Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P627 (04-22-21)
Synopsis
Often times, in modern Christianity today, you will hear the comingling of law and grace, with much teaching about obedience to the law, teaching things out of the old testament or from the gospels, such as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, out of context, and trying to make it apply to us today. For example, you might hear a pastor say, quoting from the words of Jesus, who was teaching the Jews, people who were still under the law, since Jesus had not gone to the cross yet, that if you do not forgive someone else their sins then neither will God forgive you, and use that to put people on a guilt trip, or under some sort of unfounded fear. Sadly, pastors are supposed to be ministers of a new covenant, but either are not born again themselves, or have not grown in their own understanding of the most basic foundation, that God has called them to be a minister of the new covenant, yet they have not learned anything about the new covenant they are supposed to be a minister of. What a sad state of the church today.
Under a new covenant, we are to forgive as God has forgiven you. That is done by relying on the Spirit of God to produce love through you, for that is something you cannot generate in the energy of your flesh, but by walking in the Spirit. How did Jesus love you and me? While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You responded to His love, and became born again, receiving the forgiveness of sins provided then, and with that, the very resurrected life of Christ to be in you forever. By that same love, God Himself, who is love, placed in you, the Spirit of God, alive living in you, you extend that same love to one another. We love because He first loved us.
Now, do we put up too easily with false teaching. I hope not. For the apostle Paul had a strong rebuke to the Galatians, to those who were leading them astray, and commingling law and grace. He told them, “Who bewitched you? You foolish Galatians. Are you now trying to earn God’s favor by what you do rather than believing what you heard? Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?” We do not hear much talk like that today. But we should. A pastor’s heart and delight is to see the children of God walking in truth. Nothing delighted the heart of the apostle Paul more than that.
As a pastor or even a child of God, you see a person trapped in error, under depression, for example, what do you share with him? Truth. What is depression? Is it a thing? Bipolar? A disease? No. It is ingredients like in a cake, and common to the human experience. Not unusual at all. It is made up of unrealistic expectations, expecting more from yourself than God, of misplaced dependencies, relying on someone else or something else to provide for you but cannot supply, sometimes accompanied with anger, a secondary response to fear, and almost always self pity. It is a mind focused on what you do not have rather than a grateful attitude of all that you do have.
Christ Jesus has the answer to all of those things that so easily besets us or derail us. So, you have the answer in Philippians, which God wants you to experience, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. Is depression unusual? No. We all face it, but God does not want us to remain there. That is why He gives us instructions how to get out of that faulty state of thinking.
Philippians 4:6-7
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
So, again, we proclaim truth in love, with all tenderness and compassion of the Spirit of grace, knowing that we too faced the same things, weak in our natural selves. We too can turn to Christ for the same help that we offer to one another. We all need the continual renewing of the mind. But in the comingling of law and grace, and the things of the gospel, there is quite a boldness in proclaiming truth that is needed.
How much more so should we boldly confront those who teach a false gospel! How many people are trapped in a false religion or false teaching, thinking they are saved, that they have to be baptized in order to be saved, that they have to be Catholic to be saved, be a member of this or that denomination to be saved, dunked in these waters to be saved, or to have the ability to speak in tongues. All of that is contrary to what the apostle Paul said in regard to what the gospel is, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ alone, as written in 1 Corinthians 15.
Paul addressed quite strongly, that if anyone preaches a different gospel, adds to or subtracts from, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, let him be eternally condemned. Have you ever heard someone bold enough to tell someone the truth like the apostle Paul did? I am sure he did not like to say that, but it is that important. It is a life and death issue.
Why should we be so soft toward a false gospel, as if afraid to offend someone, and continue to allow someone to believe a lie, thinking they are saved, when they are on the broad road of destruction, as Jesus said. God may indeed want you to share, and would you be so focused on the heart of God, that He is not willing anyone should perish, that by creating an offense, the person you are speaking to can be woken up to the message of truth that can save his soul, to the delight of God! They are ensnared in a trap of false teaching, deceived and believing a lie. They need to hear truth, the gospel message, so that if they put their faith in Christ alone, He will set them free.
