Radio Broadcast Tuesday 05/07/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Hebrews P102 (05-07-24)

God Disciplines Us For Our Good as Sons of God

When we are in Christ, the Holy Spirit is alive living in us, and the discipline of Jesus is always upon us. Discipline is training. We are being trained in His righteousness, not our own. He teaches us all things. And the discipline is not just on matters of conduct, but also in matters of the world. We start seeing hearing with the eyes and ears of God about all things. And when we turn off the programming of the world, and place our focus on Jesus, He makes all our paths straight. And folks, when God starts opening your eyes to the truth of the things of the world, they become clearer and clearer as time goes on. To some, it is shocking when the truth of matters hits some of us in the face. Yet God’s Spirit remains in us forever. He will be renewing our mind, and teaching us about All Truth. And many of us have much to learn on many many matters regarding the Truth about Jesus and the world we live in. Once you begin listening to the word of God, through the Holy Spirit, and recognizing Truth, the lies and schemes of the devil will stick out like a sore thumb. And don’t ever think you know it all, because only God knows it all. For we all need to grow in the grace and knowledge of God. And when you exercise faith, by simple math, 1 plus 1 equals 2 and 2 plus 2 equals 4, the word of God opens up to deeper understanding of the actual words of God and what they mean. Always pay attention to the details, for the details matter in everything, especially the details of the word of God. Listen in to the program in regards to the Truth about the word of God. And in everything, verify for yourself if things are so. For everyone in Christ has the same Holy Spirit to teach us All Truth. Trust in no man, and lean NOT on your own understanding of anything for we all have been taught the lies of Satan from birth. Ask for wisdom from God, and he will give it to you with great abundance without finding fault.

~ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons:

“My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord,
and do not lose heart when He rebukes you.

For the Lord disciplines the one He loves,
and He chastises every son He receives.”

Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live?

Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore strengthen your limp hands and weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. ^{Hebrews 12:1-12}

Pray to God:

“Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”

~ “The advertisement that came out that a lure though is based on the principle of deception, that’s a true thing. Any lure is based on the principle of deception. That’s why fish bite into it, and then up in a frying pan. If they knew that that was a lawyer, they wouldn’t bite into it. So the attractiveness of the lure based upon deception is it’s easy to deceive somebody and that’s why you bite into it. Now, those are the sins that so easily entangle us. That’s what he’s talking about. So it says to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. In Colossians were told, don’t give in to worldly philosophies, which depend on human tradition instead of on Christ. That’s what he’s talking about here. Let us run with perseverance, the race that is marked out for us, in other words, finish, go to the finish line. Don’t give up before the life’s over. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And we talked about the fact of birth pangs and about birth, how a woman will endure that cross, so to speak, endure the pain, and the shame and everything else connected with childbirth, it is not a real pleasant deal. And yet for the joy set forth before you of producing that little baby, you’re willing to go through it again and again, that’s a miracle to me, after watching the pain of first childbirth, it’s amazing for me, second, third and fourth child to me, but it just shows how short our memory is.” ~ Bob George

Bible Study Booklets

Join Bob George in this chapter by chapter exposition of the book of Hebrews. Available for download the complete series on the Book of Hebrews. The Book of Hebrews is key to understanding the New Covenant.

