Classic Christianity - A New Heart for a New Year Part 2 (01-03-23) - Teaching - Bob George Ministries Daily Radio Broadcasts

Classic Christianity – A New Heart for a New Year Part 2 (01-03-23)

God Wants to Change The Attitudes of the Heart With His Spirit in You

~ “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” ^{Ezekiel 36:26}

~ “Okay. So we have desires of the flesh, God desires of the Spirit, they’re in conflict with each other. Now what did he say there in regard to that? We are now to be made new in what? The attitude of what? Our minds. So how are you going to be made new by changing your actions? How are you going to be made new? Changing your mind. Do you realize, folks, there’s a lot of people who are non Christians acting and a lot better than us? Have you ever noticed that? I mean, on the outward actions, outward actions, you couldn’t tell the difference. You go over into some of the Muslim countries over there, you’ll see some pretty good behavior. If you don’t you get your hand cut off, you steal something, get your eyes plucked out if you look wrong. Want to live there? I don’t. So you see, outward action is one thing. But inward thoughts and inward attitudes are another. Now Christ came to change the attitudes of our hearts. And he said those attitudes will change your actions. But don’t ever think that actions cannot be duplicated, or imitated. And then in the final analysis, folks, isn’t it really true? Just in the final analysis, everybody’s got all this emphasis on outward action? In the final analysis, how many people in your experience really know what you’re like? How many? If you’re married, your mate, they know what you’re like. Your kids know what you’re like outside of that, folks. Hardly anybody knows what you really liked, do they? And so can we not become performers? Because it’s just kind of for a short while. And then you get home and kick your shoes off and say, Praise God, now I can be myself. Start knocking everybody in the head.

So folks, you see why God wants to change the attitudes of our hearts? Because this outward can be changed, it can be faked can’t it?…”

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Bob George 0:28
And there is no man greater than the laws of the land. Regardless of what you think, mercy, mercy apart from the law, absolutely. Absolutely. The Born Again, Christian mercy apart from the law, but under the law, you’d better carry that out. If you don’t, you’ve lost it. Not a popular stance today is it? In fact, people take that stance are called bigots, and everything else under the sun. But the fact of the matter is, is we do not see the ramifications. When God says the law is this, stick with it. You can’t go wrong, but sticking with it.

Okay. So we have desires of the flesh, God desires of the Spirit, they’re in conflict with each other. Now what did he say there in regard to that? We are now to be made new in what? The attitude of what? Our minds. So how are you going to be made new by changing your actions? How are you going to be made new? Changing your mind. Do you realize, folks, there’s a lot of people who are non Christians acting and a lot better than us? Have you ever noticed that? I mean, on the outward actions, outward actions, you couldn’t tell the difference. You go over into some of the Muslim countries over there, you’ll see some pretty good behavior. If you don’t you get your hand cut off, you steal something, get your eyes plucked out if you look wrong. Want to live there? I don’t. So you see, outward action is one thing. But inward thoughts and inward attitudes are another. Now Christ came to change the attitudes of our hearts. And he said those attitudes will change your actions. But don’t ever think that actions cannot be duplicated, or imitated. And then in the final analysis, folks, isn’t it really true? Just in the final analysis, everybody’s got all this emphasis on outward action? In the final analysis, how many people in your experience really know what you’re like? How many? If you’re married, your mate, they know what you’re like. Your kids know what you’re like outside of that, folks. Hardly anybody knows what you really liked, do they? And so can we not become performers? Because it’s just kind of for a short while. And then you get home and kick your shoes off and say, Praise God, now I can be myself. Start knocking everybody in the head.

So folks, you see why God wants to change the attitudes of our hearts? Because this outward can be changed, it can be faked can’t it? That’s why people are gonna get married man, you don’t know somebody get married. Do you? Now how many can testify to that one? Yeah. And you say, why is that? I thought I knew him. Yeah, but didn’t live with him. So we are we live together, that that’s not the same. That’s not the same. And I’m not gonna ask if anyone’s experienced that. But I’m just saying that is not the same. And so what we have to come to, to realize is not a whole lot of people really know who we’re really like. And that’s why he’s saying that we are to me made new in the attitudes of our minds. So until our attitudes have changed, nothing’s going to change. And so he says, that were taught to put on this new self that was been created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Now, folks there again, you were born a mom and dad, but you were created by God. Do you realize that? How many of you, you and it says that man was created in the image of God. Is that true? No, it isn’t true. Man was created in the image of Adam. Remember that fifth chapter of Genesis, when Adam and Eve had Seth. Seth was born in the image of Adam. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. Seth was born in the image of Adam. So God created only two men, two people, created by the hand of God. From that point on man was born out of man and out of woman. Are we together on there? So when you and I were born again, what is that a birth? It’s called a new birth. But what is it? a new creation. If any man be in Christ he is what? a new creation. Why? Because spiritual birth comes from God.

