Christ Jesus came to this earth.
John 16:7
7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
Bob: It is good that I am going away for when I do, I am going to my Father and I am going to send my Spirit to you and you are going to be my body. The Old Testament saints are not called the body of Christ. Only the New Covenant saints are called the body of Christ. It was a mystery in the heart of God until he chose to reveal it.
Bob: Do not confuse the Old Testament salvation with New Testament salvation. Both salvation, as it was in the old, was credited to them. It was not a possession. It was credited to them. It was by faith, but they were never indwelt permanently by the Holy Spirit of God like you and I are today. So for people to be pulling in the Old Testament in regard to salvation is ridiculous. You might as well fold in the sacrificial system and talk about bulls and goats. We are not under that covenant. We are under the New Covenant that is greater than the Old and with a brand new priest, called Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 8:1-5
1 Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being.3 Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. 4 If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. 5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven.
Bob: When people do not understand that they get confused with biblical interpretation. Part of that confusion so in regard to salvation that God calls eternal. You need to get grounded in these things, Rodney. To get grounded in them so that it is unshakable. You have eternal life. You have been saved from the consequence of death. That is why it says in Romans.
Romans 8:1-2
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Bob: That is salvation, being set free from the law of sin and death. The man who sins will surely die. To be set free from that by gift of God, which is eternal life in Christ Jesus. When He gives you life, it is indestructible. The reason it is indestructible is because of the eternal consequence of the cross.
Bob: So any passage a person who tries to interpret is a misinterpretation of scripture as it relates to salvation. When you are in Christ, you are in Christ eternally. Does that help?
Rodney: The one that is hard to me is Hebrews 6 and 10.
Bob: Hebrews 6 and 10 are solidifying what I have just been saying. You cannot come back to where you have never been.
Hebrews 6:4-6
4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
Bob: That is not talking about that issue. It is talking to the Jews going back to the sacrificial system. It is saying that you are talking out of two sides of your mouth. One side is saying “I believe Jesus took away my sins”. The other side is saying “I am going back to the day of atonement to get my sins forgiven.” That is double talk.
Bob: Hebrews 6 and 10 are passages, properly interpreted, are to solidify what I am saying and not to put a doubt on salvation. Yet, again, people want to read those, and read it out of context and do not interpret it properly. “It is impossible for someone who has been enlightened, who has tasted”. It does not say swallowed. “and who shared”. It does not say participate. “if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance”. Why can’t you be brought back? You have never been anywhere. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to come back to where you have never been? You cannot be brought back to where you have never been. “To their loss”. Why? They are “crucifying the Son of God all over again, and subjecting him to public disgrace”.
Bob: People are there still wanting to crucify the Lord Jesus all over again, instead of resting in the fact that it is finished. They still want to hang him on a cross. We still want to seek forgiveness when he said “it is finished”. It is over. In this particular case it is to the Jew who is going back to the day of atonement. If you keep going back to the day of atonement, it is because you never repented. You never changed your mind that Jesus took away your sins. Hebrews 10 is the same thing.
Hebrews 10:26-31
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[Deuteronomy 32:35] and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”[Deuteronomy 32:36; Psalm 135:14] 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Rodney: They said we were sanctified and then they were saved because.
Bob: Well again, Rodney, I am not going to sit there and talk all day long about what someone else is saying. I am telling you what scripture says. I really do not care what they say. And you can sit there and believe them if you want to and struggle for the rest of your life. Or maybe you are not sure of your salvation. I do not know. But the issue is I told you truth. I do not know how to amplify that any more.
Bob: Again, in chapter 10, if we deliberately continue on sinning. What is sin? Unbelief.
Romans 14:23
23 everything that does not come from faith is sin
Bob: If we deliberately continue in unbelief, after we are receiving the knowledge of truth. So what are you sinning against? The knowledge of truth. To keep denying when someone is telling you truth is sinning against the knowledge of truth.