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 0:29
Let’s turn to the 12th chapter of the book of Hebrews. We’ve been studying through the importance of faith and two Sundays ago. Two weeks ago, we were going through what faith is all about, and, and how that when we walk by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, unlike what is so perpetuated today, that everything’s gonna be wonderful, and all your problems are going to go away and kind of the name it and claim that type of a deal that is so popular today and draws unbelievable crowds, as we are fed a false hope as to what’s going to happen to us if all we have to do just ask God to do just give us Cadillac, we want one. And if you don’t have one, it’s because your faith in big enough and all that kind of thing, which is totally contrary to the Word of God. And in the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews, it talks about that and talk about people who that God had used in his Hall of Fame, his faith hall of fame, and in that were all kinds of people of God. And then he went ahead to say that there’s so much more I’d like to say to you, but don’t have time. But he went back and he hit some of the things that took place in our lives where people who walked by faith and were administered justice gained kingdoms, got their dead back, shut the mouths of lions, we all love those kinds of results when we’re walking by faith in the Lord Jesus. And then he turns around and says, others are tortured and refuse to be released. And so they might gain a better resurrection, resurrection. They were stoned it said they were sawed in two they were put to death by the sword they went about in sheepskin and goatskin and we talked about some of the things and especially as it related many times to slavery. And last two Sundays ago, we talked about the fact of how slaves were never issued shoes, and and how the owners never issued shoes to a slave. And it was in that condition of being stripped of nothing, that so many people came to really know the reality of what Christ is all about. And not a religious way, but in a real way. And to the point that in the midst of those of the destitution the world not worthy of them, that they would sit around and, and and make up spirituals that would be talking about, I got shoes, and you got shoes, and all God’s children have shoes. And when I get to heaven, I’m going to put on my shoes, I’m going to walk all over God’s heaven. And to be able to realize that that that was a sign of faith. That was people who understood something that many times is missed by most of us. It’s a faith. That is where the rubber meets the road. It’s not a churchianity. It’s a reality of Christ Jesus of people knowing full well one of these days, where I’m going to be, and one of these days where I’m going to enjoy the fullness of my inheritance. In the meantime, I’m going to praise God in my slavery.

At the same token, you can also praise God when you were administering kingdoms when you were head of kingdoms. But the issue is that when you walk by faith, you don’t know what the results are going to be. But it says Don’t lose hope. And now picking up in chapter 12. It’s therefore. And it’s because God had planned something better for us that only with us, they would be made perfect. And therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Now once again, have we not been told that is the filthy five and the Dirty Dozen. And so immediately whenever you read the sin that so easily entangles we’re automatically thinking of drinking, smoking and chewing, or whatever else we want to think of whatever we’re struggling with, that’s what we’re always thinking of. But in the Bible, again, sin is unbelief. Sins, where are all of your sins? Well, they’re behind the back, never to see them again. That’s what Christ took upon him at the Cross sins but He said the world’s sin singular is unbelief. And so the root of all sin is the very root of where it began. If you want to know what true sin is go back to where it started in the Garden of Eden, where man decided to believe Satan instead of believing God, and in so doing, called God a liar and said, Satan, I think I’ll believe you. And all a lie is is a lie against the truth. If you didn’t have truth, you couldn’t have a lie. You wouldn’t even know you were lying if you didn’t have truth. And so the sin that so easily entangles you and me is that thing, as we said, that is within us called indwelling sin that gives us that propensity to want to believe a lie rather than belief, truth. And so the sin that so easily entangles us is that sin of getting off into every harebrained idea that comes down the pike, believing every new philosophy that comes down leaping to this new to this new to this new into this new, where the fact of the matter is, if anything’s new, it isn’t gospel, that’s what will people say, sometimes where do you get this new message, if this was a new message, it wouldn’t be gospel. This is an old message. And if it wasn’t original, it wouldn’t be original. And so you’re not talking about something new. The things that are something new is what throws everybody off and entangles them in this web of error, that ends ends up pausing and poisoning us.

The advertisement that came out that a lure though is based on the principle of deception, that’s a true thing. Any lure is based on the principle of deception. That’s why fish bite into it, and then up in a frying pan. If they knew that that was a lawyer, they wouldn’t bite into it. So the attractiveness of the lure based upon deception is it’s easy to deceive somebody and that’s why you bite into it. Now, those are the sins that so easily entangle us. That’s what he’s talking about. So it says to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. In Colossians were told, don’t give in to worldly philosophies, which depend on human tradition instead of on Christ. That’s what he’s talking about here. Let us run with perseverance, the race that is marked out for us, in other words, finish, go to the finish line. Don’t give up before the life’s over. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And we talked about the fact of birth pangs and about birth, how a woman will endure that cross, so to speak, endure the pain, and the shame and everything else connected with childbirth, it is not a real pleasant deal. And yet for the joy set forth before you of producing that little baby, you’re willing to go through it again and again, that’s a miracle to me, after watching the pain of first childbirth, it’s amazing for me, second, third and fourth child to me, but it just shows how short our memory is.

