Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P565 (08-27-20)
Synopsis
It is wonderful to have a friend to talk to or a person to call on the phone for the answers to life for those things that are bothering you. For a person who is struggling with understanding what the unpardonable sin is, whether he committed it or not, and seems to not have a firm grasp on truth, it is good for him to feel free and to be able to call someone up to get answers to those questions. They are important questions that have answers in the scriptures.
Or, if you are a parent, and you see your young child go off to college, but are disturbed by the choices he is making that could destroy his life, and you want advice to know how to help him now, because you love him. You want to get guidance on how to relate to him now, no longer as a parent since he is grown, but to be available to guide him because you love him. To be available to call to get such advice is a wonderful privilege.
It is good to be able to pick up the phone and call someone who is a like-minded believer, so that we can be available as the church, the body of Christ, to one another. We are to be there for one another to encourage one another in the grace of God we are under, to remind each other in the truths of God’s word so as to build one another up in love.
That is where life is lived out, to allow the love of God to be lived in you and through you into the lives of others. So listen as people call in on the radio program to get guidance, truth and encouragement to spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
Transcript
Jeremy from Phoenix, Arizona
Jeremy: Hi Bob. I have a question. For a long time I have been wondering if I am saved. One of the big concerns that constantly hits my mind and maybe you could give some insight on. The unpardonable sin?
Mark 3:22-29
22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”23 So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27 In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house. 28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”
Jeremy: Something in me, when I am making a prayer, my mind will be double-minded. I believe I am forgiven but then I hear in my head that I did something unpardonable. No matter how hard I try believing I get stumbled up in that. It is frustrating because I have prayed to receive Christ before but I still have these doubts: Have I really truly repented? I keep getting caught up in confessing my sins. Just all kinds of thoughts that always come against my mind. How can God be three in one and stuff like that and I really do not know if I truly overcome that. So maybe you can help me? Is there a point where a man could go that it would be impossible for him to really return to the Lord with his heart?
Bob: Jeremy, as far as an impossibility to correct the unpardonable sin would only be to die in your unbelief. The only sin that is attributable to man is the sin of denying or not paying any attention to, or in other words, a passive indifference to, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ Jesus. The sins of the world have all been placed behind the back of God never to see them again. The sins of the world were taken away from the eyes of God so that God is not looking upon our sins today. He is looking upon our sin of the rejection of the Son of God. The only question that God will ever ask a person is: “What did you do with My Son?”
John 16:9 (TLB)
9 The world’s sin is unbelief in me
1 John 2:2 (TLB)
2 He is the one who took God’s wrath against our sins upon himself and brought us into fellowship with God; and he is the forgiveness for our sins, and not only ours but all the world’s
2 Corinthians 5:19
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Bob: Did you accept by faith what he came to do for you when he died on the cross to take away your sins and was raised from the dead in order to give life to you or did you ignore that, with a passive indifference or an active rebellion, either one of those two? That is only the question that will be asked. Why did God do that? How are you going to judge sins? How many sins will you have to commit before he says you had it? How many good deeds will you have to do before he would say you are okay? There is no way to determine that, is it? So he neutralized the entire world, the Jews as well as the Gentiles, into the area of spiritual death. He took away their sins so you are not being judged on how much you sinned or how much you have not sinned but being judged on the fact on: “Have you come alive in My Son?“
1 John 5:20
20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Bob: Have you accepted his resurrection? All through the scriptures and even through the book of Acts you see the resurrection and the resurrection. Paul said that without the resurrection, we are to be pitied of all people and are still in our sins.
1 Corinthians 15:19-20
19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Bob: So we have to come to the point where we, if I am going to claim by faith, and say by faith, and this is the testimony of the word of God, that he not only died for your sins but the sins of the entire world. It is a truth. Now, that is either a truth or a lie. Now if it is a lie we might as well pitch the bible into the wastebasket and go eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.
