Radio Broadcast Tuesday 04/25/2023

Classic Christianity – The Book of John P35 (04-25-23)

In Christ Jesus We Have Eternal Life!

~ “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” ^{John 5:24}

~ Eternal life begins the very moment you place faith in Jesus, and the Holy Spirit gives you eternal life immediately. He makes you born again of the Spirit of God, making you a new creation in Christ Jesus.

“In Him you have what? Eternal life. Is eternal life something that you get in the sweet by and by or do you possess eternal life right now? He who has the Son has what? Life and who does not have the Son does not have what? Life. Cut and dried. If you don’t have the Son, you’re dead. If you have Jesus, you’re alive. Cut and dried. I say we do not have an alleyway. In this life. We think it’s kind of like these houses where you got a fence and a yard in an alleyway in a yard. And we say I don’t want to get this yard, I don’t particularly want to get in this yard, I’m just gonna walk down the fence, I’m gonna walk in the alley, there is no alley and God’s economy, there’s only a fence. And you’re either on one side of it or the other. You’re either on God’s side or you’re on Satan’s side, there’s no alleyway when it comes to God.” ~ Bob George

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Announcer 0:12
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.

Bob George 0:28
Come on to me, Jesus, not coming to my forgiveness come unto my healing come unto my feeding, but come to me. And let me give to you what you need. I know what you need before you ever know it. And so come to me, and I will give it to you. And that’s precisely why it says in the Bible, that in him we have as our possession, forgiveness of sins. Are you in him? Then what do you have? Forgiveness. In Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Are you in him? Then what do you have? Redemption. You don’t get it? You got it. In Him you have what? Eternal life. Is eternal life something that you get in the sweet by and by or do you possess eternal life right now? He who has the Son has what? Life and who does not have the Son does not have what? Life. Cut and dried. If you don’t have the Son, you’re dead. If you have Jesus, you’re alive. Cut and dried. I say we do not have an alleyway. In this life. We think it’s kind of like these houses where you got a fence and a yard in an alleyway in a yard. And we say I don’t want to get this yard, I don’t particularly want to get in this yard, I’m just gonna walk down the fence, I’m gonna walk in the alley, there is no alley and God’s economy, there’s only a fence. And you’re either on one side of it or the other. You’re either on God’s side or you’re on Satan’s side, there’s no alleyway when it comes to God.

And so Jesus began to let people know this truth, that it isn’t the case of just talking the language. It’s the case of being who God has called us to be. And so we pointed out how Jesus was making these claims. And people were questioning everything that he was saying. And they came up and said, Who is this guy? And his own brothers, and it talks about the fact that Jesus had brothers, and he had sisters. And in Matthew 13:55, they name his brothers. And they talk about his sisters. And in Mark 6:3, they name his brothers by name. It’s not Hebrews brothers or Christian Brothers, it’s physical brothers, Jesus had brothers and sisters, after Jesus was born of a virgin, Mary and Joseph had kids. It’s not something for grabs, it’s in the Scripture. All we have to do is to read it. I said, if that’s not the truth, it’s no wonder we didn’t hear much about Joseph after that. Now, his own brothers and his own family did not even believe in Him. That’s hard to imagine. But it’s true. And it says in verse five, chapter seven, even his own brothers did not believe in Him.

