Radio Broadcast Tuesday 06/27/2023

 

Join Bob George in this chapter by chapter exposition of the gospel of John. Available for download the complete series on the Book of John. Realize why Christ, Himself, is REAL LIFE and how He personally offers hope in daily living that you may:

• Discover an abundant and meaningful life as a Christian.
• Overcome fear with His assurance that you have His eternal life.
• Experience joy during adversity.
• Apply God’s wisdom in decision making, no matter how big or small.
• Experience freedom as you walk by faith in His love and acceptance. 

 

Purchase Online at Shop.BobGeorge.net

 

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
Well, let’s turn to the 12 chapter, again of the Gospel of John. And we’re gonna pick up where we left off last week, where Jesus is saying to us that we’re only going to have light for just a little while longer. And guys, whenever you see in the Scripture, light and darkness, it always represents and constitutes death and life. To live in darkness is to live in death, apart from the light of the world, who is Christ Jesus. And to live in the light means that we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness, into the Kingdom of the Sun, Jesus Christ. And so the light and darkness is always constitutes death and life. So he says, You’re going to have this light that came into this world, Christ Jesus is the light, it would be like saying, you’re only going to have the sun for just a while longer, you cannot separate what the Bible talks about as the light of the world, apart from recognizing that this light is Christ Jesus. And so it says, you’re only going to have me here in my physical form, that people were able to interact with and to look at and to touch and to be discipled by the person of Christ Jesus, what an honor that would have been, wouldn’t have to have lived back in those days and to have known personally, the physical, Christ Jesus. And he says, I’m only going to be with you for a little while longer. It’s kind of like our lives here on this earth, we literally could say that to people that you’re only gonna have us here for a little while. Some people say Praise God. But the issue is, that’s true, isn’t it? We’re all of us sitting here in this room are only going to be here for just a little while. And sometimes it seems like a long time. But in reality, it’s a very short time in regard to eternity. So he said, I’m only going to be here for a little while longer, you’re going to see the fulfillment of God Himself, in me in Christ Jesus. So he says, Walk while you have the light while I’m here, walk in that light, because the reason for Christ being there was to give us truth, and to expose us to truth and to teach us what truth is, because he said, truth will set you free. And the truth of the Bible is Christ Jesus. That’s what the Bible points us toward is Christ Jesus. And he’s saying to us that while I’m here, walk in this light that God has given you.

For you and me today we are not the physical body of Christ as Jesus was, but we have been made into the body of Christ. When you and I are born again, or were born again, and the Spirit of God came to indwell us, permanently, we became the body of Christ. Each and every one of you in this room who are in Christ Jesus is a member of the Body of Christ. And as the scripture says, that although the body is one, it has many members, you’re looking at a body, not much of one now, but a body. And it’s made up of many parts, I have a head, and I have many parts to my body. But every one of those parts are there to serve the whole. My hands are here to serve the totality of my body. My feet are here to serve the totality of my body. It’s not there to serve feet. It’s there to serve the totality of the body. Everything that we have, our lips, our our digestive system, everything is there to serve, not the system, but the totality of the body. That’s why spiritual gifts are not there to edify the gift, but it’s there to serve the body. If God gave me a gift of teaching as an example, I don’t sit in a room by myself and teach myself and glory over how wonderful it was. If God gave me a gift of teaching, it’s to serve the body. If you have a gift of giving, and you know, people are so anxious for gifts except that one, but if you had the gift of giving, the purpose of it is not to give to yourself to say, well praise God, I got this money, so I’m gonna give themself, but it’s just to serve the body of Christ. And until we get a glimpse of that, folks, we’re only going to be a Christian who receives but never gets involved in the serving of the totality of the Body of Christ. And we miss out on a vital role that God has called us to, in regard to living the Christian, the Christian experience. And so you have all of these gifts that God gave to the body, the gift of encouragement, if you have the gift of encouragement, it’s not to sit in a room and encourage yourself, it’s to go out into the world into the body of Christ and encourage people who need encouraged. Do you know anyone that needs encouragement? We all do. And if you have the gift of encouragement, you’ll be involved in that process of encouraging your brothers and sisters in Christ. That’s what we’re there for. We’re not there to beat each other to death. It’s a sad commentary to me what you see, taking place many times in the Christian world where it says it’s the only army that shoots its wounded, to be in a place where people are ridiculing each other. And we have to understand the fact that sin as an example, a person who loves you covers it, it doesn’t go out to expose it, it covers. That’s why you’re serving the body, in that fashion. And so we understand how God gave certain gifts to this body of Christ for the purpose of building up the entirety of the body.