The gospel must be shared without compromise, with firmness and boldness, with the power of the Holy Spirit, with truth from the scriptures, so man’s faith is not based on eloquent words or clever speech of men, but the power of the gospel, the power unto the saving of lives.
Transcript
Tonja from Boise, ID
Tonja: Hi, Bob. Thank you so much for your ministering. My husband and I have so many of your books and CDs, which we listen to very often. My question today is about anxiety. I got a new job. I feel so weak because I cannot deal with anxiety, meeting the clients with depression, bipolar disorders. I just did not think it was right for me to be there if I was not ready to meet with them. I just wanted to hear from you about anxiety issues, and what you think. What should I be thinking?
Bob: First of all, you will not find bipolar, manic depressants. You will not find any of that in the bible. That is man-made stuff. Bipolar? What is someone talking about? One day you feel this way and another day you do not. Who doesn’t? The psychological profession has found a way of duping people quite well. They sit back and tell people it is unusual to be anxious or unusual to be made unhappy. “It is unusual to be unhappy.” “It is unusual to be depressed.” There is nothing unusual about those things at all. If it was unusual to be anxious, why would God write in Philippians to be anxious for nothing, if it was unusual? He did not say you were bipolar. He said this.
Philippians 4:6-7
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Bob: Do not be anxious for anything but trust the Lord. If a person wants peace in their heart, which is what He is saying to bring you peace, you do not want the peace of the world. You want the peace of God that surpasses understanding. How are you going to obtain the peace of God that surpasses understanding except by trusting in Jesus? You do not have to be anxious.
Bob: You say, “Well, I started a new job, and I feel stupid.” Who doesn’t? Everyone feels stupid in a new job. Any person put in a new setting will feel stupid for a while. That is what causes people to quit jobs, to not go out on an interview, for people not to seek a job because they do not want to feel stupid for a week.
Tonja: I quit that job today because I would have to talk to people about their depression, not with the bible, but with every technique they give me. I just do not think I can do this.
Bob: I would not do that either because it is not true. But the thing is, depression is made up of ingredients. Depression is not a thing. Depression is made up of ingredients like a cake. You say, “I have a cake.” Great. What is the cake made of? Do not ask me because I do not know much about it. But it is made up of ingredients. So is depression. It is made up of unrealistic expectations, expecting more out of yourself than God does. It is made up of misplaced dependencies, putting your dependency on things other than Jesus. It is made up of anger. It is made up of fear. It is made up of self pity. All of those things are ingredients in depression, which the bible speaks to each and every one of those ingredients. So there is no such thing as being depressed apart from self pity. No such thing. The more self pity you have the deeper your depression.
Tonja: Do you think I made the right choice by leaving that place?
Bob: I cannot answer that, Tonja. If you got a job that you cannot speak truth to people about the bile, I would not be there five minutes with somebody. This bible is just as important, or more so, than a psychology book. Are you saying that what God wrote is not as important as what Skinner or Freud wrote? Come on! I am going to teach out of a book. I am not going to teach out of a book Skinner or Freud wrote. I will speak out of a book that the apostle Paul or the apostle Peter wrote. Why would people have prejudice against that book?
Bob: So that does not make any sense. I cannot answer whether you did right or not. But you yourself should not be in a situation of being anxious about something. If you feel God is not leading you to do something, do not do that. In fact, scripture tells you not to do that. But to sit around and be in the dumps about life itself, that you should not be doing because instead you need to be thinking about all the blessings you do have. Think about the fact you have air to breathe, you have food to eat. Where were you from originally, Tonja?
Tonja: From Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia.
Bob: In Asia. Okay. Was there persecution there?
