Radio Broadcast Tuesday 11/28/2023

Classic Christianity – Book of Hebrews P39 (11-28-23)

If You Hear The Holy Spirit Do Not Harden Your Heart

~ Today. This is for today folks. God is telling us not to harden our hearts to the teaching of the Holy Spirit of Truth. Yet so many people have indeed hardened their hearts to Truth. They are in direct rebellion with God. It’s no different than the Hebrews wandering in the wilderness, because they did not believe God. And the writer of the book of Hebrews warns us of this and gives it as a prime example of what NOT to do. And thus people will not enter His rest because they will not rest from their own works of self righteousness. We see it all over the place. Satan and religion teaches the lies of ongoing forgiveness. Or Satan and his false ministers will teach the lie that only the sins of the elect were forgiven at the cross. And most people will not even verify (by testing the spirits) what a person teaches in this very foundation of the cross, and simply believe whatever else man has to say about God. Why would anyone knowingly promote someone else that does not teach forgiveness properly? It’s because we are living in the last days where it says, people will draw to themselves what their itching ears want to hear.

~ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts,
as you did in the rebellion,
in the day of testing in the wilderness,
where your fathers tested and tried Me,
and for forty years saw My works.
Therefore I was angry with that generation,
and I said,
‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known My ways.’
So I swore on oath in My anger,
‘They shall never enter My rest.’ ” ^{Hebrews 3:7-11}

—–

~ “And to be able to realize that God God is a God of perfect love. He is a God of perfect acceptance. We can’t accept people unconditionally. We can’t love people unconditionally. So that’s why we have so much difficulty understanding God’s unconditional love and acceptance because if we can’t do it, surely God can’t; bring him down to us. Instead of us being elevated to him. And to realize that he is bigger than we are. He is an all nitpicking on the things that we’re nitpicking on. He isn’t. He isn’t all hung up on the things we’re hung up on. He’s looking at the big picture he has provided and he’s saying walk in to that Sabbath rest, to be able to eat from trees that you didn’t plant and drink from wells that you didn’t dig, and to take a vacation in Christ, letting me live my life through you doing what I want to do in and through you, instead of you going out and trying to perform for God. And that’s the Sabbath rest. And it takes many times years and years for us to roam in that desert of self effort, and bring glory to ourselves and what I’m doing for God, instead of entering into that Sabbath, rest, rejoicing in what God did for you, and for me. And that’s what he’s calling us to this promise of entering this rest, he says, still stands, let’s be careful, none of you be found to fallen short of it. Because you’ve also heard the gospel preached to you chapter four of the book of Hebrews, just as they did. But there this message was of no value to them, because they didn’t, those who heard it did not combine it with faith. They didn’t believe it. God said it, we didn’t believe it. And so he’s talking about there still remains, then verse six, that some will enter that rest. And those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in because of their disobedience. What’s the disobedience? They didn’t believe God, he refused to believe there was a place called a Sabbath rest over there. You see, if you’re looking at this, that they didn’t go in because of their disobedience, meaning they weren’t obeying all the things God to say. And because they weren’t obeying what God to say they couldn’t go in That’s ludicrous. Now you’re back to that’s not resting. It’s the fact they didn’t believe there was a rest. They were out there trying to do things for God. Trying to be obedient to God in the energy of their own flesh, as if flesh could ever please spirit. Instead of the believing of God, the disobedience was they didn’t believe when he said, there’s a promise rest in there, there’s a Sabbath rest in there, enter in, they said, unh-uh, no God, you understand, you watch my smoke. You just You just just don’t understand how righteous I can be if you let me. And therefore God said a certain day, and he called it today, went a long time later, he spoke to David it was said today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart, don’t harden that don’t get away from this self effort, this glorification of us and what we’re doing instead of him and what he’s doing. We’ve built institutions and programs, my friends.” ~ Bob George

