Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P590 (12-03-20)
Synopsis
Are you open to listening to truth? Are you willing to let the Holy Spirit teach you, to reveal to you what truth is? Truth is in a person, the person of Jesus Christ. He testified of this by saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”.
So often we tend to separate the physical from the spiritual, as if those two worlds never intersect. That the spiritual stuff is those things on Sunday mornings, when you sing praise songs or sit in a pew reciting, “Lord have mercy” from a missalette without a clue what it means. Yes, you might know you have sinful behavior and in need of that sin and guilt dealt with, but you see no source of power or ability to do anything about it, except a temporary confessional that seems to at least ease your guilt and make you feel better.
As a lost person, you are dead to spiritual things. You do not know that the spiritual is what real life is, and that affects and makes life worth living. The spiritual is a relationship with a real person, the person of Christ. He came to earth with a message of life. He came to tell us when He walked on the earth, words of life, of peace. Knowing Him will have a significant impact with your relationships here on earth. Yet we tend to relegate the spiritual stuff as having no bearing on the struggles I face, like a broken marriage, a separation on the verge of divorce. Yet, Jesus Christ is the starting point.
Some people will hear truth but just not understand it. There is still pride or rebellion in their heart. The hope is though that they heard truth, and such truth will one day take root, and they will ponder over what is said, and then that one day comes, when God reveals to you the real meaning of what He came to do by means of His death, burial and resurrection for you. That is the new spiritual birth for you, when the Holy Spirit of God comes to live inside you, permanently and forever.
He who is true speaks into your heart and leads you internally. As you grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will inevitably hear things and have been told things that are error. It takes time for that error to be replaced with truth. But just as Jesus promised, He will guide you into all truth and will make what is known of the Father to you. You will have a sense in your spirit that something is not right, and the moment you hear truth, you recognize it as from God. You are a new creation, so this attitude within you is this desire in your inmost being for that which is true. You are humble of heart and are open and willing to learn from God.
Sadly, that is not true of all people. People have free will, by God’s design in creation, and they can choose to reject the message of life in Christ Jesus. There are those today, as in the days of the apostle John, who was telling people the truth of the finished work of Jesus and His grace, but there were those who heard truth, and seemingly welcomed the truth, saying they believed the truth with all their heart. But they were holding onto their traditions, of going back to the day of atonement to get their sins forgiven.
Today people say they believe in Jesus, and know something about His death, burial and resurrection, but are devoid of its meaning and purpose. If Jesus took away all my sins, and I know that, but I am going to a confessional booth or a priest or confessing to God to get my sins forgiven, then I am making a mockery of the cross, insulting the Spirit of grace, and have not really put my complete faith in what Jesus did, when He said, “It is finished”, and shed and blood on a cross and said He will remember our sins no more. He would have to die again to get sins forgiven if His cross was not sufficient.
You are believing in a vampire gospel, alive today and dead tomorrow, since sins are what causes your death. What kind of gospel is that? Certainly not the gospel that Jesus told us, that we are to put our faith in Him alone. There is nothing more that needs to be done. No more sacrifices for sin. No more trying to be made acceptable to God. You rest in what He says He has accomplished for you, and what you received in Him by faith, that He has given you everything you need for life and godliness, His righteousness since you never had any of your own. Have you repented, changed your mind concerning what salvation is?
That is why John wrote to a pastor to tell them that they are sinning against the knowledge of the truth, that they never repented, they never changed their mind concerning Christ, but were only giving lip service. They never repented and so they can only expect raging fire that consumes the enemies of God, if they persist in this unbelief in Christ.
So many people do not know what salvation is. It is not getting your sins forgiven, for that is what Jesus already did for you on a cross over 2000 years ago. You receive His forgiveness when you have new life in Him. Yes, Jesus took away your sins, and that before you were even born, but that forgiveness that was provided then must be received in Him. Salvation is new spiritual life.
After Jesus rose from the dead, just as He told us beforehand, He promised to give us the Holy Spirit, to anyone who would simply put their faith in Him. You do not ask for what, in Him, you already have. But if you are not in Him then you are still dead in your sins. Your sins caused your death, and death cannot give you life. Only life gives you life, and the only life available to you is the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. You come to Christ for Him, to know Him and have His life in you. That is how you come alive in Christ Jesus. This message is a very practical message. I am dead spiritually and in need of life.