And so Jesus was talking about the fact that it was time for the Feast of Tabernacles. That was the time of the celebration of the harvest about this time of the year, September and October. It was a time of the year where people went out and built these little huts or shelters. And it was a celebration of the of the 40 years they lived in the desert. And so they did that for seven years, which was a reminder of their depth of their desert experience. I was coming to this point, and his brothers said to him, You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so your disciples may see the miracles you do. No one wants to become a public figure acts in secret, you could just hear the scathing tone of their voices. Since you’re doing all these things, show yourself to the world. Go down there and get yourself killed. That’s the reason they wanted him to go. For even his own brothers didn’t believe in him. You’re going to see something in here, folks, a couple of times for Jesus is saying, the right time has not yet come for me. In verse six, the right time for me has not yet come. In verse eight, it talks about I’m not yet going to this feast, because the right time has not yet come. You go over into verse 30. And he says that they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him. Why? Because the right time had not yet come. There’s a time and a place for everything isn’t there? There’s a time to be born. And there’s a time to die. Is that right or wrong? And his time was not there yet. Because the time that Jesus was talking about was the time when he the Son of God was going to become the Savior of the world, by dying on a cross at Calvary. And by being raised from the dead, to give life to us, who were born again. That’s the time Jesus was headed toward. And because Jesus was headed for that time, that we know as salvation. The time were the only time where man would ever be saved eternally. It was through that one act of Christ, while he was here on the earth, teaching under the Old Covenant, because the New Covenant did not go into effect till the day he died, till that time when he died. He taught under the old and he buried us under it. Jesus teaching, we look at it and say, Oh, that’s beautiful. Yes, it is. But Jesus teaching is teaching us what righteousness is in Him, not in you and me. He’s showing us from God’s vantage point what pure righteousness is. And when I look at pure righteousness, I see that is not me. That’s Jesus. But that ain’t me. Are we right or wrong? Not just me, you. We all know about me. You. It’s not me. I tell people you think the 10 commandments are hard, probably the Sermon on the Mount on for size, and see how you do. Somebody slaps you on the cheek, turn the other one. Are you kidding? Try that went on for size. I can go on and on. Jesus teaching buried us. What was the purpose of him doing that? Preparing us for the right time. You had a right time in your life, it was the time you came to Christ as your Lord and Savior. That was God’s time for you. But until you got to that day of time, he had to prepare you for that day.

I was born in 1969, God took him 36 years to prepare me for that day. He prepared me, he prepared me by letting me get all the things that I thought would make me happy and found that didn’t mean a flip to me. He prepared me by showing me I couldn’t even be the kind of husband and father that ought to be he prepared me showing me that. I had to come to grips with that not just what I was doing. But looking into the mirror and asking what’s wrong with you, Bob? Not just what what you’re doing, no what’s wrong with you’re doing? I knew that wasn’t the issue, there’s something wrong with me. Glad I didn’t go to a shrink. He had told me I was bipolar or something, you know, come up some name for it. But he says no, that’s not your problem. The problem is, you’re a sinner, and you’re dead. Look what we’re doing to dead people, sticking medicine down their throats, telling them that they’re bipolar, telling them that you’re schizophrenic, manic depressive. Well, if you’re lost, I guess that’s as good as identity as any. But that isn’t the identity God wants us to leave with. He wants us to become saved. He wants us to become children of God. And all of Jesus teaching that we’re studying in these gospels, folks, is God’s preparatory teaching to you and me to prepare us for that day. That day when we’ll come to know Christ as our Lord and Savior.

And so everybody else went down to the feast. Jesus had said after his brothers left for the feast, he also went not publicly but he went in secret. The Judaizers were watching for him. People were watching for him. They were talking about him. Where is this man? They were asking questions. Some say he is a good man. Others were saying, No, he’s not that good, he deceives people. And then we’re going to pick up in verse 14, not until halfway through the feast to Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach so he started teaching now in publicly. And the Judaizers were amazed and ask how did this man get such learning without having studied? Jesus answered, My teaching is not my own. It comes from Him who sent Me. If anyone chooses, catche this folks, to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. There’s this prerequisite for being able to understand the word of God. That prerequisite is I choose to do God’s will. I choose to read what God’s will is because I’m not trying to get an intellectual assent to it. But I choose to read what God’s will is so that I can put it in practice. I want to know what God’s will is. And I want to do God’s will. And when you have in your mind, that I not only want to know what God’s will is, I want to carry it out in my life. It’s like Enoch, he walked habitually with God. Wouldn’t you like to have that habit? And he said, when that is true, that you want to know God and you want to know what his will is, and want to act upon it, you’ll find out that the teaching that we have in our hands today from Jesus is true. Now he says in verse 18, He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself. But he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth, and there’s nothing false about him.