And so because it comes from God, not from mom and dad, your physical birth came from mom and dad. spiritual birth comes from God called a new creation. So we’re told that we have now been not born but created brand new to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Now, what does that mean? If I’m created to be like God, does that mean let’s just stop there and say, well, you’re created to be like, God, try that one on for size to be like, God, how can you be like God, God’s Spirit. So how am I gonna be like a spirit? But he says we’re created to be like God in true righteousness. So do we have any righteousness of our own? So if I’m gonna have true righteousness, where’s that righteousness gonna have to come from? From him. And that’s why that it is because of him that we are in Christ Jesus who has become for us, our what? Righteousness. So I have been recreated by God, to live in his righteousness, and in His holiness. How many of you are righteous in the sight of God and holy in the sight of God? Okay, and let me ask you a question. It is because of him, that you have become in Christ Jesus, who has become for you your righteousness. So who is your righteousness? Christ. Do you have any of your own? No, but are you righteous in the sight of God? Why are you righteous in the sight of God? Because he gave you His righteousness. So how many of you are righteous in the sight of God? I’m gonna see your hands, how many of you know that your righteous side of God, okay, that’s better. Now, by that one offering He made forever perfect in the sight of God, all of you whom he has made holy. So how many of you are complete? That’s what perfect means complete in the sight of God? And how many of you are holy? In the sight of God? How many of you can say that, without without exception, believe it by faith? Now, again, where does your holiness come from? God. So His Holiness predicated on your acting holy? Is your holiness predicated on how you look? Whether you have your hair short, long in a bun? Any other way? No. So now, how many people have tried to make themselves holy? By looking strange? I’m gonna be set apart from the world, and everybody’s gonna know, now you say you sure are. And I wish you’d get more set apart from the world. Make themselves so ugly that go to the beach, and the tide won’t even come in.

We have to realize that, that that is not what holiness is. That you and I have been set apart because of the change of attitudes in our minds. Now, should that thinking result in different behavior? Are we together there? Absolutely. Does that take time to spell itself out? Yes, it does, guys. And we are in a process of continually being renewed in the newness of attitudes of our minds. That’s a process that God has us in. And and that process, we will be in that process until the day that we’re absent from the body and present with the Lord. But again, does God want you to know, all of the ramifications of your of your inheritance? In other words, to say, you have an inheritance from God, that sounds good, but what would be the most logical next question? What is it? What is it? One is he made you holy, he’s already set you apart. Now, if he sets you apart, can you set yourself more apart? No, absolutely not. I got another question for you. Can you make yourself less righteous? No, because your righteousness is not yours. It’s his. If he gave you life, can you get more life? Can you get less life? No, you are in Him, you have been raised from the dead, you are secure in him. And when you fall into that grave, you are going to be absent from the body and immediately present with the Lord. Folks, this issue of death is a much bigger issue than what many of us think about as Christians because we kind of forget about that. But I was watching a program the other night with where they had Billy Graham was on and I think President Carter was on and Hugh Downs was on that. Did you see that? And they were talking about death? Well, to Billy Graham, are you afraid of death? Oh, no, of course not. I’m afraid Why would I be afraid of death? I’m gonna be absent from the body present with the Lord and I believe in angels God comes in takes me right into the presence of Jesus. President Carter you pray to dead No, I’m not afraid of death at all. I’m going to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. That’s it. I’m looking forward to it. Hugh Downs petrified of it. Petrified, been afraid of death all my life. Why? He doesn’t know where he’s going. And as much as he’s heard, he still is not believed. Nice guy. But lost is gonna be sitting there in the presence of Billy Graham. Admiring though admire these guys admire them. Larry King, ever watch that program ever see Larry King Live? Man, he’s had all these be he admires him, lost just as lost as can be be why? Well, I’m not gonna put my faith in there. I’m gonna put my faith in that when I’m putting my faith and how smart I am I how knowledgeable I am. But as knowledgeable as you can get. The answer is what are you gonna do when that heart stops beating? Where are you going to go? And, folks, that’s a question everybody’s got to ask themselves, do I know where I’m gonna go when I die? Because if I’m not prepared to die, I’m not prepared to live. If I’m afraid of dying, I’m afraid of living. Because every day that I’m living, I’m afraid to die. And it’s only until you can settle that issue to know that I am in Christ, and I am in Christ, thank God not because of what I do what I think. But I’m in Christ because of who he is. And because of what he came to do in and through me, I didn’t deserve one ounce of salvation. I just received his offer of salvation, to say, Bob, you’re a mess. And I’ll clean you up. I’ll give you a new heart. Your heart is stony. I’ll give you a new one of flesh. You’re lost, you’re dead, I’ll give you life. And the only motivation behind any of that was love. And every one of us sitting in this room today who has saved responded to one thing we responded to love, didn’t we, we heard God loved you. And we responded to that. But because of that, I have an assurance that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that when I this body falls in the ground, I’m going in the presence of God, absent from the body present with the Lord. And because I have no fear of death, I don’t like the process. None of us like the process. I don’t like the process of thinking about getting sick or that type of thing. I just soon die, in my asleep. I put that request into the Lord or die teaching. That’d be fun for me, it’d be a little shock to you. But I have no fear of death at all. Why? Because I know I’m going to a better place to live with Him eternally in heaven. To see some of my loved ones and someday wait on the rest of my loved ones. And so there’s no fear and death in Christ. Now folks, that is unexplainable. I can’t sit down and explain that. And I don’t think there’s anyone who can, that just something you know, to be true. And because I’m prepared to die, I’m prepared to live. Not because of being good not because of being in need not because of that stuff, just because of being saved. In Christ Jesus.