So when Christ is in you, then you have the source of His power, His love, to be lived in you and through you. That is what allows you to act in a manner consistent with who you are, a child of God, and that is what causes marriages to be transformed, and to walk in the new way of the Spirit, not in the old way of the written code. When a spouse tries to receive from you what you are unable to give, unconditional love and acceptance, which can only come from God, then that puts a strain on a marriage. No, first come to Christ for life and then you are on the starting line for a renewal of the mind to take place. For as scripture tells us, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh, with all selfishness and self-centeredness so common to all mankind, that is so common and natural to weakened flesh.
Transcript
Randy from Madeira, CA
Randy: I know you have talked on this before, where mixing law and grace makes you a double-minded man. Where do you find that in scriptures? And another is, when you give money to get financial gain. Where is that mentioned in the scriptures?
Bob: In Timothy is where you read about someone teaching godliness as a means for financial gain and is a man with a perverted mind.
1 Timothy 6:3-5
3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
Bob: And in James is where you read about a double-minded person.
James 1:6-8
6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
Bob: Even if you do not have a scripture to go on, you know when you have one foot under law and one foot under grace, it does not work. Law and grace do not mix. It is what Paul addressed to the Galatians.
Galatians 3:1-6
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? 4 Have you experienced so much in vain – if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? 6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”[Genesis 15:6]
Bob: If you started in the Spirit, why are you trying to perfect yourself by human effort under the law? So it is double-minded. I am thinking, I am saved by the law but now I am saved by grace. Or I live by grace, and now I live by the law. You will just be walking back and forth on both sides of the street with that.
Bob: James deals with the double-mindedness and 1 Timothy deals with godliness as a means for financial gain. Randy, I hope that answers your question?
Randy: Yes, it does.
Randy: You talked about many times in Hebrews 10:26. I was talking with a fellow brother in my bible study and he thinks that 10:26 believes the other way that some people do. His proof for that, that he thought was in the last …
Hebrews 10:26
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.
Bob: I am not interested at all in what he is thinking. What I am interested in is what scripture says. The scriptures in chapter 10 is dealing with in Christ their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more and where these have been forgiven there is no more sacrifice for sin.
Hebrews 10:17-18
17 Then he adds:“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”[Jeremiah 31:34]18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Bob: If He was talking to us today, that would have no meaning today because we do not do sacrifices for sins. But in the Old Testament they did, for that is how they got forgiveness then. The way a Catholic gets forgiven today is going to a priest. The average protestant believes the way you are forgiven is by keeping your sins confessed. All of those are out of the same camp of unbelief. That is what He is dealing with. It is just a few verses in front of it, so you do not have to wonder what this passage is dealing with.
Randy: I totally agree with you. I believe what it says. He is getting hung up, where you are sanctified. He thinks if you are sanctified then that means you are a saved person.
Bob: You are. You could not be saved unless you are sanctified. You were sanctified. You were justified.
1 Corinthians 6:11
11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Bob: All of those things are past tense. That is why there is no such thing as progressive sanctification any more than there is progressive justification. You were set apart by the blood of the Lamb. That is why it says.
Hebrews 10:29
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: In other words, instead of relying upon the blood of Christ Jesus to take away your sins, that is by the blood of the covenant, then you are insulting the Spirit of grace by continuing to ask for what God has already provided for you.
Randy: Like I said. I understand it but he doesn’t. He thinks if you sin you can lose your salvation.
Bob: He does not know what salvation is and I would venture to say is not even saved himself. I hate to say that but I believe that with all my heart. How can a person be saved if he is believing in error? If you think you can lose your salvation then you do not believe Christ completed the work on the cross, if you know what salvation is. Salvation is life.
Randy: I do not think he understands it.
Bob: If he did. If he does not understand it, then that is where you start with him. If you ask what is salvation he would probably say it is getting sins forgiven. He does not understand there is a consequence to sin called death, that has to be corrected, not by forgiveness, but by life. But in order to give us the kind of life God wanted to give us, He had to eternally deal with the cause of death, which He had to do at the cross.