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Announcer 0:12
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Bob George 0:30
Hebrews chapter four, we’ve been talking about an area of the of the Bible that gets ignored so often. And I think it gets ignored, because we don’t understand what it is. And because we don’t understand it, why it’s a little hard to teach what you don’t understand. What it’s talking about this entering into a Sabbath rest. And folks, there’s not a more important thing for us to understand that God never intended for us to live in the desert. We come out of Egypt, we’re saved, we are headed toward the promised land, we are headed and that’s not heaven in the sweet by and by, that’s here on this earth. You’re talking about entering into a Sabbath rest, where you and I have the opportunity of resting from our works just as He rested from His. We come to Christ saved by grace and then are maintained by works. And that’s what most people believe the Christian life is all about, I certainly did for years. And so you’re saved by Christ. Now, go do something for God. And you go do something for God. And here’s how you’re going to please God, and you’re going to witness their body at walks, and you’re going to have your quiet time, you’re going to pray, and you’re going to go to church, and you’re going to do all this. And so now you’re doing good things for God. And then we gather together in our assemblies, and before long, why we are building some edifice to ourselves. And that’s what we’re talking about. I had dinner the other night with some dear people, and I’ve known for years. And I’ll tell you that it was almost difficult for me to digest my food, sitting there listening to people talk for hours about church, and about the pastor, and about what we’re doing in the church and how this program in the church and how we got this going in the church and this going at church, Christ never mentioned he’s not important. Programs are important. And I thought to myself, as I walked away from there, I am so glad to be out of that atmosphere. I do not know what to do. I am so sick and tired of hearing about institutions and people talking about the pastor and what his home looks like this. Who cares? I mean, kinda hope no one’s sitting around talking about me. I really do. I thought to myself, I hope no one’s doing that talking about what we’re doing here and there. This is not important. What’s important is Christ. It’s important what he is doing, not what we’re doing. And the whole Christian life is Christ Jesus who gave his life for you to give it to you so that he can live it through you. And the emphasis in in the Bible is on Christ Jesus and what he is doing, not us and what we’re doing. And and when we were singing this morning about magnifying the Lord, I thought to myself, can you imagine the God of this universe looking down being impressed with what you and I are doing? Ooh, that was big. Yeah, that’s a good one down there. We get we bring God down to our size. We’re taking this Almighty God and bringing him down and saying, Well, if I feel this way, surely God must feel this way. If, if this is the way I forgive people, surely that’s the way God has to forgive. And we don’t realize that he is just not us. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. is high is the heavens are from us, are his ways from ours.

And to be able to realize that God God is a God of perfect love. He is a God of perfect acceptance. We can’t accept people unconditionally. We can’t love people unconditionally. So that’s why we have so much difficulty understanding God’s unconditional love and acceptance because if we can’t do it, surely God can’t; bring him down to us. Instead of us being elevated to him. And to realize that he is bigger than we are. He is an all nitpicking on the things that we’re nitpicking on. He isn’t. He isn’t all hung up on the things we’re hung up on. He’s looking at the big picture he has provided and he’s saying walk in to that Sabbath rest, to be able to eat from trees that you didn’t plant and drink from wells that you didn’t dig, and to take a vacation in Christ, letting me live my life through you doing what I want to do in and through you, instead of you going out and trying to perform for God. And that’s the Sabbath rest. And it takes many times years and years for us to roam in that desert of self effort, and bring glory to ourselves and what I’m doing for God, instead of entering into that Sabbath, rest, rejoicing in what God did for you, and for me. And that’s what he’s calling us to this promise of entering this rest, he says, still stands, let’s be careful, none of you be found to fallen short of it. Because you’ve also heard the gospel preached to you chapter four of the book of Hebrews, just as they did. But there this message was of no value to them, because they didn’t, those who heard it did not combine it with faith. They didn’t believe it. God said it, we didn’t believe it. And so he’s talking about there still remains, then verse six, that some will enter that rest. And those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in because of their disobedience. What’s the disobedience? They didn’t believe God, he refused to believe there was a place called a Sabbath rest over there. You see, if you’re looking at this, that they didn’t go in because of their disobedience, meaning they weren’t obeying all the things God to say. And because they weren’t obeying what God to say they couldn’t go in That’s ludicrous. Now you’re back to that’s not resting. It’s the fact they didn’t believe there was a rest. They were out there trying to do things for God. Trying to be obedient to God in the energy of their own flesh, as if flesh could ever please spirit. Instead of the believing of God, the disobedience was they didn’t believe when he said, there’s a promise rest in there, there’s a Sabbath rest in there, enter in, they said, unh-uh, no God, you understand, you watch my smoke. You just You just just don’t understand how righteous I can be if you let me. And therefore God said a certain day, and he called it today, went a long time later, he spoke to David it was said today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart, don’t harden that don’t get away from this self effort, this glorification of us and what we’re doing instead of him and what he’s doing. We’ve built institutions and programs, my friends.

