Radio Broadcast Tuesday 05/23/2023

Classic Christianity – The Book of John P47 (05-23-23)

Jesus Said, I AM The Gate and Narrow is the Way!

~ There is only one way to God and that is through Jesus, the gate for the sheep. If you are trying to get in by jumping over the gate, or climbing over it, the word of God calls people like this thieves and robbers. Jesus is of no value to a person like that. They think they can do it on their own and by their own standards.

~ Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.^{John 10:7-10}

~ “And therefore, Jesus said, again, I tell you the truth. Now, here’s another one of the I ams, I am the gate for the sheep. If you want to get into the sheep bin, there’s only one way to come in and that’s through me. Did he not say I am the Way and the Truth and the Life and no man will come to the Father except through Me, Jesus. And all who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, He said. All of this theology that you have heard as to how to be saved, or made by people who are jumping over the fence, they’re thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate and whoever enters through me will be saved. Very simple. If you enter through me, you will be saved.” ~ 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 0:29

I remember things that get your attention in my particular life. I was down in San Diego with some mill representatives of a carpet company that I represented. And we were in this church in San Diego. And I was with these guys that were just been out the night before. Just drinkin all over the place. And I remember walking into that and saying these guys this kind of looks like the church I go to. And they said, you go to church? That was a response you and I was like, Well, of course don’t you? Are you kidding? It was like, What are you talking about? You go to church? And I said What’s wrong with these guys? With these guys? Not anything wrong with me. What’s wrong with these guys? I saw no inconsistency with that. I didn’t see anything unusual about that at all because church didn’t mean anything to me except a nice place to go. But you see in the church setting something had to be taught. And what was being taught was, I think, because I don’t think I was ever told. But I think what must have been taught is, if in your life, if you do more good works then you do bad, and if you’re a nice basic, you know, it’s always a basically a nice person. I don’t know what that means, basically. But basically, we’re all nice people, you’re going to be okay. And if someone would have asked me during that period of time, through all that lifestyle that I lead, are you going to go to heaven? My answer was, Yeah, sure, I’m basically a nice person. It never would have entered my mind that I was gonna go to hell never did it ever. In my mind, that would have been the farthest thing from my mind that Bob George is gonna go to hell. No matter how bad I got, I’m basically a good person grew up in a nice have family grew up a nice parents, basically a good person. Haven’t killed anybody. Don’t think I’ve stolen least recently. And all those other things, get rid of your mind. But that’s where I’m going. Now, folks, that is being taught by people who are blind as a bat, who think they can see. You got other people who say, if you join my church, you’re going to be saved. If you come into my church and are baptized in my waters by my pastor, you’re going to be saved. That’s all it takes. Those are people being taught by a blind person who thinks they can see. You can go into areas that the way that you get saved is go out on mission trips. And if you take mission trips and become a missionary this that’s going to do a John Wesley was one of those, where John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist religion, said he came to America, to minister to the Indians in hopes of saving his own soul. He was a pastor. He was educated, and was over here trying to work for his salvation. He went back and total frustration, got on the ship back to England in total utter frustration. And on his way back, the boat got in a terrific storm. And he was scared to death, petrified. And on the same boat with him were a group of what they call Moravian believers, Bible believing Christians. And they were sitting around singing songs. And he was thinking to himself, how can these probably idiots be sitting here singing songs about Jesus, when this boats about to go down, and I’m sitting here petrified as a minister? The storm calmed down and they arrived in England. And within a few weeks, he went to a place outside of London called Aldersgate. And there he heard one of these men reading from the premise of the book of Romans about justification by faith and faith alone. And he said, as they were reading, he suddenly realized that although he had been trying to do a lot for God, he had never accepted what God had done for him in the person of Christ Jesus. They said, all of a sudden, he trusted Christ, Jesus alone will for 100% sufficient for his salvation. And he said, his heart was strangely warmed. He was born again. And he went out and turned England upside down. When he finally understood it was not what he was doing for God but what God had done for him. Now that teaching that he was under prior to that was being taught by blind people, and he was blind thinking he could see. If he didn’t think he could see wouldn’t been over there trying to save others. And that’s what Jesus is talking about. Judgment has come to this world, whatever you think, is gonna save you apart from Christ Jesus, you’re blind.