Bob: So if a person thinks he can lose life. He either does not know salvation is life, which is probably where he is. If that is the case, then how are you going to be saved? If he thinks it is life, then how can he think you can lose it, when the only thing to cause it to be lost is sin? So now you have to deny the cross. So in both cases, either denying the resurrection or the cross. So how can a person be saved on that? I am not God and cannot be the judge. But I would know you are saved by faith in truth. You are not saved by faith in error any more than believing I can be saved by joining a church. I could say that is what I believe. Then I am sorry. You are not saved.
Randy: I think many people can be saved but do not understand scripture when reading it.
Bob: I do not believe that either. The Spirit of God is living in you, then He will take the things of Jesus and make them known to you. If a person is in Christ then the Spirit of God will interpret truth to them. Again, they may come to Christ and learn something else and have not studied scripture on their own and therefore are deceived by tradition or deceived by false teaching, but if that is the case, there is something inside you that is saying that is not right. You know that in your own experience. There is something in there saying, “Uh no.–. When a person finally understands this message, he says to me, “Bob, I have always known that to be true. How many times have you heard that? That is because the Spirit of God living in you has been revealing it to you, or trying to reveal it to you.
Randy: That is what happened to me. I run into so many friends. I think the latter thing you said. They are so traditionalized.
Bob: There again, is where, Randy, if a person is truly born again, then spirits are going to communicate with each other. My spirit, when you and I sit down, will communicate with your spirit. We are not at odds with each other. Even if there are areas we do not necessarily agree with each other on, but there is a unity of spirit that says let us discuss.
Bob: There was a man in the Seventh Day Adventist denomination who came over to one of our conferences. He was one of four evangelists in that denomination, who came with an open heart and listened to the gospel and at the end of that called me aside and said, “Bob, when I came here, I was convinced that at the end of the conference you are going to believe the Seventh Day Adventist way or I came to understand what you are saying and believe in it. The latter occurred.” How did it occur? By studying scripture in context and not bending old and new. The Spirit of God spoke to him. Why? He was saved. That is why the heart was open to hearing truth. He had not heard it before but when he heard it his heart responded to it.
Hebrews 10:26
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left
Bob: But if you keep on sinning, deliberately sinning against the knowledge of truth. What are you sinning against? The knowledge of truth. If you hear truth, you are deliberately sinning against it by denying it. You are saying, “No sir. I am holding onto my traditions.”
Bob: If I was speaking to a person out of a Catholic background and he came to understand the truth of God in His word. “Bob, I agree. Jesus died and took away the sins of the world. I know that for sure. I believe it with all my heart.” So I ask him, “Where are you going?” He replies, “I am going back to my confession booth.” “What for?” “To get my sins forgiven.” “You just got through saying that you believed Jesus took away my sins.” “Yes, I do, but I am going back.”
Bob: That is an unstable man, unstable in all his ways. I would have to say the same thing to him.
Hebrews 10:26
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.
Bob: You are deliberately sinning against the knowledge of truth and the only thing you can look forward to is raging fire that consumes the enemies of God. The reason you cannot be brought back to repentance is because you never repented. You never changed your mind. You gave lip service but your heart’s not in it. There are consequences of people who think they are saved but are absolutely in rebellion against the knowledge of truth. Whether saved or not, that is between them and God. I cannot determine that. But I can sit down with a person and explain what truth is and show it to him. If I was talking to this guy, he could not get away with it. You cannot interpret this passage any other way with the Spirit of God living in you. There is no way to interpret this passage any other way.
Hebrews 10:18
18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Bob: Jew, put aside your sacrificial system. If you keep sinning against that it means you never changed your mind.
Randy: I agree with you, but unfortunately I do not have the gift of gab to communicate that. But I am trying.
Bob: Brother, you keep doing what you are doing there. If that guy is open, you will make an impact in his life in some way.
Randy: Nice to talk to you.
Bob: You too, brother. I appreciate your concern for people, your concern for truth and your willingness to stand firm for what you know to be true.
Bob: Okay, my brother. God bless you, pal.