As Bob was talking about a little earlier, God has put together this body of believers, we’re not here to get numbers, if we were we’d have a totally different function than what we have. I know how to go out and to get numbers. I’ve worked in churches where they were masters at it. So I know how to do that. It’s just the fact that I refuse to do that. Because I’m not interested in having this room filled full of people that are here in order to get activities, or to get their ears tickled with nonsense. The purpose for being here is to help believers grow in their knowledge of Christ. And that’s why the emphasis here is on teaching, not entertaining you. I think there’s plenty of entertainment out in the world apart from us, there’d better be you’re not gonna get any entertainment. But the issue is that that’s not what the church is for the church was not to be an entertainment center. It is not necessarily a place and and and take this, what I’m saying, a place for Starbucks to be, or a place for bowling alleys or all of that type of thing. You can have those if if you want to attract people who don’t care whether you’re in Christ or not, and I don’t care whether you know, Jesus or not just come, you all come. And I’ll give you your tithing envelopes. And we’ll we’re brothers in Christ. But that is not the purpose of the church. The purpose of the church was that they met daily for the apostles teaching, and for fellowship and for prayer, period. That’s the only thing you ever see in the Bible about church. Am I right or wrong, guys? That is what the church is to be a place where you come and learn about Jesus, and grow in your knowledge of Jesus, and grow in your knowledge of the fact that if I’m in Jesus, and Jesus is in me, then I’m here to serve this body. And it’s a privilege to serve one another in love. To be able to reach out and not always look for something in return. That’s the difference between serving and earning. If I’m earning, I’m doing something to get something back, if I’m serving, I’m serving because I’ve already got something. And the reason you and I reach out is because we’ve already got and you can’t outgive God, you cannot in any of those things you cannot out, encourage God. You can’t out teach God. You don’t have to worry about running out of resources. He’ll give them to you and he has given them to you. And that’s the beauty of this Christian life is the fact that we have the light, guys, Christ Jesus lives in us. Now we are possessed with a light of the world. And he says, because we have light, you’re gonna have to also understand something. That’s why you’re not in great communion with with the world because the world is in darkness. And guys, what separates you and me from the world is not necessarily the way that we act.

Now I have to I have to grant you the fact that our action should certainly be different than that of the world. We all understand that. But I also understand that they’re not always different from the world are they? And sometimes you get as angry enough, and nobody would ever tell the difference. You know, it’s kind of like being at a rock concert, you would know whether you’re there an insane asylum, if either one of you would have any idea. And it’s the same type of a situation, there are times when certainly that is true. But the issue is, and the difference is that when those kinds of attitudes that that caused, those kinds of actions are revealed to us by the Spirit. And if God lives in us, he is diligent Is he not to reveal these attitudes to us, that God begins to work on our hearts. And to let us know that this is not the attitude of Christ Jesus. Everything that we do, folks, results as a result of our attitudes, our attitudes are what control the way we live. If you have an attitude that I am now a child of the King, and as a child of the King, I’m going to make decisions in life. As a child of the King, if I’m married, I’m going to have to make a decision to die to singleness. I’ve mentioned that before guys that in marriage, cherish it if you have it. Because you may not always have it. So when you do cherish it, cherish your mate. Because they might not always be there. But the issue is that it’s your attitude. What is the attitude of our heart, toward the way we treat one another? And the way we interact with one another? Are we vile? Are we selfish? Or are we thinking about serving one another in love? How can I serve you in love? How can I help you to grow in your knowledge of Christ Jesus? How can I help you to grow in the world? Is there anything I can do to help you to become more successful in life? And these are attitudes of the heart that God honors and as partially what he’s saying to us here is, you’ve got the light, now live in it, before the darkness overtakes you. Guys, when you are and I are indwelt by Christ Jesus, which if we’re born again, we truly are indwelt by Christ Jesus, we have received the light of the world. But he says, there’s darkness out there and and walk in this light, before you get overtaken unless you get overtaken with it. Now, what does that tell us? That tells us that we can get so involved in the world that nothing spiritual ever comes through. We’re spiritual people. We are in Christ Jesus. We’re in the light. Our destiny is secured as to where we’re going to be when we’re absent from the body and present with the Lord. And yet we wander back in to the darkness.

