Call-ins Radio Broadcast Thursday 09/16/2021

Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P670 (09-16-21)

What is Salvation? Death to Life

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 sake, He can offer that same life to you and me. Would you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior today?

As people grow in Christ, after being born again, they begin to ask questions. What does it mean to be living in sin? And if someone continues to live in sin, then are they truly a believer? But often these questions are asked without fully understanding what God’s definition of sin is? Everything that does not come from faith is sin. And sin is unbelief in Jesus. How many times do you worry? Are you impatient? Is that continually living in sin? No. Continually living in sin is living in unbelief, which means you have never come to faith in Christ for life in the first place. You were never born again. A person who is living in unbelief is like the Jew in Hebrews 6 who says he is going back to the day of atonement to get his sons forgiven yet saying he believes in Jesus. Well, then he never repented. He never changed his mind, and is continuing to believe he can do something to get his sins forgiven. He has to make his mind up whether Jesus paid it all or he is going to do something to get his sins forgiven.

Listen as Bob explains truth from the scriptures as various callers call and ask questions. 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. He explains fundamental concepts of being made complete in Christ, your identity in Christ, what sin really is, and about complete forgiveness from God, that is received in Him the moment you believe, having already been taken away when Jesus died on a cross. Forgiveness, redemption, righteousness, and indeed every spiritual blessing is in Christ, and is received when you receive the life of Christ, the moment you were born again. That is being made complete in Christ. Christ is your sufficiency and you have everything you need in Him for life and godliness. At the end, the callers seem to have a greater grasp on what Bob is sharing and thank him for explaining these things to them.

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.

Sadie

Sadie: I was teaching a Sunday school class, and I made a statement that we are all sinners saved by grace. One of the members of the Sunday school class rejected that as being called a sinner. She preferred being called a saint living in sin. I do not quite understand. I am almost certain she did not mean what she said.

Bob: I think she did mean what she said, Sadie. The issue is, do you remember any of Paul’s letters addressed to all those old sinners saved by grace in Colossae or all the sinners saved by grace in Corinth who were having orgie’s at the Lord’s supper. He called them saints, because you have a change in identity. You were a sinner that was saved by grace. Now your designation from God is called a saint, made in the image of God for good works. You can be a saint who sins but you are not a sinner saved by grace. You are a child of God and you used to be a sinner that was saved by grace, now called a saint.

Colossians 1:2
² To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

2 Corinthians 1:1
¹ To the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are throughout Achaia

2 Timothy 1:8-10
⁸ Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, ⁹ who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, ¹⁰ but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel

Sadie: The thing I was trying to ask is, can you be a saint who is living in sin? Not a saint who sins.

Bob: Let me give you an example of that, Sadie. The root of all sin is unbelief.

John 16:9 (TLB)
⁹ The world’s sin is unbelief in me

Bob: That is the only sin not taken away at the cross. Every sin you and I commit is from unbelief. As an example, if you were living in a total trust relationship with Christ, would you ever worry? No, you would never worry because worry is not faith. Do you ever worry? Absolutely. Will you probably worry tomorrow? Absolutely. So, are you living in sin? The answer is possibly so. The issue is that is why Jesus came to take away the sins of the entire world.

1 John 2:1-2
¹ My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; ² and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Bob: So the issue is that no one is going to be living a sinless life as a child of God. We all have times of faith, and we all have times when we believe the lie of Satan instead of believing the truth of God. That will be a conflict we will be in as long as we are in this body of ours. That will be one of the reasons we will be rejoicing to get out of this body so we will get out of a flesh and blood that contains indwelling sin, and to go into the presence of God, never to see that again. That will be quite a relief. In the meantime, you have to struggle. It is a struggle between the flesh and the Spirit and that struggle will take place until the day you are absent from the body and present with the Lord.

Romans 7:14-25
¹⁴ For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin. ¹⁵ For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ However, if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, that the Law is good. ¹⁷ But now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. ¹⁹ For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. ²⁰ But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me.
²¹ I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. ²² For I joyfully agree with the law of God in the inner person, ²³ but I see a different law in the parts of my body waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, the law which is in my body’s parts. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

Bob: So what do we do? We walk by faith in the provision of Christ, not our goodness. You do not have any goodness. You have no righteousness.

Romans 3:10
¹⁰ as it is written: “There is no righteous person, not even one;

Galatians 3:11
¹¹ Now, that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “the righteous one will live by faith.”

Bob: So we walk by faith in the fact that everything I have has been given to me by Christ Jesus. I cannot earn something. I am not going to go out and try to be better than somebody. I am not going to be a branch hanging on the vine grunting out fruit. I am going to relax because I am in Christ Jesus. I have been made a branch, grafted into the vine, and I want to abide in the life of the vine and let Him produce His fruit in and through me. I can bear that fruit but I can never produce it.