Rudy from McAllan, TX
Rudy: I love your show. I listen to it every chance I get. I admire you for the patience you have with the callers. Some callers are about me, me, and me. You sit there and you are polite but you are firm and you are biblical. The main thing, you are biblical and you give them advice from the bible. So I wanted to tell you that.
Bob: That is sweet of you brother to do. I appreciate that Rudy.
Rudy: I got your book, A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ and A Closer Look at Jesus Christ. I truly enjoy those books. They have been a real help to me because I work with six or seven Jehovah Witnesses. That has helped me a lot.
Bob: Well, good.
Bob: I tell you, Rudy, the more you know about what truth is, the easier it is for you to deal with counterfeits. I said so many times, if I owned a bank, I would not spend a lot of time teaching tellers what counterfeit looks like. I would spend all my time teaching them what real bills looked like to the point they could spot counterfeit immediately.
Bob: That is the goal of our ministry, to help our people to have such knowledge of what truth is that they can spot error immediately. Truth sets you free and error puts you in bondage and keeps you in bondage. People just do not realize the repercussions of error. We just kind of ignore that. “Oh, a little error will not hurt you.” Yes it does. A little error will keep you in bondage.
John 8:32
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Rudy: A little error will send you to hell.
Bob: That is a deep consequence for that type of thing.
Rudy: Jesus is my Lord, Savior and God. If He is not God, I am not going to heaven. We are in a pitiful condition if Jesus had lied to us.
Bob: Well, Rudy, I appreciate your heart and your compliments. We accept that in the name of the Lord. We realize He is the one who is bringing all this about. We pray God will continue to bless your life as well, my friend.
Rudy: Thank you very much, Bob.
Bob: Okay, Rudy. God bless you, pal.
Brad
Brad: I am in a dilemma where I have been separated from my wife now for about six months. She filed for divorce awhile back. I asked her to go to counseling with me. She said it is over with. About three months ago I started dating someone. I feel like I love this person a lot but I started feeling guilty about not trying harder to get back together with my wife. So, I let her know that. I mentioned several things to my wife. We have only gone to counseling two or three times in our life and never really worked hard on it. She had told me that she needed me to change. She told me that I had not supported her financially or emotionally or so forth but we never went to counseling about it. She kind of just gave up. Other things, but would take too long to get into. The dilemma I am in right now is I have been dating this person, that maybe out of guilt I have not tried hard enough. Maybe I should call my wife to make sure exhausting everything.
Bob: Brad, how is she responding to that?
Brad: Initially, it was no and more no. The other day, we got together to talk and she said “maybe”. She asked me how I changed.
Bob: Again, Brad, you know, a wife getting in there saying you have to change and not recognizing it is a two part deal. It is not that you have to change. It is not one-sided. I do not care how bad you have been. It is not a one sided deal. When a person is so self-centered into saying as soon as you do the changing, I may just get back with you, then you are talking to someone who is full of pride. The fact is that we have blown the marriage. We have blown it. She is looking for what you cannot even give her. She is looking for unconditional love. You cannot give her unconditional love. That has to come from God. A lot of times people who are married are looking for someone to meet their needs when in fact the only one who can meet their need is Christ Jesus and until that need is met then you will never get needs met on the level of marriage.
Brad: I am worried that no matter what I do will never be enough and I will always be under a microscope.
Bob: Think about it Brad, when someone says to you, “I am going to put a law on you. You are under the law having to be what she is demanding and she is under her own law of insisting and watching every motion you make to be sure you are doing what she wants you to do. The issue is that it is not going to work. The only thing that is going to work is when the two of you get together and say, “We both made a mess of this thing. We are both selfish, both like sheep gone astray, wanting their own way.” You are trying to get your need met in me and you cannot get it there. I am trying to get my need met in you and I cannot get that need met there. Now, do you want to get true biblical counseling? It does not matter what you and I need. The issue is is what does Christ want from us.”
Bob: But if she does not know the Lord, then you are talking to a dead person. I do not know if she knows the Lord or not. If you do not know the Lord, you are dead also. If she does not know the Lord, she is dead. If both of you know the Lord, then your behavior is inconsistent as to who you are as a child of God. You cannot close the door on getting along and you cannot close the door on trying to save the marriage.