Now for the joy that was before them, he endured this cross, scorning its shame, and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And then it says, Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful man so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In other words, the trials and tribulations of life, don’t let it get you down realize Faithful is He Who called you who will also do it. Now, that’s what this whole book is about. And we’ve taken that as we do everything else and perverted the daylights out of it, hammered people in the head with his book that is all day talking about the sufficiency of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ and turned it around to bury people that you can lose your salvation that Christ is mad at you, he’s gonna beat the daylights out of you, and everything else and again, it’s perversion. It’s a perversion of truth.

We were talking and what hit to me so much in Colorado when I was up there looking around, not only God’s nature, but God’s people. And to realize that if you’re gonna get to know God, you’re gonna have to get to know His love. And one of the problems is that everyone’s trying to get to know God and God is Spirit. And Jesus said, Who has ever known the Father except the only begotten Son of the Father who is what? Made him known. How do you make him known? By so demonstrating God’s love. That in as much when we were yet sinners He came to die for us. And so we’re always trying to get to know God that is spirit and wondering why we can’t get to know him instead of looking to get to know His love because of God is love and when I get to know His love, I get to know God. And that’s why you and I, the more that we understand about the unconditional love and grace of God has been freely given to us in Christ Jesus, we find ourselves suddenly knowing God. And that’s what changes our lives we have come to know our God.

And if you’ve got a God of wrath, and you’ve got a God that zapping you every time you do something wrong, I’m sorry, you don’t know God. You know what you think is God. That’s why people come along and say, Well, man, he he’s a legalist. And poor boy, he’s a legalist. But he loves God. But that’s a lie. That is a stupid statement. Legalist can’t love God. You love God because He loves you first. If you don’t understand God’s love for you, you don’t love God, you’re just flapping our Christian lips. Oh, I love God. And that’s what you hear all time. I love God. I love God. Miserable. Look like eat a skunk. But I love God. No, you don’t. It’s the very thing that when you just face facts, it was a very thing and let me know in my own life, something’s wrong. Lord, I had to come to the point I don’t love you. I mean, I love you little. But I love you a lot. He said, I know it’s because you know, I don’t love you. You’re underperformance orientation, you’re not trying to perform for me, you don’t understand that I accept you. You might understand my love, but you really don’t understand my acceptance Bob because if you’d if you did, you wouldn’t keep working to be accepted. If you’ll just relax, let me teach you that I not only love you, but I accept you. When, I came to understand the grace of God, I respond back to that love that’s been given to you. I’m gonna try and love God. It’s just something that’s happening as a result of knowing my love for him. And what’s happening is I’m getting to know God. Why? Because I’ve gotten to know His love. And that’s what this whole thing is about.

So in your struggle against sin, which is unbelief, and basically tied into your unbelief of his love for you. Because when you’re going through trials and tribulation, the flesh comes in says, How could God How could a loving God let this happen? Isn’t that right? Have you ever done that? How could God ever let this happen to me? I don’t care if it happened somebody else but to me. And so we have to understand why we’re so concerned about that is because of our own self centeredness. Is God How could this happen to me you wouldn’t give a flip if it was happening to me, but if it’s happening to you or it’s happening to me well then I’m going to question God now what’s happened to you you need to get your faith straightened out.

So it’s talking about then in your in my struggle against sin, you and I have unbelief we have a resistance to the point of shedding your blood. When when the Lord Jesus Christ was in a garden of Gethsemane, and was sweating as it were great drops of blood it wasn’t because he was gonna die. Lesser men than that have certainly gone to the electric chair, or died in a in as a martyr that weren’t sweating as it were great drops of blood. If I knew I was gonna die tomorrow, I wouldn’t be sweating great drops of blood, neither would you. But as I told a teenager one time if you were going to be executed tomorrow, do you think you’d be sweating as it were great drops of blood? No, I don’t think so. I said you as a young virgin girl. What if I told you tomorrow you’re gonna have gotten in a field it’d be molested by about 500 perverts? What do you think you’d do then? Said I think I’d be sweating as it were great drops of blood. And I said, Absolutely. And that’s what the Lord Jesus Christ did at the cross. He went, and was molested by the sins of the world.