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Bob George 14:50
He says that, that you and I have been taught to put off that old self. We don’t have to think anymore like a lost person to put on this new self And to be made new in the attitude of our minds, and and to put on this new self that’s been created to be like God in true righteousness and, and true holiness. And that means in His righteousness and His Holiness. And therefore now because of this, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor. For now, here’s the other assumption, we’re all members of one body. Now again, if you and I are sitting in this room today, as born again, Christians, then we’re a part are we not of the body of Christ. And that’s what happened to us at spiritual birth was the Spirit of God came to live within us, and then placed us into his body. And that’s the true Body of Christ, the true Body of Christ is not the church down on the corner, walk in, don’t walk, because in that building, you’re gonna have lost people and save people, just like you can in any assembly. But the true Church, the true ecclesia, that’s the Greek word we have translated church. ecclesia, called out ones is only born again, believers, the only true Ecclesia are people who are joined to Jesus at the head, and joined down here to his body. And that’s the only church that God recognizes. That’s the only church that he’s dealing with. So the church is and called Baptist or Methodist or Presbyterian. The church is called the ecclesia, the called out ones, those who are in a relationship with the head, who is Jesus Christ. Now, do we all understand that? So the true universal reality of the church are born again, believers all over the world. And every place you go in the world, you run into born again, believers who were saved, just like you have the same experience that you did come to know the Lord the same way have no fear of death, all these things that we’re talking about identical all over the world, wherever you meet, born again, believers, regardless of their nationality, their color, or creed. They’ve all gone through the same experience. That’s God’s church. Now we gather together because it’s a little hard to meet all together, all over the world one time. So people started meeting together locally. And when you’re talking about the church of Ephesus, the church of Philippi, you’re not talking about a bunch of churches all over Philippi. In the little community of Philippi, believers met together in the church of Colossae believers met together. And that was called the church, of Corinth, because it was just one group of born again, believers, it wasn’t the thing to do. It wasn’t nice for your children, because they didn’t have Sunday school back then. And in the early ecclesia, it said that the believers met daily for the apostles teaching and for fellowship and prayer. So that was a daily assembly, it was easy to do, because there was one little community, you go into Corinth today, or any of those places, real easy to get some place, they were not huge communities. As a matter of fact, those cities were walled in. So they weren’t huge in nature. And so it’s very easy to get together with the church of Ephesus, or wherever it might be. And that’s what church was, it wasn’t this denominationlism that we have today, it wasn’t the activity center, it wasn’t the place where you go so that you can get entertained. It was a place that you went to learn. And when you go into the synagogues, in those days, you have a little room and a little pulpit type deal. And, and some little benches around that was it, why that’s where you went to learn. That’s where you went to study the Scriptures. Because that’s what church was back in those days was studying the Scriptures. And so we’re told that because we are a part of this body of Christ, that we should be honest with each other and speak truthfully to one another. And the reason that we should speak truthfully to one another is because we belong to one another. And we’re a part of the same body. And we would not think of one part of our body lying to another part of our body, our body is very much in harmony with each other, isn’t it? You know, you’re not sitting there and your nose is itching and, and some other parts of the body says, No, it isn’t. Your whole body says it’s itchy. And so the body and lying to each other. It’s it’s all a part of one another. And that’s what it’s saying here in regard to this to the members of the Body of Christ, and that’s why we should be truth tellers to one another. Now, what’s the problem with telling truth? Is there a fear sometimes in telling truth? What’s the fear? That if I tell the truth, this person may not love me or accept me? And folks, I think it’s a tragedy that today in the average church, that’s the last place you would go if you had a real problem or real sin problem. Now you can go with sickness and that kind of stuff. But I’m talking about something you’re struggling with. In the flesh, I have people call me and say, Bob, man, I’ve been to your seminars, and I’ve been here and this and this. But, well, I’m really having a sin problem. There’s something inside of me that says, Thank God that you’ve got the freedom to call me, knowing I’m not going to judge you. Because that’s what we’re looking for, isn’t it? that person calls in whatever it might be people in his congregation and same type of thing. You’re not going to get judged. You’re not going to get judged for a sin problem that you may have. Why? Well, there anybody to judge you. God isn’t judging you. And neither am I. And neither should we. And the last place in the world where you ought to find judgment and condemnation, is in the body of Christ. And yet most of us be petrified of letting somebody know that we have a problem. Because we’re afraid, why? we be judged. So what do we do? Well, we lie. Then we lie to each other by not saying something. And we lie to each other by saying everything’s great, when it really isn’t. And so to me, it’s a tragedy that many times we have become so enamored with the being socially acceptable to one another, that the church is a group of people, it’s very socially acceptable, that we do not want anybody to know that we got some failures. Well, we all have them, don’t we? You see, if you have a failure, as we all have them, it’s not a big deal. We all have them. It’s called flesh. And all of us have desires of the flesh and one person’s desires may be strong in one thing, but not strong in another.