Hebrews 10:26-29
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves [does not say he will] to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
Bob: Do you know what those people are doing? They are insulting the Spirit of grace. They are treating it as an unholy thing and trampling the Son of God under foot, by saying “Jesus, you are a liar. You did not take away the sins of the world. You did not give me eternal life. You gave me temporal life.” And you are going right along with that by listening to them. You ought to be telling them the truth instead of listening to them telling you lies. That is what they are doing, filling your head with lies by listening to that nonsense. Jesus did not come to give you temporal life. He could have given you temporal life or no life. But He chose to give you eternal life. That life begins with the Son. How can you lose something that is eternal? You need to stand strong on those things, Rodney.
Bob: I hope I explained to you in Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10 and how that will help you. Those are passages to solidify what I am saying, not to doubt your salvation. People intentionally misinterpret those things, as if it is something you can lose, salvation. It is talking about you can never come back to where you have never been. You never repented. A person who thinks there is more to do has never repented. If you were going back to a sacrificial system after you said Jesus took away your sins, friend, you cannot be brought back to repentance. You have never changed your mind. You are still depending on the blood of a bull and a goat to forgive your sins. Do you see what I mean?
Rodney: The guy I am hearing from is a pastor.
Bob: That is even worse. Again, Rodney, a pastor of what? People say they went to a seminary. Which one? Mormon seminary? Methodist seminary? Which one? Whatever seminary, he graduates with a bias. Do you know 70 percent of people who graduate from seminary do not even know the Lord from a lamp post. They do not even believe in his virgin birth. Being a pastor does not give you any credibility at all. Do you know the word of God? You are talking to somebody who is teaching that you can lose your salvation. That is a man who is leading men to a primrose path. That is a lie and he is calling Jesus a liar, whether he realizes that or not. He is calling Jesus a liar by stating those things.
Rodney: Okay. Thank you, Bob.
John from Canada
John: I have really been growing in grace, listening to your program. I read Classic Christianity. Then, after that he gave me a copy of Growing in Grace. It has been great. My question is, after the film that came out, Passion of Christ, shortly after the sign went up in UVC here in Canada, the life and death of Christ. It is a seminar that is going to be happening soon, this month. It has to do with the life and death of Jesus Christ. I thought it was a Christian thing. If you look underneath it, it says it is from the Islamic Student Society. It is not sitting right with me. I just wanted to get your views on what they are up to and what I might be able to do, if anything? I am seriously asking another brother to go with me the other day, to hear what they had to say.
Bob: John, again, I think that is a total waste of time for a Christian to go to something like that. It is a total waste of time. It cannot do anything except get your critical spirit aroused or to get you angry. It certainly will not edify your soul. You are not going to change any minds, if someone is going there as a devout Muslim. You are not going to change their mind. Their heads are already messed up.
Bob: When you are talking about the life and death of Christ Jesus from a Muslim point of view, they have a total different vantage point. They do not worship the God of the bible. They read part of the Old Testament but theirs is the Quran. You will not hear anything that is worthwhile at all.
John: I understand that Bob, fully. But my reasoning is this. I am concerned about young naïve students who maybe are Christians, or baby Christians, going in there and getting some kind of lies fed to them.
Bob: Again, what are you going to do about it in the meeting. You are not going to stand up in the middle of the meeting and correct them. That is not the way to handle something. It is not a discussion group, I do not think. I think that you have to trust the Lord with those types of things. Again, to have options for them. I wish that a lot of churches would have done what we did, and that is to have a discussion group of the film, The Passion, and invite people to discuss it. It was quite a nice deal that we did the other night with that. If more churches could do that. But you are not going to stop people like that from putting up and teaching what they want to teach.
John: You do not think it is worth going there and saying, “this is not true”?
Bob: You can do that if you want to. To me, it would be a total waste of time. You are not going to change anything. It is like people calling on a radio to argue. It is a waste of time for them. They are not going to win.
John: I talked to a Muslim the other day, while I was working. I genuinely was wanting to know the difference about Mohammad and the difference between Islam and Christianity because I do not know a lot about Islam. So I asked him, “Tell me something about Mohammad, and I can tell you something about Jesus”. I listed a hundred things about Jesus. He walked on water, calmed the storm, had power over the elements and went on to raise the dead. Then I said, “What did Mohammad do?” He said Mohammad did miracles too”. But he could not come up with anything. To me, it is such a shame that they are so deceived. There are billions of people who are deceived. Then you stand Mohammad beside Jesus there is no contest. There is just no contest, Bob.