Click to Donate to Bob George Ministries

If you’re enjoying the Book of Hebrews, check out our website, Shop.BobGeorge.net. There, you’ll find a whole collection of messages from the book of Hebrews, as well as other DVDs, CDs and Bible studies available for purchase. That’s Shop.BobGeorge.net. Let’s join Bob. Now as he continues the radio program.

Bob George 14:34
So when he was sweating as it were great drops of blood. It was that that temptation between his own identity not My will Father but then be done. Because don’t ever think that the Lord Jesus Christ was just saying, oh, Whoopi, today I get to go out and take upon myself the sins of the world to the point where I just become sin. When He who knew no sin, sinless, pure became sin for you and me, so that in Christ, we could become the righteousness of God, believe me, he was not looking forward to that event. And so to be able to with that struggle of not my will, but Yours be done, Lord, this is the only way that man can ever be reconciled unto us. It’s the only way in the world that sin can be paid for once and for all. Until we don’t have to continue with sacrificial systems that go on and on and on again, that can indeed forgive sins, but can never bring life to people. I want to see my children alive again. And the only way I can do that is through going to that cross and becoming sin for them. That’s resisting the temptation to do my thing. Instead of his, that call brought about as it were, the sweating of blood.

Have you forgotten the word of encouragement that addresses you as sons? Now, here’s one that people have really latched on to my son do not make light of the Lord’s discipline. Don’t lose heart when he rebukes you because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Now, that’s the NIV translation. One of the things that you’re going to see, folks is this, when you understand the grace of God, you understand the finality of the cross, and I mean, understand it, you can spot error in translation that quick, because there is nothing sacred about a translation. And the NIV, although it is very readable, and sometimes it is very good. It has some of the dumbest translations that you would ever want to see in your life, it pulls atonement into New Testament, which is not there. It uses the word punish. And so in translation, and what you will see in translations, the persuasion of the translator, is always there. And if you’ve got a translator, that does not understand the finality of the cross, and He sees a word that needs to be translated out of Greek into English, and there’s different options on it, he’ll always pick the punish option, because that’s his persuasion. Now, you go back to what that is quoting from, and I’ll show you what I’m talking about. And turn back to Proverbs two, because this is where this is being quoted from. In other words, don’t you? Have you forgotten the word of encouragement that addresses you as sons? In other words, he’s going to pull from a quote out of the Old Testament as a word of encouragement. So this is what the Old Testament quote is. It’s in chapter three of Proverbs, beginning in verse 11. My son do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke. because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father, the son, he delights in. Now, that’s the quote. So what somebody do? Punishes everyone accepts as his son.

Now, that could cause confusion to somebody and say, Well, can I rely on the Word of God? You, you can rely on the Spirit of God within you to teach you what it means. That’s why there are different translations. That’s why some translations are good, and some aren’t so good. But if you understand the premise, you can spot it like that and go back and check it out. And sure enough, every time that thing within you was right. Now, that’s hard for people to understand, because we’re taught that the more education you get, and if you can get more degrees than a thermometer, well, then you’re really gotta You Really Got it. But you see, what does the Bible say about that? It says, Your eye can’t see your ear can’t hear. And your mind cannot conceive of those things that God has prepared for those who love Him. But it has to be revealed by what? The Spirit of God living in you. So if the Spirit of God had revealed what something means you don’t know what it means anyway. You might know what it says or think you know what it says, but you don’t know what it means. That’s why when you when you truly have the Spirit of God living in you, when you’ve come into an encounter with the finality of the cross and the reality of the resurrection, that foundation alone, will enable you when you see scripture that is contrary to the finality of the cross, contrary to the reality of the unconditional love and grace of God that is yours in Christ Jesus, you can look at that immediately and say, I may not know for sure what it says but I do know what it doesn’t say, Lord, teach me what it means. And he’ll teach you what it means every single time if you let him. And so we have a translation here. If anyone has a New American Standard, you’ll see a very good translation, you will see a good one in King James. But NIV very poor, as when they bring over, as I said the word atonement instead of taking away. But again, that’s not discouraging, that’s encouraging to me, it’s encouraging to be able to understand the word of God. And when you see something, say, it can’t be can’t be. See, guys, this is the way you have to come. This is where we have to come to in our lives, we just can’t know something, we have to form a policy on it, we have to come to a point where we’re saying if this is true, and this is true, and this is true, then this is true period. That’s it. It’s a policy, it’s a foundation, Jesus is Lord, that is a foundation. And if you build on any other foundation, then that you’re gonna have a cracked house. And it’s the same thing, his death for us was final, not temporary, you build on any other foundation that you got a crack house, you got to come to some conclusions on something, to have some policies on something, to have some guts to be able to say this is true, and stand on it. And that is exactly what happens. When you come to the truth of this. You’ll spot error every single time in translation sometimes, and for sure, in sermons. Now, what’s he talking about here? It says, endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father, if you’re not disciplined, and everyone undergoes discipline, then you’re an illegitimate child, and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live? The discipline in our spirits? Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best but God disciplines us or for our good, that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, it’s painful later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace, for those who have been trained by it.