Tonja: Yes. A lot of that in central Asian countries.
Bob: Thank God you are not living in a country where there is persecution. Thank God you can read the bible. Thank God you have a bible to read. Thank God you have children. Start thanking God for what you do have instead of thinking about what you do not have. Begin to rejoice in the things of God because a lot of times depression just comes from people having an attitude that is totally contrary to what God says, and that is “I am not grateful. I am not grateful for what I do have.” If you have food, shelter overhead we got to be praising Jesus every minute of the day. Get your mind back where it belongs and that is on Him. If you did not feel like you should be at that job, then fine. You did right. Leave it and look for another one. And do not do it with anxiety. Do it with joy in your heart.
Tonja: Okay. Thank you so much, Bob.
Bob: Does that help, Tonja?
Bob: Yes, it does. Thank you.
Bob: Alright. Just be grateful for the blessings that God has given you, Tonja.
Tonja: Thank you.
Bob: Start thinking about the wonderful blessing you have right now and get them off the things you do not have.
Tonja: Thank you very much.
Bob: Okay. God bless you. You call again. Good bye.
Eugene from Waco, TX
Eugene: I hear you teaching from the New Testament a lot. You teach by grace. I hear a lot of preachers preaching from the Old Testament. Is it not that we use the Old Testament in preaching and teaching? Or do we use that although it may lead up to the New Testament that talks about grace.
Bob: All I know is this. The bible tells us that we have been made competent as ministers of a New Covenant.
2 Corinthians 3:6-11
6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.7 Now if the ministry that brought death [the law], which was engraved in letters on stone [the ten commandments], came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious [the law], how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! [grace] 10 For what was glorious [the law] has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory [grace]. 11 And if what was fading away [the law] came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!
Bob: Eugene, that is what I do know. I do know that because the bible states that. We are to be ministers, and we have been made competent, hopefully, to become ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter of the law that kills, but of the Spirit, which gives life. Where should, if we have been supposedly made competent as ministers of a new covenant, where should we be spending our time in teaching? In the new covenant or the old covenant? In the new covenant. The old covenant is a covenant of law. It is a covenant of death. What the old testament teaching will show you is the futility of man’s effort and the faithfulness of God. That is one thing you will get out of reading the entire old testament. Two things you can conclude, the failure of mankind and the faithfulness of God in the midst of it. That is the only logical conclusion you can come to when you have come to the end of Malachi, man’s failure and God’s provision.
Bob: So, to teach that, the way man was created by God, out of the old testament but also verified in the new testament by Jesus, there is nothing wrong with that. But what we have done is camp on all of the so called things that God gave Israel to do and brought it over as if that is what He wants us to do. The Gentiles, Eugene, never were given the law by God. Never. The Gentiles were never given the law. The law was given to the Jew, not to the Gentile. What the Gentiles have done in religion is they have gone over and said, “You, Jews, were not very good at keeping the law. So come watch my smoke.” So then we find out we were no better than they were.
Romans 3:20
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
No man will ever be made righteous or given life through the law. Death came through the law. The law does for you like a mirror. It can show you your face is dirty but it has no power to remove dirt from your face. You try to wash your face in a mirror, then you will find a lot of smudging taking place. The mirror can show your face is dirty but then you have to turn to Christ for cleansing. The essence is that you use the old to show you the futility of your human efforts. You use the new testament to show the faithfulness of God.
Eugene: We are ministers of a new covenant. Yes. You can still use the old to bring you to the new, to show you where you are. Even in the usage of Proverbs and Psalms?