Bob: Where do you think she is spiritually?
Brad: I think she is spiritual in many ways. I think she is one of the most unselfish giving people I have known.
Bob: Hold on a minute, Brad. What do you mean she is spiritual? Do you people sit around and talk about Jesus?
Brad: No. No. No.
Bob: Are both of you born again?
John 3:5-7
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’
Brad: No.
Bob: Then what do you mean she is spiritual?
Brad: I guess I was using the wrong terms. What I mean is she is unselfish in giving.
Bob: But that is not the issue. Brad, do you know the Lord?
Brad: No, not like I would like to. But I can say that I have been praying a lot more in the last couple of months more than I have in my life.
Bob: Brad, here is the issue. How are you and I are ever going to change ourselves, when you and I do not even understand ourselves? Paul says, “I do not know what I do.” If Paul does not understand what he did, how are you and I ever going to know what we do? The only way we are going to find truth that sets us free is to come to the one who said, “I am truth”. There is truth and there is error in this world and there is only one source of truth available to us and that is in the one who claimed He is truth. Not a truth but the truth. We can fight and strive in ourselves but until we come to the point of recognizing I cannot then we are not ready to turn to the One who can and did and that is Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:21-23
21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.
Bob: In all of our lives, no matter where we are or what the condition is, there is one problem. We are dead and empty spiritually. We are dead to Christ and we are empty of the Spirit of God living in us. Until we come to realize that when Christ came, He came to take away the sins of the entire world, which He did at the cross and in doing so was able now to do that. He was eternally able to enter into your death with you, your spiritual death with you, and to allow you to enter into His resurrected life with Him. The only way you are ever going to find peace and truth in this world is by being indwelt by the prince of peace and the One who identified Himself as truth, and that is Christ Jesus.
Bob: Brad, if there is ever going to be a change to take place. How many times did I try, and it does not last and it cannot last. If any change is ever going to take place in your and my life, a permanent change is when Christ comes to permanently live inside you as your Lord and Savior. So you are going one to another, make one mistake to another mistake. That is what happens. You get lonely when you are separated. You are not divorced. You are separated. God says that is not the right way to go. Brad, if you do not know for sure that you know Christ, that He lives in you, that He is your Lord and Savior, that is where everything has to start. That is where life starts, not when born physically, but born spiritually.
Brad: That is how I got to where I am at. I spent a lot of time in prayer. I think the right thing to do at this point is the two of us. For me to leave the other relationship and the two of us work on this together.
Hebrews 3:14
14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 15 As has just been said:“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.”[Psalm 95:7,8]
Bob: Brad, let me stop. Brad, you are avoiding the issue. The issue is not what you ought to be doing in regard to marriage right now. The issue is what you ought to be doing in regard to spiritual life and you avoid the issue. The issue is if you are not in Christ Jesus, you can go back to your wife, but what you are doing. Getting remarried, two people who do not know the Lord from an apple tree and trying to make it work and it will not work. The only thing you have to do, the only important thing is where you are going to spend eternity, and where that begins is right now. That is where it has to start and that is where it has to end, in Christ Jesus. If you need any more help, you give us a call, okay.
Michael from Fayetteville, TN
Michael: I have a question about healing. Do you believe there is healing today? That God heals people today?
Bob: Of course, Michael. God can heal anybody He wants to. If you follow what Jesus said while here on earth. Jesus said, “I do not do anything unless the Father tells me to do it and I do not say anything unless the Father tells me to say it and how to say it. As the Father sent me, so I send you.” Jesus did nothing of His own volition. He only did what His Father told Him to do.
John 5:19
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
John 12:49-50
49 For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”
Bob: If a person has a healing take place, it is between you and God. What I do believe is this. Any physical healing that we have here on this earth is temporary at the best. And for us to get hung up on temporary things instead of eternal things is Satan’s way of getting us off focus on what we need to be focused on. If I was healed, all healing comes from God.
James 1:17
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Bob: I had an operation of melanoma. The surgeon cut out the melanoma and God healed. Not a miraculous type of healing outside of the fact all of healing is miraculous. But I am not going to get hung up on that, Michael, for one of these days, I am going to die. This emphasis we have on healing. I look at these television ministries and I ask, “Are there any well Christians?” Why are we so preoccupied with this physical at the exclusion of the spiritual? Do I believe God heals? Yes, absolutely I do. But I do not believe He works through healings.