What is discipline? It’s a training. It’s a training. What do you do with an athlete? Well you train them for what? The game. What what, what is absolutely necessary to be able to play the game without getting killed? If you’re playing football? The discipline of getting in shape, the discipline of learning the plays, all of those things are disciplines. Now, is that something that comes on you? Or it’s something that is on your period? Does a coach sit around and say, Well, today, I think on discipline the players? Or is the coach in a continual state of discipline? Which is it? You see, God doesn’t come on you all of a sudden, here on that bad little boy down there, I’m gonna go discipline him. You’re in a continual state of discipline, because discipline is continually renewing your mind.

Now, guys, one of the problems that we run into, and I think back in the service, Colorado always reminds me that I took basic training there at Colorado Springs, and I say, whenever you end up loving, where you took basic training, it’s a nice place. And so it’s a nice place. But you’re going to see something that I think it’s important for us to to understand on that. One of the reasons that I think we don’t understand or appreciate discipline, is because many times as a Christian, we don’t know we’re in a battle. When you’re taking basic training in wartime you don’t look at your drill sergeant as your enemy. That’s the guy that’s going to keep you alive. When you’re in wartime, and you’re out there and you attach a bayonet on to of those times M1 rifle M1 rifles and learn how to poke a dummy with sometimes some of your friends, but, but you learned, you’re you’re serious about learning how to do that because you’re going to be sent into battle, and you better learn it. When you’re crawling on your belly, underneath, a net with machine gun bullets going over your head with a full awareness of the fact that if you panic and get up, you’re gonna get killed. You learn to crawl on your belly. And those bullets go over and over your head in basic training are a little bit fearful, a little scary. When you sit down and someone says, I’m gonna teach you how to fire a gun, and you know, you’re possibly going into battle, you’re gonna learn how to fire a gun, and all of that stuff that they’re doing to you getting up at four in the morning and all that type of thing. You don’t look at that as punishment at all. It seems like punishment. Now your body’s saying to me, why are you doing to me? What are you doing to it? You got unconfessed in your life? What’s wrong with you? But you see, that’s because your body doesn’t know where you’re going, but your head does. Your head knows I’m going to war. Body doesn’t know that. So it’s complaining and griping as it always does. But your head knows I’m going to war and therefore body, I’m going to discipline you and I’m going to get you in shape. So that I don’t get killed over there. At least by neglect. On the other hand, when you’re in a peacetime army, and they’re training you for that stuff seems like punishment seems like stupidity to you. Idiotic, what I need to fire gun for, I’m not gonna shoot anybody? What do I need to stab a bayonet, what I need to learn how to put a bayonet on the edge of my gun for I’m not going a place? When you’re in a peacetime army, and you’re getting trained in peacetime, and you don’t think there’s any chance at all for a combat zone. That stuff’s punishment to you. But if you know you’re in a battle, you are grateful for it. Aren’t you? Now the reason that most Christians are walking around, thinking God is punishing them, instead of disciplining them, is because we don’t realize we’re in a battle.

Announcer 27:11
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 BobGeorge.net. There you will 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.