Bob: Well, great wisdom in both Psalms and Proverbs. Again, I certainly never learned anything particularly in Psalms or Proverbs that I was not taught by Jesus or the writers of Paul in the epistles. There is terrific wisdom in Ecclesiastes. The futility of life is shown us very strongly as Solomon merely shows us his life. As he writes about his life, “I have had concubines, women, song, drink, buildings, and everything else.” What did he say about it? All futile. Absolutely futile. That is truth. So sometimes reading those kinds of things can show a person, “Hey, that is what I have been doing. And if Solomon says this is vanity, why should I not say it is vanity?” So those things can be used, but in essence of how to live your life on this earth is only out of the new covenant. There is nothing in the old testament about living in the indwelt Jesus. That is where you learn how to walk in the newness of life is in the new covenant that we are in today.
Bob: Alright. Thank God for it.
Eugene: Thank you very much.
Bob: Alright, my friend. Good to talk to you. Good bye now.
Geno from Pittsburg, PA
Geno: Good afternoon, Bob.
Bob: Nice to talk to you, brother.
Geno: In Galatians 1:8-9, the destination of this other gospel, can you expound on that a bit? Taking Peter 2:11, his particular action related to that? Thank you.
Bob: Well, Geno, there is not really much explanation on that.
Galatians 1:8-9
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!
Bob: When he talks about the gospel, Paul was not exactly what you would call politically correct when he says “let him eternally condemned”. People are turning people away from the true gospel by adding to the gospel. ’If anyone is teaching a different gospel than the one you accepted, let him be eternally condemned.” He says that twice. “You will be eternally condemned.” That is serious talk, isn’;t it?
Geno: Yes, it is.
Bob: Yet people yawn through those things because they do not understand the seriousness of a person perverting the gospel. In the book of Corinthians, it tells us what the gospel is, as the gospel that saves. The gospel that saves is the gospel involved in the death, the burial and the resurrection of Christ Jesus.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures
Bob: There is no baptism in the gospel. There are no tongues in the gospel. There is no church attendance in the gospel. You do not have to tithe in the gospel. The gospel is what Jesus did, the death of Jesus, the burial of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus, and nothing more or nothing less. Now, what Paul says to us there is that anybody who tries to add or subtract to that, the death, burial or resurrection, let him be eternally condemned.
Bob: You look at what is out there in Christianity today, Geno, and you see people who say they you cannot be saved unless you are a Catholic, or you cannot be saved unless you are a Protestant, or you cannot be saved unless you speak in tongues, or you cannot be saved unless you are baptized, or you cannot be saved unless you go to church on Saturday. You can just go on and on and on and on in regard to what man has done to add to the death, the burial and the resurrection of Christ Jesus. I have to say that if a person teaches that, some of the things that I just said, Paul says let them be eternally condemned. I did not say that. I do not like to say that. Paul possibly did not like to say that either.
Bob: But what he is saying is that what you are doing when you add to the gospel is you are deceiving people into believing what the gospel is and causing them to go to hell instead of going to where God provided for them and where God provided for them to go eternally. That is why he is saying let them be eternally condemned is because they are preaching a message that cannot save people yet people are deceived into thinking they are saved. You have people, and believe me, I am not making this up, who believe that unless you are a Catholic you cannot be saved. That is deception. Whoever is teaching that, Paul says, let them be eternally condemned. There is nothing in scripture about joining a denomination or anything else, except joining yourself to Christ Jesus, by faith and not sight, by faith and faith alone in the bible. Anything else you are trusting in or believing in has come from man but is not in the scripture. I do not care what people say. Believe me when I am saying to to you and to others that tradition is not equal to the word of God.
Geno: Salvation in relation to perversion of the gospel is in reality preaching a different Jesus.
Bob: Yes.
Geno: The real Jesus, who is the gospel, so in many cases, the gospel that is being preached is contrary to the real Jesus and is another Jesus.
Bob: Yes. You certainly have some of that, don’t we? You have people like the Mormons who are preaching a Jesus that evidently appeared in America and that Jesus does not exist. So you are preaching there a different Jesus than Jesus of the bible. So those are examples of that type of thing. The Jehovah Witnesses who say that Jesus is not God. Then you are teaching a gospel that is different than the bible, because Jesus is God and if He wasn’t God, how could He die and take away our sins.