You have a lot of people, do you not that do a lot of talking, in order to gain honor to themselves. If you don’t believe that, just get in a political campaign. And you see a lot of people doing a lot of talking. Don’t you? And you see a lot of people talking about what they would do and what they wouldn’t do. And I feel like saying to them, you’re crazy. You don’t know what you’d do. You know, sitting around talking about if I was president, or if I, this is what I do. That’s nuts. You don’t know what you’d do, when you’re met with a circumstance. You don’t know what you’d do, would you? It’s talk and talk is cheap. He says there are people that talk and there’s people who work. Now how you’re going to know whether you really believe what you’re talking is when you get the opportunity to work. And work it out, then you’re gonna know whether what you’re talking about is working. And that’s why he says you speak on his own to gain honor to yourself, bring attention to yourself, let everybody know how wonderful we are. But the person who works for the glory of God to bring glory to God, it says he’s a man of truth, and there’s nothing false about him. And folks, that’s where we have to realize and what James said, that faith without works is dead. Now, is he negating grace with that? Of course he isn’t. He’s just merely saying that if you have true faith, in a true Jesus, then Jesus works are going to go through you. If your faith is in the right place, Jesus, Jesus is going to be working in and through you.

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Bob George 13:51
And that’s what this passage is talking about here is you talk about all these things. And that talk is cheap, but isn’t a part of your life. Are you carrying it out? You say you love one another. Do you love one another? You say you forgive it? Do you forgive? You say I follow Jesus, but do we follow Jesus? And that’s what he’s saying is he who speaks on his own to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth. And there’s nothing false about him. And then he gives us illustration. Because they were saying to him about working there said you you’re working on the Sabbath. He said has not Moses given you the law yet not one of you keeps it. Now what is he saying there? And what do we know now about the people who were claiming to be law people keepers? What about today, people who claim to be law keepers. What does Jesus say about you? Not a one of you keeps it but you see the law keepers say well that’s okay. I’m trying I’m giving it a whack. And he’s saying, that’s not the issue. You’re teaching the law. And yet not one of you keeps the law. What do you have to say about that? Hypocrite? Is there anything else you can say? I’m teaching. This is what you do to be holy in the sight of God, but you don’t do it. You know what you need to do to be holy in the sight of God? Believe in the holy one who did do it. Because you never will. But he did. Why are you trying to kill me? They respond to your demon possessed, that’s calling God demon possessed. The crowd answer who’s trying to kill you? And Jesus said to them, I did one miracle and you’re all astonished. You’re all just astonished over one miracle I did. Yet because Moses gave you circumcision. Though actually, it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs. You circumcise a child on the Sabbath. Now, you’ve talked on one side of your mouth saying you can’t work on the Sabbath. But if a child is born, and it’s on the eight days old, and the eight days falls on the Sabbath, they circumcised in order to keep what? Moses law. So he said, You circumcise the child on the Sabbath. Now, if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath, so the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry at me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? Stop judging by mere appearances, and make right judgments.

Now, guys, I want to go back for a moment to this passage in verse 18, that He who speaks on his own does so to gain honors for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth, and there’s nothing false about him, turned back with me to First Corinthians Chapter Two for a moment.

Speech is cheap. Talk is cheap, is it not? That’s why I have such great animosity if you want to call that about people who make some kind of a big deal about what language they’re speaking. As if God is listening to your language. God is not listening to what you’re saying, he’s too smart to do that. God is looking on your heart. Prayer is a language of the heart, not of the tongue. And there are people who get all hung up on whether they’re speaking in English or German or tongues, or, and God is saying, I don’t need a United Nations guy up there to interpret your language. I’m listening to your heart. I don’t care what you’re saying with your mouth. Because nine times out of 10 what we’re saying with our mouth is not a direct reflection of what’s in our heart. That’s why when you ask someone how you doing, hey, great, your guts are hanging out. Ever done that? God’s too smart to listen to what we say. He listens to our hearts. If God needed us to be talking out loud, why would you say let’s have a round of silent prayer? What would a person do who had a Parkinson’s disease? Like my mom where she couldn’t say anything? Has she lost her spirituality? Has she lost Jesus? Can she communicate with him anymore? Was she a goner? What if you had your tongue cut out? Would you be a gardener? Couldn’t talk to God anymore? couldn’t speak in English or German or tongues. If you didn’t have a tongue, how important is that folks? And yet, there are people that make big deals out of what language you’re talking about. When God says Man looks on the outside, but I look on your heart. Prayer is a language of the heart folks, it is not a language of the tongue. You ever drive in your car and talk to God? Are you talking out loud out? Maybe in area, you ever talked to him just in your heart? Well, of course you do. You ever sit in a meeting like this and get tired listening to me and talk to God in your heart?