You have people to think today that if you worship Allah, if you’re a Muslim, you’re gonna be saved, you couldn’t be more blind. Or if I joined a Catholic church, I’ll be saved, you couldn’t be more blind. Or if I joined the Baptist Church, you couldn’t be more blind. You’re not saved by joining a club. You’re saved only by God, no man can save you. So I asked a church of Christ person the other day who died for your sins? Jesus. Who was raised from the dead? Jesus. Who baptized you? Pastor. So if baptism is a part of salvation, then you’re saying, it’s a part Jesus and part pastor. It isn’t part Jesus and part pastor. It’s just Jesus. Jesus is a spiritual birth and nothing natural can commingle with spiritual. It’s all him and none of us. Now to believe otherwise, you’re blind according to the scripture. According to Jesus, you’re blind is a bat and you think you can see but You can’t see.

And so he said, I came into this world so that the blind will see. And those who see, will become blind. Some Pharisees who are with him heard him say this, and he asked, What Are we blind too? Like saying, Who do you think I’m talking to? And Jesus made a statement though, he said, If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin. In other words, if you were really blind, you wouldn’t be guilty. But you claim you can see, and then go in a different direction than me and your guilt remains on you. Your problem is that you’re blind, but you think you can see.

I tell you the truth of man who does not enter, he’s talking about the truth here, who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. There’s one way to get into the shape gate, he’s saying. And if you don’t go through the gate, and you climb over the fence, it means you’re trying to get in, with some other way than the way to get in. And he calls him a thief. And he calls him a robber. That’s like people trying to get into heaven, some other way than through the sheep gate. I’m gonna get there by my good works, you say you’re climbing over the fence, you’re a thief and a robber. I’m gonna get there by belonging to this church, you’re gonna you’re climbing over the fence. I’m gonna get there. But God, God chose me. It didn’t choose you, but he chose me. You’re climbing over the fence that you didn’t get in by going through the gate. God just dropped in there, because he likes you. Reformed theology. And so he says that you climb in by some other way as a thief and robber, the man who enters the gate is the shepherd of the sheep enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The watchman, he said, opens the gate for him and the sheep LISTEN to His voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out. And when he is brought out all of his own, he goes ahead of them. And the sheep follow him because they know His voice. Folks in the sheep herding business, even to this day in Israel, and anyplace else, there is a guttural sound that the shepherd makes that is known only to his sheep, a certain guttural sound. And when he makes that sound, his sheep immediately recognize this is the voice of my shepherd. And they follow Him. They will never follow a stranger were told. In fact, they’ll run away from him because they do not recognize the stranger’s voice. You can have sheep herders out in a field, which you will see. And all of them have their own sheep. And then the one sheep herder will say, I’m gonna go over here make this guttural sound, and only his sheep will follow him. And the rest of them will not. My sheep, he said, hear my voice. And if you’re not hearing his voice, it’s because you’re not of his sheep. Now, Jesus talked about that last week, you got two fathers, you got the devil and you got God. And if you’re not belong to God, the Father, you belong to Satan. Nothing in between just the two, either you’re in Satan’s camp, or in God’s camp.

But this sheep is very interesting to me as to how this certain guttural sound can be made by a shepherd in the midst of 1000s of sheep, and his 100 will follow him right out of there, and not want to have the rest of them will go with him. It’s amazing, isn’t it? Jesus used this as a figure of speech, but they didn’t understand what he was telling them. And therefore, Jesus said, again, I tell you the truth. Now, here’s another one of the I ams I am the gate for the sheep. If you want to get into the sheep bin, there’s only one way to come in and that’s through me. Did he not say I am the Way and the Truth and the Life and no man will come to the Father except through Me, Jesus. And all who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, He said. All of this theology that you have heard as to how to be saved, or made by people who are jumping over the fence, they’re thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate and whoever enters through me will be saved. Very simple. If you enter through me, you will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture, and you can go out and intermix with the world. But when you hear the voice of God, you’re gonna know to follow him. Are you and I out in the world? Do we hear the voice of the world? Are you able to tell the difference between the voice of the world and the voice of God? Are we able to know the difference? You see, we get trapped in so many ways. Don’t we? The world is full of trapping us through error of discouraging us, to putting us down to making us feel like we’re second rate citizens. Isn’t that true? It’s what the world does. And we have to listen to the voice of God. If you’re discouraged sometimes, you have to listen to the voice of God. If you’re anxious about tomorrow, and we do get anxious, don’t we? You gotta listen to the voice of God. My sheep hear my voice. And a voice of God says Bob, don’t be anxious about anything. But in all things with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known unto me. And when you do the peace of God that passes all understanding will quiet your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. That’s God’s voice. The world’s voice says worry about it. get discouraged over it. Do you know in depression as an example, is almost an epidemic proportions in the world today? And do you know that there is no such thing as being depressed apart from being full of self pity? Do you know that? Now, if we’ve ever been depressed, we don’t like to admit that. But there’s no such thing and the deeper you’re in self pity, the deeper your depression. And you let self pity continued going downward and downward and downward and you’re going to see your depression going downward and downward and downward down to the point where you are totally without hope. And when you get without hope you’re that far from suicide.