I talked to a pastor was on the phone with me the other day, since 60, some years of age, he had been evangelical, gone to one of the local seminaries here, and everything else. And he said, he came suddenly into an understanding of the rest of God, and to enter into the Sabbath rest and went back and tried to teach that in in his own denominational churches. And he said it was, again, you couldn’t get it across. He said, programs are what stopped that, programs, we turn to an institution of programs rather than a body of Christ. And we depend on our programs to promote what we want to do, rather than the Holy Spirit of God living in us to do what God wants us to do. And we’ve become an organization instead of an organism. And we worship at the feet of organization, and programs, in order to keep you busy and barren. The number one enemy of walking by faith is Activity. Activity. You cannot walk by faith when you’re bogged down in activity. You keep people busy, and you’re gonna keep them barren as to the things of God. That happens sometimes in couples. You see couples that would know what it was like to ever just eat a meal by themselves. If they did, they’d have to sit around and face fact of how miserable they are with each other. And so you entertain incessantly. And you’re around people constantly, and a meshed in activity constantly so that you never have to sit back and say, How are we doing? That’s where the Bible says, Be still and know that I’m God. Well, what keeps you from knowing he’s God? Activity, constant programs. Remember the philosophy that says the church is to be the center of all activity. This is where we come and play and have entertainment and so we build bowling alleys and activity centers and everything else so that I’ve got a plan, organization that you can join. Well, what’s different between that and joining the President’s health club? Join some place for activity. I don’t want people coming here for activity want to come here for truth. Like a pastor we interviewed on a radio the other night he says, You know what the first question people come when they come to join my church? What kind of programs do you have? What kind of program do you have for the kids? What kind of a program do you have over here? What kind of a program? No one has ever asked me? What do you teach? Why nobody cares what they teach us what kind of activities do you have. Can I keep the little squirmy ones busy someplace. That’s all madder and madder when anyone gets taught. And therefore whatever you do get taught is determining upon the institution, because the parents never learn anything, and therefore we have nothing to pass on to our kids. And Christian education is to be done in the home, not in this building. So when you understand what’s going on, you realize that there’s an enemy out there. It’s not an enemy, as with guns, but it’s an enemy of truth. It’s an enemy of the gospel. God called you and me to walk in and enter into this Sabbath rest that he has called us to. Whereby We’re not sitting around trying to program what God wants us to do, but we’re free, you’ve been called to freedom, my brothers. Now use that freedom to walk in the newness of life individually, with God living in you individually and leading you individually into what he wants you to do not in a group just you. We want to organize everything. You don’t need to organize God. He’s already quite organized. And his plan was that I want to individually save you individually, not collectively, individually, and also want to lead you by My Spirit individually. Now, let me do it. And when you see that occurring, and people individually being led by the Spirit of God, it’s what frees you to walk on the face of this earth doing the only thing that God told us to do. And that’s love one another. And that is to walk in a love relationship with those people that you come in contact with. And the greatest act of love that you and I can ever do is to be able to love a person enough to tell him the good news, not to lay something on him. But as a lifestyle, to lay, as a lifestyle to be able to communicate the truth that Christ is alive. And living in you is your in my only hope of glory. He died for us then, so that he can live and it’s now that is Christ Jesus. So that’s the Sabbath rest. And so it says For if Joshua had given them rest, you could have gotten rest that type of thing God would not have spoken later about another day. There the remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For anyone who enters God’s rest also rest from his own work just as God did from his. Remember when the disciples came to Jesus said, what’s the work of the ministry? What’d he say? Believe in me. That’s it. Believe in me without faith? What is it impossible to do? Please God, What is faith? Believing in Him. Believing in him what? To complete the work that he began in you. Are you trusting Christ to complete the work that he began in you are we are trying to do it ourselves?