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If you’re enjoying the Book of John, check out our website, Shop.BobGeorge.net. There, you’ll find a whole collection of messages from the book of John, 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 14:01
I wonder sometimes and not to be overly critical. But I wonder sometimes what people are thinking in the so called church life that we call Christianity. When we go out to the world and find out what did you do to get business? How did you get people into your store? Walmart. How do you How did you attract people to your store? Well, let’s take those same principles. And let’s apply them to the church. So you got people into your store by advertising and sending out mailers and all of this and you’ve got the all of this church growth and everything else that hey, if you do these things, your church will grow. We see guys, what you’re saying is if you do these things, your numbers will grow. But what about the maturity of the people that are here? And I wonder sometimes in regard to have we said in the In the world that what kind of music do, what kind of music do the kids like? And so let’s let’s develop our music so the kids will like it. Well, I want to tell you something, what I liked as a kid, I wouldn’t be real proud of. I think a role of a parent is not to reduce yourself down to the level of the child, but to try to elevate the child to the level of the adult. And what we’re doing is compromising in order to be socially acceptable and politically acceptable. Instead of helping people to understand good things. I appreciate my daughter because she plays good music to her kids. She plays classical music. She plays Josh Groban. I think she likes him about as well as Jesus. I’m not sure but she she is a big Josh Groban fan. Now I tell you, it’s thrilling sometimes to see our little ones walking around and singing songs that Josh Groban sings to get them exposed to good music that some of you don’t know who Josh Groban is, and that’s okay. But to get into good music, and to help to elevate their, their thinking into something that’s better than just the vile, and the bass or emotions that could be generated through the musical scores today. And some people don’t agree with that. But that’s all right to these old hymns, you’re never gonna beat those guys, any more than you’re gonna, somebody’s gonna out art, Michelangelo, or DaVinci, you’re not gonna, sorry, you’re not gonna beat him, or them. That was an era that was in this world that will probably never be duplicated again. And so the issue is that we need to elevate people, we need to encourage people into goodness, as it says in the scripture, to think on things that are good and holy, instead of the things that we think about so much, so often.

So what he’s saying to us is, you have the light, you had the light in person in Christ Jesus, now we have the light in regard to the Holy Spirit of God who lives in us. I was talking earlier in the service when one of our dear people here in the congregation came up to talk to me a little bit about Classic Christianity and about a story that meant a lot to her. And I, I thought that is that’s very true of a friend of mine Sid, who was a alcoholic. When we lived in Whittier, California and got a call one day from one evening, late at night from his wife and said, Could you come down and talk to Sid, he’s drunk? And sure enough, he was. But I remember walking down our street there in Whittier down to his house, and it was quite late at night. And thinking to myself, God, there isn’t anything wrong with you, there’s got to be something wrong with Sid and he’s understanding. Because a number of weeks prior to that, they both he and his wife, who had both of them than alcoholics, since the time they got out of college, had walked an aisle of one of the Baptist churches there in Whittier, California. Liz had been totally freed of her alcoholism. And Sid was still drinking. I said, There’s got to be something wrong with Sid not you Lord. And I remember as we were sitting there, interacting, and he through his drunken stupor, was, was talking to me about why he was drunk and all this stuff. And I finally asked him a question, Sid, when you walked the aisle the other day, did you receive Jesus, the God? Or did you receive Jesus the man? And he said, What do you mean? And I said, Well, did you accept the fact that there was a man named Jesus walking on the face of this earth? Who did one many wonderful deeds? healed the blind? Made the deaf to hear? raised the dead? Is that the man that you received? Or did you realize that that man who did those things was raised from the dead as God? And today is seated at the right hand of God interceding on your behalf? Which did you receive Jesus the man or Jesus the God? And Sid looked at me through his blurry eyes and he said, I received Jesus the man. I said, Did you realize said that this Jesus, who is the man is also God. And do you realize that this is As the one who was raised from the dead, after entering into your death with you was raised from the dead in order to give life to you, did you understand that? No, I didn’t understand that. Are you ready today to accept the living Christ, not just the one who walked on this earth and died on a cross, but the one who was raised from the dead, and today is ready to raise you from the dead? And I saw that man, fall onto his knees, and accept the living Christ into his life. That was years ago, never had to touch another drink, to start into a newness of life, because why he was new in life, that he had come to the fullness of Christ Jesus, not just what Jesus did for him here on Earth. But what he did in his resurrected life. And God restored the years that the Locust ate away. And although his life at that time looked like it was totally destroyed by his choices, that is not the case, because God restored his life and made him into a brand new creature in Christ.