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Bob George 13:57
Why? Self pity, it enters into all of us. Woe is me. Yeah, I mean, have you ever said that about circumstances? Well, Woe is me. How many have you? Yeah. Are we all together? Yeah, we’re all together. Woe is me. I didn’t deserve this. didn’t earn it. But I got it. How could this happen to me? Go through all kinds of those things, don’t you? I’m a jerk. I’ve always been a jerk. I was a little be one. That’s encouraging news that’ll make you feel good about yourself. I tell people sometimes if I said about you what you’re saying about you, you’d punch me in the face. And we don’t think anything the world about that. Just sitting there beating the daylights out of ourselves, just annihilating ourselves and don’t think a thing of it but if I said it to you, you’d be all over me. But there is no such thing as depression apart from self pity. Now, what’s the solution to this? Recognizing the truth, when I start in a pity party, and then who wants to have a party by themselves? So you want to invite somebody to your pity party, do you not? And they don’t want to come. And then you say, See, I told you, nobody knows, they don’t even want to they don’t even like you. They don’t want to come to your party. I’m all by myself. Now, folks, when those voices hit, you’ve got to know when to say no, because that’s not your Shepherd speaking. You’re following, unlike the sheep that only hear the voice of the shepherd and follow Him, you’re following another shepherd, when we began listening to those voices. So we have to recognize nothing unusual about this is there is there anybody in there that thinks getting depressed is unusual? Anybody? No, not unusual at all, all you have to do is just handled adverse circumstances, you can get depressed. And if you don’t have one, make one up. And that’s easy to do, too, because we’re capable of doing that all we got to do is just start thinking about all the bad things that happened yesterday, and all things going to happen tomorrow, and I’m gonna be sitting there, nine years old, have the beard down to my knees, and willows may still have made it. And listening to those voices, you’ve got to get to a point of understanding where those voices are coming from. They’re not yours, they sound like you, but they’re not yours. And to cast it away and say, that is another shepherd that I don’t listen to. I listen to my shepherd. And my Shepherd tells me that if I’ve made a big mistake, you know, guys, if you lay an egg, the only thing you can do step back and admire that sucker, the only thing you can do with it, you have laid it. And so he says, There’s nothing you can do with that egg. It’s over, it’s done. Now get up and move on, get up and sin no more. He didn’t sit there and beat the daylights out of the woman been caught in adultery, telling her what a skirt is back. She was he just said get up and sin no more, you’ve made a mistake, admit it, and get up and sin no more. We’ve made mistakes in our lives. I know people who have lost their entire fortunes practically on the stock market. You ever know anyone like that? What happens? Well you can sit there with a pity party, Woe is me. Said No, you’re going to have to take a look, this is the way it is. This is where I am. And this is where I hope I’m going and get up and start working toward another goal. You’re never going to go forward when you’re thinking backwards.

And so we have to understand these thinking patterns of ours. And so we have to realize that a thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, he comes to steal our joy, to kill our future thinking and to destroy anything that we’ve got. He’s there to do that. And we can’t allow him to do so. But the world is out there, folks. And that voice is out there 24 hours a day. And if we don’t know our shepherd, and know what our Shepherd is teaching, you’re a sitting duck for the enemy. Because there’s a lot more out there that we know about many times than what we know in this book right here. As I said to you last week, all you have to do is to take this little book, this many pages, there is the new covenent. Right in here, this little page right here, these pages that contain the wisdom of the world, contain the wisdom of God, right in here. Anybody think they can’t read this many pages? But if you don’t know what’s in this book, you’re not gonna have the wisdom of God. And if you don’t have the wisdom of God, you’re not gonna know what your Shepherd is saying. And if you don’t know what your Shepherd is saying, You’re a sucker for following somebody else’s. Am I right or wrong? And so he says, that he’s the gate and whoever enters through me will be saved. You will come in and out. He’s gonna go in and out, but he’s gonna find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and to kill and destroy, and I have come that you might have life and have it to the fullness.