John 4:47-48
46 Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
50 “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”
53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.
Bob: Okay, my friend?
Michael: Alrighty.
Bob: Okay. God bless you. Bye.
Ron from Utica, NY
Ron: I got a question. Today I just had a real difficult time reading the word. Every so often it seems to happen. I hear you say let the Spirit teach you truth. I pray to God every time when I open up scriptures. Lord, help me to open up my mind and understand the word of God. But today I was full of anxiety about it. I just wanted to know, when you say let the Spirit teach you, what do you mean by that? I do not want to be one of those guys, who just doesn’t get it. Sometimes you can miss the simplest things and I do not want to overcomplicate things.
Psalm 131:1-2
1 My heart is not proud, Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.
Bob: Well, again Ron, if you are born again and the Spirit of God is living in you, then one of the purposes is to teach you all truth, to lead you into all truth, to take things of the Lord Jesus Christ and make them known to you.
John 16:12-15
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
Bob: Only the Spirit of God can reveal the meaning of the word of God to you.
1 Corinthians 2:9-10
9 However, as it is written:“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”[Isaiah 64:4] –
the things God has prepared for those who love him –10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
Bob: Once again, if He already taught you the meaning of the word of God on certain passages of scripture, He is not going to teach you the meaning again. He might deepen it or amplify it. You have been taught by God and you move on from there. There are times in your life where you are bogged down with sometimes problems of the world and your concentration is not particularly what it ought to be. Therefore, you are probably going to squelch the ability of the Spirit of God to teach you the meaning. I do not know. I have not run into that personally so it is a little difficult for me to answer that question. So I do not worry about it. If I sit down to read the scriptures and things are not clicking, I am basically what Jesus said. “My little child there is much more I want to tell you but you are not ready for it yet.” So I figure I am not ready for it so I put my bible down and wait until I am. So I do not worry about those things
Ron: I guess maybe I try too hard. I am trying to squeeze something and maybe I am not ready for it. I am striving for something that I should not be striving for.
Bob: Yes, that is exactly right. When there is something there that you just cannot get, and seems like there is no revelation, put a checkmark there, and move on.
Bob: I told people, “I have enough trouble trying to live in dependency on what I do know rather than trying to figure out what I do not know.” I put a checkmark there. It may be a year. In my early days, a year later, reading through scriptures and all of a sudden there is the answer to something way back in the gospels I did not understand. I go back and now I have my answer to it. That is what makes the bible exciting. So do not think you have to get everything at every time. That is not true. God reveals that to you.
Bob: There are things that can block revelation. Trials and tribulations in life and your concentration. You are thinking about other things. You are not necessarily prepared to be taught at that particular moment. You can get away and pray and get your mind on something else, and then come back to the scriptures. It is no big deal. Do not look at it as something you have to strive for.
Ron: Thanks for your advice and I will do that.
Bob: Does that help?
Ron: Yes, it does help, brother.
Bob: Thanks, pal. You are welcome. God bless you, pal.
Ron: God bless you.
Scott from Denver, CO
Scott: I enjoy your show. I am a first time caller. I recently have been studying Calvinism, the five points of Calvinism. Limited atonement. Do you believe Jesus died for everyone or for the elect?
Bob: I believe what the bible says. There is no such thing as dying for the elect. There is no such thing as limited atonement. One of the problems, Scott, that you ran into is that Calvin did not understand salvation for life. He understood forgiveness of sins but he equated forgiveness of sins with salvation. When you do that, then you cannot believe that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, which it says.
1 John 2:2 (NASB)
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 you have to come up with something else because if He died for the sins of the entire world then that would mean universal salvation and we know that is not true, so you have to come up with a solution, or what I call a hair-brained idea of who He died for. But the issue is Jesus took away the sins of the entire world. Then He was prepared to deal with the consequence of sin. There is a difference between sin and consequence to sin. Sin is what caused our death. The only solution to death is life. That is why in Romans we read.