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Bob George 14:07
Like I said before, for years and years and years, I never clicked in what I was doing, very subtly what I was doing, even in my prayer, Lord, take this habit away from me. Lord take this away from my flesh. Lord do this. What do I what am I praying for him to do? Well clean up the flesh. Is he going to do that? Did he come to clean up my flesh? No, he didn’t, come clean up your place. I love you too much to do to answer that prayer bomb. Hire people all the time. I asked God let me quit smoking. He had done it yet. I guess I can’t believe in God a more. Said ain’t gonna help you to quit smoking. Ain’t gonna take that desire away from you to quit smoking. It’s cleaned up your flesh. He’s going to teach how to grow grass, not pull weeds. He’s got to teach you what it is to walk in love. He’s going to teach you what it is that you’re body’s the holy the temple of the Holy Spirit of God. It’s gonna teach gonna renew your mind, let your mind take those things, get you something where this is where I want to walk. And I can’t walk here where I want to and do this at the same time. It’s not the case of taking away a habit. Like I said, if I teach you how to pull weeds, you’re gonna be pulling weeds for the rest of your life. I teach how to grow grass, the grass will choke out the weeds. And that’s what he’s talking about the Sabbath rest, walk in the Spirit, learn to allow Christ to do what? Complete the work that who began in you? He began and you didn’t he promised to do that I will complete the work that I began in you. Who began the work in you? Christ. Who’s going to complete it? Christ. And we’re at trying to clean up the flesh. When the emphasis is on cleaning up the flesh, guess who we go to if we don’t want to walk in the Spirit? Flesh. Flesh does not want to be instructed by spirit folks. Have you ever noticed that flesh wants to be instructed by flesh? Flesh doesn’t want godly answers. Godly answer says, Preston may say I don’t want that. That’s simplistic. That’s simplistic stuff. I’ll give me some of this good psychology stuff. Yeah, give me some of that stuff. I mean, that’ll help me clean up the flesh. Well, it’ll sure it can help you to identify what flesh is all about. But there’s not a solution in the world to any of it. And if you did get this habit cleaned up, I got news for you got 20 more you don’t even know about gonna pop up. And if your goal of the Christian lives clean up your place, you got one stupid goal it’s as dumb as trying to leave over nine foot hhigh jumpijab. You’re just not going to do it. And if you got a gold leaf over nine foot high jump, where you can hardly get out of bed in the morning. You’d say that’s a pretty stupid goal. But it’s noble sound and oh boy, it’s noble. Get a lot of pats on the head is what I’m gonna do the athletic community. But I want to tell you, it’s a stupid goal. And for a Christian to set a goal to try to clean up his flesh is an idiotic goal, because you cannot clean it up. God didn’t come to clean up your place came to kill it came to give you something new. And roaming in the desert, that’s what it is. You’re saved. And now I’m going to roam the desert and clean up the flesh. Says enter into the promised land. Enter into that Sabbath rest. You can’t but I can. That’s what Christ is constantly tell us, Bob, you can’t apart from me, you could do nothing. I will complete the work that I began in you that Sabbath rest. That’s to be able to say Lord Jesus, regardless, I’ll trust you. How do you and I grow on grace? You go on Grace, very simply by keeping your eyes on him and what he’s doing in the midst of whatever you and you’re doing? Can you grow on Grace? When you’re messing up? I wonder if you’re going to grow. That’s about the only way you and I are going to. Cause there isn’t anybody in here living a perfect life, I guarantee you that unless the Messiah just walked in. But can you grow on Grace? Absolutely. How? Keeping your eyes on Christ and what he’s doing in the midst of you in whatever you’re doing. To be able to realize and to recognize that I am free to go into the presence of God calling him Daddy Father, with no condemnation. That’s what enables you and me to go in.