1 Corinthians 15:32
32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”
Bob: But if that is true, and you have not rebelled against the knowledge of the truth, and accepted that by faith, then you do not have to worry about whether I have sinned too much or what is this sin is going to do in relationship to God, because that is behind his back never to be seen again.
Bob: So how is God dealing with sin today? If he is not dealing with us on the basis of sin, what is he doing? If he was dealing with you on the basis of sin, then he would have to deal with you on the basis of sin and death. You cannot separate the two. It would be like having a law with no penalty. You have a traffic law that you cannot drive over 60 miles per hour, but if you drive over 80 miles per hour it has no penalty? That would make no sense, would it? So you cannot separate law from penalty. So thank God that He is not dealing with us on the basis of sin and death. Paul says in the 8th chapter of Romans, there is now no condemnation awaiting those who are in Jesus for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death. You have been freed from that law.
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: So God is dealing with you and I today on the basis of being his child. You have now become a child of the living God. He is dealing with us on the basis of fatherhood and childhood. He is dealing with us on the basis of continually renewing our mind, teaching us truth and setting us free. He is dealing with us on the basis of the new life we have. We are born again to serve in the newness of life, not in the old way of the law that kills, but in the way of the Spirit that gives life.
John 1:11-12
11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
2 Corinthians 3:6
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.
Romans 6:4
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Bob: So it is just like dealing with a small child. You are constantly trying to admonish, teach and discipline him until he grows up to become mature. So that is God’s dealing with you. There is no condemnation awaiting you. As far as these thoughts you are talking about, you have to realize, if indeed you are in Christ, and only you can determine that, whether or not you have truly exercised saving faith, in what Jesus did. Forget about what you are doing but put saving faith in what he has done. You believe in your heart that Jesus went to the cross, suffered and died to take away your sins from the eyes of God.
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
The answer to that is “yes” then that is the preparation of salvation. Do you believe Christ was raised from the dead so that you, who were born dead, can be raised into newness of life with Him, and accepted the fact that you were dead spiritually, and God offered you his resurrected life, and you have come to him by faith saying: “God, if you do not give me life, I will not enter into the life of God, period. My entire confidence is in You and You alone.” When I stand before God and he says, “What have you done to deserve to be in my heaven?”, the only answer God will only ever consider is, “I have your Son. I have accepted Jesus and His provision for me.”
Bob: If those things are true in your life, then you are born again. And as a born again believer, Satan does not like to give up that easy, for he has lost you eternally to God. But he will still keep trying to torture you with error. So if you are truly born again, it is not unusual for Satan to bombard you with trying to put doubts in your head.
1 Peter 5:8
8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
John 8:44
44 He [Satan] was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
John 10:10
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Bob: So that is when you know the truth, that is how you handle those things. You say to Satan, “Satan, I know what truth is. You are not giving me truth so go talk to someone else because I am not listening to you. I know what truth is.”
Bob: Where do you think you are in that equation, Jeremy?
Jeremy: I know I have prayed for it before, but I still have doubts whether I really did give him my heart. I am just afraid to say I have it because I prayed for it.
Bob: The praying of it is not the issue. No one is saved by praying. You are saved by faith. The prayer is just a way of expressing the truth of what has taken place in your heart. No one is saved by praying. You are saved by faith. When you have placed faith in Jesus is when you, in your heart, you have said, “Jesus, this is truth. If you did not take away my sins, I am still in my sins. If you weren’t raised from the dead then I am still dead.” The prayer can or cannot be an extension of merely communicating to God of the truth of what took place in your heart.
Jeremy: I do not think I really trusted Him.
Bob: Do you think you are ready to do that tonight, Jeremy, or do you still have to process? Again, I almost hesitate to say for you to pray with me. If you are ready to trust Him, then the next step is to trust him. It is like looking at a chair and saying, “I am ready to believe that chair is ready to hold me. So what do you do? You sit in it.” In your situation, it is “Yes, I have heard what this truth is and I believe it with all my heart. I do not want to be tossed to and fro by every wave of doctrine. This is something I am holding onto with all my life.”