John 15:5-8
⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Bob: So we need to realize that the sin issue between you and Me has been taken care of by God once and for all. It is gone, He says.

Hebrews 9:28
²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Bob: Why is He not coming back to bear sin? He has already done it. That is why He cried out from the cross “It is finished”.

John 19:30
³⁰ When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Bob: So when we come to Christ, we have a brand new identity, Sadie. I am a new creature.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Bob: God called us saints. To the Corinthian church, he called them saints. They were carnal beyond recognition, but he called them saints.

Sadie: I am aware of that. I guess I am just not crazy with the answer. I just did not realize that as a saint, called to be saints, that we can continue to live, not to commit sins, for we all commit sins. But the phrase, “living in sins”.

Bob: Living in sin. The world’s sin is unbelief. Can a believer live in continual unbelief? No way. I agree with you there. When you look at sin, the definition God gave us, anything not of faith is sin.

Romans 14:23
²³ everything that does not come from faith is sin.

Bob: A person who has come to Christ by faith, does he live in unbelief? No, not a continual living in unbelief.

Sadie: That is what I was looking for.

Bob: There. Yea.

Bob: No, he would not be a believer. That is what I was talking to another gentleman about in Hebrews 6.

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: You never changed your mind.

Sadie: I heard it that way.

Bob: A person is saying, “God has taken away my sins“, and also saying, “I am going back to the day of atonement, sacrificing a bull and goat for my sins.” He is double-minded, and has to make up his mind whether he is going to believe in Jesus or the blood of bull and goats, based on what you are doing, and so you have never repented. You are relying on the blood of bulls and goats to save you and never turned to Christ to save you. There are many people like that, maybe not going to a bull and a goat, but are still using man-made methods to keep themselves forgiven. In that case, they never trusted Christ for forgiveness.

Sadie: My question was really about saints who are living in sin. I know we all commit sins. We are all sinners.

Bob: What would be your definition of living in sin, Sadie?

Sadie: Continually living in sin. Not just committing a sin, for we all do that. Living in sin would be living in a sinful way that you know is sinful but you are a saint and you cannot continue to live that way.

Bob: Can you give me an example of that?

Sadie: An example of living in sin?

Bob: Yes.

Sadie: Well, one example of living in sin is living in a relationship with the opposite sex, someone you are not married to. That to me would be living in sin. It is not committing a sin.

Bob: Of course it is committing a sin, living with someone and committing intercourse. You see, Sadie, you are in a situation there, where you really need to think through this. Everyone comes up with that definition because they are not doing it. What about continuing to live with a critical spirit? Would that be living in sin? What about continually worrying and continually being anxious? Would that be continuing to live in sin?

Galatians 5:6
⁶ The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Bob: For example, the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love and you look at 1 Corinthians 13 love and just put an “always” to it. “I am always patient.”

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸ Love never fails.

Sadie: No, I am not patient.

Bob: What if you were not always patient. Would you continually be living in sin? What about keeping a record of wrongs? Love keeps no record of wrongs. Let’ say you keep a record of wrongs, would that be living in sin? Yes. So I think you need to get …

Sadie: I think I hear what you are saying.

Sadie: Saint is another word for standing in the need of correction. A consecrated person, that is saints by virtue of what they are in Christ. Being saintly has to do with how we live for Christ.

Bob: And again, what he said was live by faith. You can go out and not know the Lord and do outside deeds that look good on the outside. There are a lot of denominations that look very good on the outside that do not know the Lord Jesus of the bible. The issue is what sets you and me apart, Sadie, is what we believe. You are not set apart by how you dress or how you act. What sets you apart from the world is what you believe. You are sanctified by the word, He says. The word of God and believing in the word of God and the meaning of the word of God is what sets you apart from the entire world. When you and I step out and say, “I believe in Jesus”, that Jesus is my Lord and Savior, that Jesus comes to live in me, you just separated yourself from the majority of the world.

Sadie: I hear what you are saying.

Bob: If we are truly believing in Christ Jesus, that is a moment by moment deal, and trusting Him with our life, then Christ’s life will be manifested in and through us. When I focus on the flesh, flesh will be manifest. We will be doing both of those until the day we die. If a person is in a continual mindset of sin, and they are truly born again, God is not going to leave him there.

Galatians 5:16
¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Bob: Like the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). Did he ever cease to be a son? Never. But God did not leave him there. He finally came to his senses. If a person is living in sin, and he is a child of God, He will not leave him in that state. Sooner or later, God will bring him to his senses, or He will take him home. That is not punishment. I do not think you will ever get over this thing, so I will just take you home to be with me.

John 1:12
¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

Hebrews 13:5
⁵ Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Sadie: I believe that also.

Bob: Okay. It is a good talk, Sadie. That was a good question. That was a fun interaction.

Sadie: Thank you. Thank you very much.

Bob: God bless you.