Bob: Well, again, John, what you are saying is known to all of us. There is no question about it. There is no contest to that. There is no content to any false religion at all. There are literally hundreds and thousands of them in the world. Muslim is growing rapidly. The way they got started is either believe or die. That is how Mohammad got the religion started. The issue is that people have an option. You can either migrate to truth or migrate to error. You have people there who are going to migrate to error. You can stand up and tell the truth until you have no more breath left and they will not listen to you. There is nothing you can do in one of their assemblies. If you stand up to contradict them, you will get run out probably and there could even be danger to your own life. If you want to do that, that is your own prerogative. I don ’t even think that is polite to do, going into someone else’s deal, being a bone of contention there. I think what you try to do is try to attract people on the outside of the meeting. And continually present the alternative. You can do what you want to, but for me that would be a waste of time. I would not waste five minutes of my time going to one of their meetings.
John: Do you think it would be okay to hand out tracks before they go in?
Bob: Whatever you feel led to do, John. That is strictly up to you and between you and the Lord. I think that is what you need to do. If you feel the Lord leading you to do something, then you act upon that.
John: Okay, Bob. Great talking to you.
Bob: Thank you, John. Same to you, brother.
Cletis from Frederick, MD
Cletis: I just have a comment. When you are talking about instances from ministry. My first instinct was to double or triple my contribution. I sat back for a little bit and prayed. I came from paying tithes. I prayed about it. God laid it on my heart. When I was paying tithes, then when I was giving to your ministry was incomparably too small compared to my tithe. So God really laid it into my spirit to do something about that. What I really called today, was to encourage people out there to, where people used to tithe, to sit back and think about what you are doing right now. Your ministry has done so much for me. I live on the internet, the podcasts. I can listen to messages whenever and wherever. I am praying for your wife. I want to encourage people with truth. To sit back and pray about it, especially people who came from this tithing world. We paid so much with tithing but when it comes to free giving, it is what the Lord wants us to do yet we hold back. I want to encourage you guys and we are praying for all of you and thank God for your ministry.
2 Corinthians 9:7
7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Bob: Cletis, thank you so much. A person like yourself, coming from that background, to stop and think you were tithing, and if you were tithing, you were giving a large sum to people to teach you to remain in bondage and not to enter into the Sabbath rest you are in today. So you stop and think. If I was paying tithes for that. Was I living? Yes, I was living. Was I paying my bills? Yes, I was paying my bills. Did I have money left over for savings? Yes. I set aside for that. And I was tithing. Yet when it comes to free will giving and people sit back and say, “I do not know for sure about this. God may not take care of me.” It is a function of unbelief. If tithing was the method God used to support the Levitical priesthood to get the law into people’s minds in order to show them that people cannot save them, should we do less. I am not encouraging people in tithing, but why would I want to do less in what they did to promote legalism. Well, can you live on that? Listen, people are tithing into those systems all over the country and are living off of what is remaining. So yes, you will live on it and God will provide for you. I agree with you. I think that all of us need to sit back and just kind of take an evaluation. Could I come close to a ten percent or a five percent of my income? But something that is a quantity that is going to make a difference in a ministry. Can I do that and still live off of the rest? What I say to that is to test it. It talks about testing God. Go ahead and test it. See if that if you take off the top and give and see if God will not enable you, in some way, in lesser bills or whatever it might be, but He will give you what it takes to live and live comfortably. I agree with you. Many people need to reevaluate their giving. Hopefully we will do that, and hopefully we will be in a situation in this ministry where every month, living hand to mouth, although it is His hand and our mouth, and to have excess that is necessary for expansion, to allow more people to hear this message. I appreciate your encouragement, my brother. That is an encouragement to my heart.
Cletis: Thank you, guys.
Bob: You are sure welcome, my friend. You too. Bye. Bye.