Bob: Again, in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, it tells you exactly what the gospel is, and where Paul says and Peter says it is the gospel that saves, and tells us exactly what the gospel is, that He died for our sins according to the scriptures. In other words, just as the scriptures prophesied, He was buried. That was proof that He died. Unless a man dies, he abides alone. It talks about the fact, in order to usher in a new covenant, the proof of the death of a person who made the covenant has to be proven. Burial is a proof of that. He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.
1 Corinthians 15:5-8
5 and that he appeared to Cephas,[Peter] and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
That is the gospel, the death, burial and resurrection. You add one thing to that it is not the gospel, and Paul says, “Let them be eternally condemned.” I think there are many people out there, Geno, that are on very dangerous ground, both Catholic as well as Protestant. There is no distinction there, who have added to the death, burial and resurrection of Chrsit Jesus.
Geno: Thank you, Bob .
Bob: You are sure welcome, brother. God bless you, pal.
James from Nashville, TN
James: It is good to get your call. You share so much it is hard to remember what your question is. Was the bible written, old and new, to lost people, or was it written to saved people?
Bob: James, the new testament, would have been written to a born again pastor, who was to read that to his congregation, made up, many times, of the same kinds of congregations we have today, people there saved, and a whole bunch of them lost as can be, and if the shoe fits, then you wear it. If scripture was only written to Christians, then you ought to have a Christian check at the door at every church, to make sure you are born before you come in, if you are going to teach out of the bible, because it wasn’t written to you if you were not.
James: It is written to the Christian?
Bob: So it was written to a pastor.
James: I am not talking about exhortation.
Bob: It was written to a pastor of a church, who was there to read that to his congregation, and if the shoe fits, you wear it. That is exactly, as an example, of 1 John. In the congregation, probably in Ephesus, you had Gnostics, who were lost as can be, called antichrists, and you had saved people.
James: Let me ask my question a different way. In essence, God’s chosen people, as in Jews and Gentiles together or what?
Bob: It makes no difference, James. The issue is, if the shoe fits, you wear it.
James: I do not see that in the bible about the shoe fits, you wear it. You will have to …
Bob: But I do not see anything in the bible what you are saying.
James: There is no difference between Jew and the Greek? Is that not in the bible?
Bob: What do you mean there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek?
(In the audio, James keeps interrupting Bob, and his attitude does sound cocky to me also.)
James: That is what I said.
Bob: James, hold on a minute. If you are in here to get in with that attitude.
James: No. No.
Bob: I am going to cut you off in a minute. I am not going to argue. I am not going to play that game. If you want to have a nice discussion.
James: You are inviting people to call. Do not cut them off.
Bob: I can do anything I want to. It is not your program. It is mine. The issue is if you want to have a nice conversation, let us have one. But let us not come up with your cocky attitude, okay.
Bob: What I am saying to you is very clear. The bible is not written to Christians or non-Christians. It is written to people. It is written to a pastor to read to people. Some of those people are saved and some of them are lost. You want to bring up the Gentile. It does not make a difference if they are a lost Jew or a lost Gentile. The issue is not whether you are Jew or Gentile. The issue is you are lost. Then you have a saved Jew and a saved Gentile. The issue is not whether you are a saved Jew or a saved Gentile. The issue is are you saved or are you lost. The bible was written to be read to people, to the lost person listening to what is being said or written, they are going to see that I am lost and hopefully become saved. To the saved person, they will say, praise God but I need to keep renewing my mind. That is the purpose of the bible. It is not directed to Jew, Gentile, slave or free because it is directed to all mankind, and to wherever you are in that whole equation, wherever you are, if the shoe fits, wear it. Again, you will not find the shoe fit wearing it in the bible. That is quite obvious that he is not talking about shoes in the bible, maybe sandals but not shoes, but I think you know what I am talking about.
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