That’s the purpose of Jesus coming is to give you and me life and give it to us abundantly. All through our life guys we are making decisions. Sometimes they’re good. Sometimes they’re bad. And we don’t know whether they’re good or bad until the results have come in. But the issue is they’re making decisions. And if you and I do not stand up and stand tall in the truth of the Word of God, where you’re going to be? He said, I’m the Good Shepherd. I am that Shepherd. I’m the only Shepherd, for you to listen to the good shepherd that you followed laid down his life for you, the sheep, a hired man is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. If I don’t own you, and I was working for you, and I see some danger, you just run away, let the sheep get killed. When the wolf attacks the flock, and he scatters it, the man runs away, because he’s a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. But I’m the Good Shepherd. And I know my sheep, and My sheep know me, you know, Christ. And Christ knows you if you’re in Christ. If you’re in Christ, from the bottom of the attitude of your heart, you can sing with total knowledge, what a friend we have in Jesus. What a friend we have in Jesus, all my sins and griefs to bear. Because we don’t carry everything to him, that’s when we run into grease. He’s the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep, My sheep know me. And just as a father knows me, and I know the Father, I lay down my life for my sheep, no greater demonstration in the world of God’s love for us that God demonstrated His love toward us. And while we were yet sinners, he what? He died for us. I have no other sheep that are not of the sheep pen. There’s only one sheep pen, that’s mine. And you didn’t have all these other sheep pens out there, all these other blind people cry a climate over the wall. But my pen is entered into only through me. This is not being narrow minded, as the world says, or dogmatic. Or all of these crazy evangelical Christians that are trying to impose themselves on us, trying to make us blind people to see, terrible, terrible thing to do. But that’s what you’re accused of are, you’re not? The world, if you’re in Christ Jesus, and you’re making an open proclamation of Christ Jesus, you are hated in this world. I don’t care who you are. We have to understand that. Why? Well, they think because we know more. I’m not better than anyone. I’m better off than a person who doesn’t know Christ, but I’m not better than they are. But I’ll tell you something that I do know that they don’t I know the wisdom of God. Because I know the God of Wisdom. Now he says, I have, I know the Father and I lay down my life from a sheep, I have other sheep that are not this sheep pen, referring to the Gentile world. He was speaking to the Hebrew world. I also have a Gentile world out there that I’m going to reach. And I must bring them also. That was a foreign thought that God was gonna go to the Gentile world and save them the same way he saved the Hebrews. But he said I gotta bring them along to and you still you hear that study and the book of Ephesians, of how, in the mind of God, the mystery the musterian was that God was going to bring the Gentiles and the Jew together into one new man. One new out of the two, and make an Ecclesia church and Ecclesia made up a born again, Hebrews and Gentiles alike.

They too, the Gentiles too will listen to my voice. And there will be one flock. In other words back when he said, I’m going to take the two and make one new man out of you. And there’s going to be one flock. Right now it’s just a Hebrew flock. Before long, it’s going to be a Hebrew and Gentile. And I’m going to bring them together and tear down the wall of hostility that is between the two they hated each other. And the two of them are going to become as one and there’ll be one flock and one shepherd not going to be Hebrew Jesus at a Gentile Jesus. Just Jesus, who was the God over both the Hebrew and the Gentile.

The reason that my Father loves me is that I lay down my life. But in essence, he’s saying only to take it up again. I’m gonna lay it down, I’m going to enter in to the death of my people. So that raised from the dead they can enter into my resurrection with me. He says no one takes it from no one takes my life from me. Could have Jesus stopped the cross? In a New York minute. But he stopped the cross could he have saved you and me? Until a seed falls into the ground and what? Dies. It abides what? Alone. He had been the only one on the earth saved. A seed fell into the ground and died. So that out of that seed we could be BORN AGAIN of the Spirit. But no one takes my life from me, I lay it down on my own accord. I have authority said to lay it down, and authority to take it up again. This command I received from the Father. At these words, the Hebrews, it says were divided. Many of them said again, he’s demon possessed and raving mad. Can you believe those words? I mean, just listening to those words with that kind of make you say this is a madman thinking. Not to us, but to them. Madman. How come they were blind, they thought they can see but they’re blind. And they’re saying, Why listen to him. This man is a madman. But there were others again. Who does God give grace to? The humble. Who does he resist? The proud. The Proud is saying he’s demon possessed. He’s raving mad. The humble of heart we’re saying. These are not words. These are not sayings of a man possessed by a demon. I mean, I’ve heard demonic talk, that isn’t it, and how can a demon open the eyes of the blind?

Folks, later on came the Feast of Dedication to Jerusalem and it was winter and Jesus was in a temple area walking in Solomon’s colonnade, and the Judeans gathered around him saying, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly, as if he hadn’t been telling them plainly. And Jesus answered, I did tell you, I have told you plainly. But you don’t believe.

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.