That truth came to me so vividly, very early in my Christian experience, and maybe you’ve read our book, remember we talking about the guy his name was, Sid, but I think I use maybe another name in Classic. But he was a gentleman that was in his 60s. He and his wife had walked in aisle one of the Baptist churches, both of them had been on alcohol since they were in college. A they were alcoholics. Why Liz called me at home, it was pretty late at night and said, Bob, could you come down and talk to Sid, he’s drunk? And I remember going down to talk to sit and thinking to myself, you know, Lord, there’s nothing wrong with you. There’s got to be something wrong with Sid, something’s wrong and his understanding. And I remember sitting down with him, and sure enough, Liz was right, he was drunk. And he sat there for a little while and, and he said, you know why I got drunk tonight? No, I don’t, I don’t know said you’re what my boss and his secretary are doing? Know, don’t have a clue. There’s some motel someplace. I thought to myself and Sid, you know, they’re probably sitting in that motel saying, You know what, oh, Sid’s doing. He’s getting drunk. You’re sitting here all hung up for what they’re doing drunk as a skunk. And there was they’re over there doing what they’re doing. They’re not drunk. Probably criticizing you for being drunk. Now, which was sin is the worst? And that’s when I asked him when you came, walked out? Did you accept Jesus God? Or Did Jesus the man? He said, What do you mean? I said, Did you accept the Lord Jesus Christ, who walked on the face of this earth? And perform miracles made the blind to see the deaf to hear? Or did you receive the living Christ who was raised from the dead today and seated at the right hand of God, as God, ready to give you life? Did you come to Christ for forgiveness? Or did you come to him for life? He said, I came to Him for forgiveness. I came to Jesus the man. I said, Are you willing tonight to accept Jesus the God? And he said yes, I and got on his knees and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, as who he is life, God, and His whole life was changing. Stopped drinking that night, forever. I’ve known Sid Now for 20 Some years after man have been an alcoholic all his life. But the living God came to take up residence in his life and it freed him. What was wrong with Sid had a drinking problem. No, no, no one has a drinking problem. Jesus said that it’s not what a man puts in his mouth that defiles a man, but it’s what proceeds out of his heart that defiles a man.

And so no one has a drinking problem. No one has a drug problem. You can also say it’s not what a man sticks in his veins that defiles him. It’s what proceeds out of his heart. You don’t have drug problems, you don’t have alcohol problems, we have heart problems, and alcohol and drugs and all those things. And all the other things we do are nothing but a great big, huge misplaced dependency. We’re dependent upon those things to do for us what only Christ can do for us. And there comes a time in our life where we say, you know, I don’t need to depend upon alcohol for deadening my mind anymore. I can depend on Jesus to renew it. I don’t need to depend on alcohol to make me bold, I can depend on Jesus to make me humble. I don’t need to depend on alcohol and all of those things to to make me happy, I have Jesus who will give me joy. And joy is better than happiness. And so what happens to us at that moment is a misplaced dependency is exchanged for a true dependency on a true living God. And that true living God comes and changes our hearts from within, not from without, but from within. And, folks, that’s what true salvation is all about. That’s what salvation is all about. It’s a heart change. It’s coming to the Lord, and to be able to say, Lord, I have lived all my life, thinking my own thoughts, doing my own things. And today, I want you to come into my life, and to take over my life and to be my Lord and to be my Savior, and to come to a Jesus who hung on a cross 2000 years ago, and took away the sins of the world. And as the world was there, mocking him and beating him half to death, look down and said, Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing. And that Jesus is the one who took the entire sins of the world upon himself, and became the sin sacrifice for the entire world. In order that raised from the dead, he could give you a life called eternal life. And folks, that’s the magnitude of what we have living in us today, is that Jesus.

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