Folks, when are we going to learn that God is dealing in spiritual things, not natural things. We’ve got all of this hang up on natural. What I’m doing with this body. What did we just learn last week, the flesh counts for how much? Nothing, nothing. He’s trying to teach us to live in a spiritual realm. I’ve called you to live on a higher realm than on this natural level that we live on. And so talk is cheap. And that’s why you can be a learned man. I think Apollo’s was like that. I think he was a great orator he to be a great politician, a great orator. What did Paul say? When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquent or superior wisdom. As I proclaim to you the testimony about God, I didn’t come with you with lofty ideas and brilliant words. I came to you in humility. I came to you in total humility to proclaim the good news of the gospel. And that’s what he says, For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Christ Jesus and him crucified. I didn’t come to you in boldness. I came to you and weakness, and fear. And that fear means awe. It’s like the ocean, I love the ocean. But I’ve got great awe of it, I’d certainly don’t want to be out in it. Without a boat. And that’s what fear means. It doesn’t mean I’m sitting there scared to death, it means that I’m awe I’m awestruck of God, I came to you and weakness and with an awe of God. And with much trembling. I didn’t come to you all cocky and puffed up telling you how good I am and what I’m going to do for you came to in humility. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words. But a demonstration of the Spirit’s power so to your faith may not faith may rest not on men’s wisdom, but on the power of God. And that’s something guys, Now doesn’t that put all of us in a pretty good light? Do we need to be people of eloquence and superior wisdom to go out and communicate the good news of the gospel to people? Or can we to come with fear and trembling and weakness, not in strength? Come prepared to talk about nothing except Jesus and him crucified. Not gonna talk about all I know don’t know much. But what I do know is Jesus. And that’s what I’m going to talk to you about. When with a bunch of wise words and persuasive words, we think we have to be so persuasive. No, you don’t. He says, You can be simple in your approach, because the gospel message is simple, really, your dead and he came to give you a life. That’s pretty simple. He wants your faith to rest not on man’s wisdom, not on our brilliant ideas, but on God’s power. He’s talking about spiritual things, folks. spiritual language, spiritual truth in comparison to the so called truth of the world. We do have or speak a message of wisdom among the mature to those who are mature in Christ, we’re speaking wisdom. But not the wisdom of this age, or the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. You know what all these rulers are and everything. You know what they’re coming to? Nothing. You know, the only thing that’s gonna last is Christ Jesus. You know, I’m not saying of course, I can’t help from relating back to the political scene because we’re in a political year, but you know, God knows what’s going to happen. Doesn’t he? He knows what’s gonna happen. And whatever happens when you’re in Jesus, you’re gonna be okay. I’ve lived through a lot of presidents, starting with Franklin Roosevelt. Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, I could go on and on. Outside of one you know who that is. I haven’t seen much difference in this world. And yet, we spend billions of dollars don’t we. Billions of dollars and we should give that to the ministry get us elected. In the final analysis, what’s it say about that? The rulers of this age, are coming to how much? Nothing. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, or something secret there, a wisdom that has been hidden, and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. However, it is written, that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor mind conceived of what God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed it to us by what? His Spirit. Now, folks, that tells us that you’re not going to go to seminary. Or you’re not going to even study the Bible diligently. And to know what God has prepared for those who love you. Unless you let the Spirit of God reveal it to you. Now, what do we do? It says, We lean on our own understanding. We try to understand this the Word of God by studying Greek. And I said, if that’s all it takes, how come you can’t find a Christian in Greece? And if understanding Hebrew, how come you can’t find all the Hebrews who are Christians? But we go into that now that’s what it takes to understand the word of God. And then you get into systematic and you gotta have this pride. You gotta have this and you got to have, folks, what you need to understand the meaning of the word of God is the Holy Spirit living in you. And if he didn’t good enough to teach you, I’ll guarantee you, neither of these other things is going to do any good for you.

Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity, with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord, find more information online at shop.BobGeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs, and bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.