Bob: Quite frankly what you are about to put your faith in is if that does not work you will end up in hell. So that is pretty convincing. It is one of those things. “Oh, well, if this is not true something else will happen?” No, this is saying if this does not work, then you and I are going to hell. This is placing your faith in the truth of the death, burial and resurrection for you. It is more than just an historical event. He died for you. He took away your sins at the cross. He suffered and died for your sins. When he was raised from the dead, he was raised with you in mind. This believing that, Jeremy, that you are dead spiritually and God is saying, “I have come to give you life. I am the resurrection and the life and if you believe in Me though you were dead, yet will you live, and whosoever lives and believes in Me will never die? Do you believe this?”.
John 11:25-26
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Bob: If the answer to that is “Yes. Yes, Father, I do believe this and I put my faith in that“, you are born again. Now, as a way of expressing what has taken place, and what you have decided in your heart, that this is what I know to be true from this day forth is to merely say to God, “God, I believed what you told me.” If you want to do that I want to pray with you.
Jeremy: Yes, I do.
Jeremy and Bob (Jeremy repeating after Bob): “Father, I believe what you said in your word, that he who has the Son has life and he who does not have the Son does not have life. I do not want to remain dead. I, therefore, ask You to come into my heart as my Lord and my Savior and my best friend. In Jesus name, amen.
Bob: Okay. Now Jeremy, that is the last you should have to do that. The fact that you may have doubts pumped into your head is not unusual. Satan wants to do that. With the deals you talked about with the Trinity. All that is, is that I cannot comprehend the Spirit for God is Spirit. I cannot comprehend Spirit. I have never seen Spirit. I have never smelled Spirit. I have never touched Spirit. You must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. How the Spirit indwells the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, I do not know. We try to put flesh and blood on that and put three persons in there. God is Spirit. God exists and the bible tells us He is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. I may not be able to comprehend that but I can apprehend that. It is stated so that is what I know to be true. There is one God and He exists in the person of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. You can just leave that one alone.
John 4:24
24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.
Matthew 3:16-17
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Matthew 28:19
28 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Jeremy: Okay.
Bob: Okay. Jeremy, let us send you our “New Believer’s” packet. We praise the Lord for you. Thank God you nailed that down. If I were you, I would write in the bible the date today and just say you nailed it down. You may have been. You may not have been. But today you nailed it down. If Satan comes and casts doubt on you, tell him to get lost and tell him to go talk to Bob Davis.
Bob and Jeremy are both laughing. Bob was just humorously saying that in regards to Bob Davis, the co-host on the air with him.
Bob: I would like to send you a “New Believer’s packet to you. Work through the “New Believer’s packet and keep working through the word of God and keep depending on the Spirit of God, who lives in you, to reveal to you the meaning of the word of God to you.
Jeremy: Thank you.
Bob: Hang on and we will send that information to you. We are rejoicing with you. If you ever have any more questions, do not hesitate to call.
Julie from Kansas City, MO
Julie: God’s timing is wonderful.
Bob: Yes it is.
Julie: I was calling you to encourage you and to thank you. I was reading in 2 Timothy 2:23 where it says to avoid foolish questioning and foolish arguments.
2 Timothy 2:23
23 Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.
I wanted to encourage you that you do refuse to speak to those few callers who call in with their own hidden agenda. You do not allow them to use up valuable time. It is so valuable for those who are truly seeking, like Jeremy, who really want answers.
Bob: Thank you, Julie, for that. We have announced numerous times that this is not a radio program for those to promote their own agenda. If you want to promote your own agenda, then get on your own program to do that. We do not get into foolish arguments. Sometimes we do because we are forced into it. We are here to present the truth as God has revealed it to us. We are in an arena that is very, very conducive for a lost person to listen and hear truth and come to Christ. That is what we have tried to do for these twenty years. Sometimes we miss the point on that, but on the whole, but we are pretty consistent on rejecting those calls.
Julie: Absolutely. So many are benefitting from the program. It is so valuable.