Romans 5:10
10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, 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 are not saved by the death of Christ. You are saved by the life of Christ. Many, many people are walking around thinking they are saved because they came to Jesus for what He did instead of coming to Jesus for who He is and receiving His life, the resurrected life in Christ Jesus. Many times, Scott, I asked people, “What is the meaning of the cross?”, and they will all say that is where He died for sin, but when I ask about the meaning of the resurrection they stare at you. The issue is resurrection is the focal point of Christianity. That is why Paul said without the resurrection, we are to be pitied of all people and are still in our sins.
1 Corinthians 15:17-19
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Bob: He certainly understood the cross took place but also understood that apart from the resurrected life that forgiveness provided at the cross is not received. It is only received in Him.
Ephesians 1:7
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
Bob: So where that limited atonement is off and Calvinism is off is because Calvin is off. Where he was off was not understanding that salvation is life instead of salvation is merely getting your sins forgiven. Christ died and took away the sins of the entire world, back to Adam and forward to eternity.
2 Corinthians 5:19
19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s sins against them.
Bob: Then having accomplished that He is now able to offer you and me eternal life because once He gave us life, Scott, the only thing that could cause that life to depart from us would be sin. That is why we have eternal life because of the eternal consequence of the cross. Had He not taken away the cause of death, sin, He could have never given us eternal life. That is also why Jesus said the world’s sin, singular, is unbelief in Me.
John 16:9 (TLB)
9 The world’s sin is unbelief in me;
Bob: So when we come to Christ not just for what He did for us, but for Christ coming to live in us, and to free us from the consequence of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is life, we come alive in Christ. That forgiveness that was provided for us is received. That is only to those who come to Christ by faith.
Bob: That is where it is, to me, I take great exception to Calvinistic teaching. I think what took place there. I know there are a lot of dear people in that movement but what took place is the premise was off and when the premise is off, the findings will be off. The premise is that you are saved by getting sins forgiven. So you cannot accept forgiveness as the totality of sin which would be universal salvation but that could not be.
Colossians 1:20 (TLB)
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.
2 Peter 1:3-4
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
Bob: So he cleared the deck for the divine action of giving life to the dead.
Scott: So do you believe that people choose Jesus or Jesus chooses His people?
2 Peter 3:9
9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Bob: It was God’s will that none should perish and all should come to repentance. That means every person ever placed on this earth, it was God’s will that they will come to repentance. But that does not mean they are going to. That goes into that sovereignty deal. The sovereignty of God was that He gave man a will. That is part of the sovereignty of God that I do not want to make people a bunch of robots. “I created people who can think and choose.” So He created mankind with the ability to think and choose. So meanwhile I will use my influence but with the reality that some will accept and some will not. Even though it is my will that all will accept, some will not. It was his choice. He chose to reach out to each and every one of us. There is not a single person on earth He has not reached out to. The issue is are we going to respond or not. That is determined by whether we are going to respond or not.
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
Some people are so stubborn. Scott, I have seen things, as an example, with the homeless here in Dallas. I saw that not too long ago being broadcast. People down there are freezing to death, sleeping under a bridge in boxes. Someone came along and offered shelter to them. There is a salvation army over there who has food and beds for you. “No, not me. They got rules over there. I would rather sleep in my box.” There are people so strong in rebellion that they would rather sleep in a box and freeze to death rather than go over there in a nice bed because they might have to listen to Jesus and obey some rules. So rebellion in man is strong.
Bob: Scott, I appreciate your call on that. I have studied what you studied as well. That is where I saw the loophole there. I think if you look at the book of Ephesians, especially, and in light of Jew and Gentile, then you will see predestination and election and all those other terms that are so used in Calvinism. It is around Jew and Gentile. It has nothing to do with you’s and me’s but has to do with Jew and Gentile. I challenge you to read that and get back with us if you have any further questions.
Bob George provided scriptures that address this topic more thoroughly. Go to Predestination, Free Will, Election & Foreknowledge>. Take the time to read Ephesians and Romans, paying special attention to the context of who Paul is writing to and addressing.
Scott: I will do that. Thank you for your opinion.
Bob: You are sure welcome, my brother. You are welcome. Bye now.