And so there’s darkness out there. And we have that tendency, many times to wander back into darkness, and to engage in the deeds of darkness. And what God is saying to us is, look, the light is in you. Now walk in that before the darkness overtakes you. Because guys, do you realize you can be overtaken by darkness? Even though you’re a born again, believer? How many of you believe that, that you can get back into the world and be overtaken by it? And that’s really true. How does he do that? By changing your attitudes, by getting your mind off of what is truth and getting it onto what’s a lie, by convincing you as to how much fun you used to have back when, before you knew Jesus. And so he continually is bombarding our minds with with thoughts that are not thoughts of God. And I have people sometimes saying how do you know when you’re being led by the Spirit? You know, I’m convinced what the Bible says that if you’re in Christ Jesus, you are being led by the Spirit. It’s just like, if you’re not in Christ Jesus, you don’t have a choice as to who you’re being led by, do you? You’re being led by Satan. Now he can lead you into good sounding things to can’t he? Because all Satan is interested in is your eyes off of Jesus, he doesn’t care what your eyes are on, as long as they’re off of Jesus. And so when you’re lost, you don’t have any choice as to who’s leading you Satan’s leading you. Why not would it be true then that if you’re in Christ Jesus, that you’re being led by the Spirit, that’s what it talks about. If you’re in Christ, you’re being led by the Spirit. Now, what can keep you then from being led by the Spirit, if you’re born again, that’s the job of the Spirit now is to lead you, what keeps you from being led by the Spirit? Getting back into the world. And it says in that its relation to the law getting back under the law where the power of sin is. And so he’s saying to us is, if you will relax and recognize that you are a child of God, and as a child of God, I’m leading you. And the only reason the only thing can cause me not to lead you is your refusal to be led. But if you’re willing to be led by the Spirit, I’ll be there leading you. And that’s what he’s saying to us while you while if you know that truth, walk in it, because when you’re in the dark, you don’t know where you’re going.

So he says in verse 36, put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light, to be people, sons of God to as many as received Him to them, he gave the right to become a child of God is the same thing as son of light as a child of God. And when he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them. Now he’s talked about last week, and even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. It was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, the Lord who has believed our message, and to whom as the arm of the Lord been revealed.

Guys, you can sit and I see people today and that’s another facet of the Christian religion, where people are involved only in signs and wonders. Give me a sign. You know if you went up to Jesus and said, Give me a sign, you know what he had say to you today, the same thing he said to the disciples back then I’ll show you a sign. Tear down the temple and three days, I’ll rebuild it, talking about his own body. Guys, if the miracle of the resurrection isn’t enough for you, then what do you think lengthening your legs gonna be? Or what do you think some other miracle is going to be? Or some healing, which a doctor can do is going to mean? If I cannot believe in Jesus, by the resurrection, there is no so called miracle that he could do to me, that’s gonna cause me to believe in Him. Because I want to tell you something, guys, the greatest miracle that you and I will ever experience in our life is the miracle a new birth. The day that God made you into a new creation? That’s a miracle, is it not? And for some of you, it’s even a greater miracle than with others. But the issue is, that is the greatest miracle that you will ever experience is the day when you’re in a situation where you know nothing. You don’t know how anything works. You just know what you’re doing doesn’t. That’s what you do know. And somebody comes along, as Bill Bright did with me and says, Bob, did you know that Jesus died for you? And all of a sudden, something causes you to believe that? Yeah, I knew I believed he died on a cross. But I really had never personalized that. Hey, I believe that. And do you believe that Jesus was raised from the dead? Sure I do. Did you believe that he is raised from the dead so that you could be raised from the dead? That’s not just believing in a historical event that took place, but he did it for you? Did you know that? No, I didn’t know that. Do you believe it? Yeah, I do.

Announcer 27:16
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’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 in praise the Lord. Amen.

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Listen to the Salvation message today!

Stand on the firmness of truth. Don’t keep going back and forth. Thank Him that the forgiveness issue is settled.

Let’s pray together:

• Lord Jesus,
• I thank you for taking away my sins on the cross,
• never ever to see them again.
• Having done that, I now thank you for giving me eternal life,
• through your resurrection.
• I now receive that life.
• And I am going stand in the fact that I am a child of the living God.
• In Jesus Holy name I pray.
• Amen

All believers are now brothers and sisters in Christ.

John 3:3
³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

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