Julie: Last week, I remembered hearing a fine young man call from Sugar Creek, MO, who had found a little church where a pastor was open to the grace message. He did not say the name of the church or the name of the pastor. Would it be okay to give my number off the air of a church? If he is listening, to call me, so I can come to that church and check it out.
Bob: We are more than happy to do that. If he is listening, then he can call back and give his telephone number. And if you would like to go out there, that would be wonderful.
Julie: If anybody else that maybe has your study going on in their howe or wants to start one, or wants to call and talk with like-minded believers. It is always wonderful to be able to have another believer that is like-minded, and understands the grace message. I will leave my number. Anybody that wants to call, let us see what the Lord does.
Bob: Sounds great. You have a radio pen pal. Alright, Julie. Thanks for your call and encouragement.
Donna from Nashville, TN
Donna: This is my first time to hear your program. I am glad you took my call. My question relates to being a parent to speak truth in love to my 18 year old son. He is making a lot of bad choices right now in his life in relationship. I believe I have evidence that he has actually visited porn sites on the internet. A lot of different things, of which I have confronted him about, and tried to speak the truth in love and not provoke wrath in him. I am having a real hard time with my transition into parenting him as a young adult and not as a child. I need guidance.
Bob: Donna, I think when a child gets that old, 18. He has graduated from high school, has he?
Donna: He is a freshman in college.
Bob: If he doesn’t have a foundation now, then he is going to get his own foundation sometime, and probably by falling on his face. When you get into college like that, it is amazing when I see all these films made about college students. I remember I saw one of those. I was the first one who went to Fort Lauderdale for Spring break. You know what that is all about. You wonder today, all of us down there would be doing, drinking everything that was available, and everything there was. Those college days, and especially men acting like total morons and idiots, and you say this is the hope of the world, the educated people?
Bob: Years later, one of my fraternity brothers was president of one of the largest companies in the world. Another one was president of AT&T. I could go on and on. These were the guys who were drunk on the beach. You look at this and you say that it is a God thing that God has to get ahold of us sooner or later. When you are in college, unless you are a very unusual person, you have no brain in your head. You are down there to get educated, and you need to be educated. But what you really need to be educated on is how to live. As an adult like that, Donna, what I would try to do with him. Are all of you Christians?
Donna: Yes.
Bob: Does he know the Lord?
Donna: Yes.
Bob: I would be honest with him. “Son, look. You got the choices as a child of God to make any decision you want to make. But when you are choosing to go into something like pornography or drugs to alter your mind, into alcohol that alters your mind, into things that destroy your body, you are making very poor decisions. Just for your own good. It is not that God is trying to curtail you, but it is for your own good.” You have to talk to him no longer as a child, as someone to get punishment, but as someone to reason with. “You are over in college. I am not someone to supervise you, but as a parent who loves you, these decisions you are making, if indeed you are making, are going to destroy you, if you do not ultimately change your heart and mind and start on a new path. You have to do that in love. I do not know what he was like in high school. That is when your children should have enough liberty, in high school, so when they fall on their face, there is a place to come home to. It is a blessing when I see people caught in destructive behavior while they are in high school, where a parent can take a hold of the reigns and be there for them and guide them into truth. Once they are in college, you are not there to do that.
Donna: He was 17 when he started college, and he was a little bit of a rebellious child at 16, but not really until he got to be 17. He just seems to have lost himself.
Bob: I would talk to him about that. “Son, there is not anybody in the world who is going to love you as I do as your mom. I am not talking to chastise you. I am talking to you as a friend. I am not parenting you any more. I am your mom, and I will always be your mom. But as far as a parent, you are beyond that now. As a friend, you seem to be like you are lost. It seems to be that you do not know where you are going.”
Bob: My freshman year in college has probably been the hardest year in my life. If it had not been a friend, my brother-in-law, to sit and talk to me, just as a friend, I do not know what would happen to me. So be open to talk to him about these things that disturb you. Do not get shocked by it. Keep talking to him about the love of God. He needs to know God loves him.
Bob: Okay, Donna?
Donna: Thank you very much.