That’s why folks, it’s so important for us to understand what Paul talked about in Corinthians that all of this all of it is from God, all of it is from God, who reconciled the world unto himself. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not counting men’s sins against them. That’s our message. We’re ambassadors. He said, that’s what we are supposed to be telling people on the face of this earth. That’s what an ambassador is. That’s what we’re left with. This is our message did you know that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not counting your sins against you? Did you know that God was in Christ reconciling you under the world not counting your sins against it? Where do you hear that? Is that proclaim from the housetop? No. What’s proclaimed from the housetop? If you do that God’s gonna get you your fellowship with God better good sins, get better get back in fellowship, God better get all this deal sin, sin sin. We got people going to the confession booths, we got them going here. You got to go there. You got to walk in aisles and everything else to do what? Call God a liar when he said I’m not holding your sins against you. You can enter into the presence of God until you finalize the cross. I don’t mean finalize it today then finalize it tomorrow. I mean, finalize it. How come? Because you’re not reconciled. God was in Christ doing what? Reconciling you unto himself not counting your sins against you What did he say your response should be be reconciled. Isn’t that what it says? Be there for reconciled. What’s it mean? It’s off and buy books take it off yours. You owe the debt that was on God’s accounts receivable ledger ledger he paid the debt. You got it on your accounts payable ledger ledger take it off. Why? Because even though he’s got it off of his accounts receivable if you still got it on your accounts payable, you’re not going to want to walk into his presence because you still think you owe him something and you can’t be reconciled to someone you think you owe something. In fact, what do you want to do with somebody you think you owe them something? You avoid them like the plague you don’t want to walk into their presence walk into their presence is gonna bring up still Oh, yeah, oh, I got it off my books, Bob, but you still got on yours. You know, deep down, we both know you still owe me something. He said I’ve reconciled you therefore be reconciled, take it off of your accounts payable, enter into the Sabbath rest. Forgiveness is finished. There is no more sacrifice. There are no more confession booths, there are no more First John one nines for forgiven forgiveness. It’s finished. And you can’t be reconciled to God when you’re still dealing with that stuff. Now you can play religion, you can play games. You sit around, talk about your church and what we’re doing. You can’t be talking and thinking and being preoccupied with the Lord Jesus Christ that you’re not reconciled to he came to reconcile you. So that what? You can enjoy his life. You can’t enjoy a relationship, a living relationship with a living God unless you’re reconciled. So how did he reconcile us? By God becoming a man walking on the face of this earth, taking upon himself the sins of the entire world going to a cross and He who knew no sin, becoming sin on our behalf so that in Christ we could become the righteousness of God. And he took the entirety of the sins upon himself and cried out from the cross, it’s finished. You have been reconciled, propitiation has taken place. It’s done. It’s finished. Now get up and walk in the newness of life that’s been given to you in Christ Jesus, and quit being preoccupied with your flesh and what it’s doing and get preoccupied with me and what I’m doing you’ll find you won’t fulfill the desires of the flesh. Religion gets you out there and absolutely negates everything that he’s done in regard to his life get you preoccupied with you, trying to clean up your flesh and that’s all religion is it stinks that’s all dead flesh does it smells and we spend our lives trying to clean up what God killed. God said that’s not the Sabbath rest. You’re still working at maintaining your relationship with God instead of realizing it’s been done now walk in it, walk in it. Now that’s what alleviates the fact that it need to pray more and need study more need witness more need your church board need visit more need do all this more. No, no, you need to enter in the Sabbath rest. And allow Christ to complete the work he began in you. That will not be that you will be sitting there singing Lala eating bonbons while you watch the television.

He is alive. And if Christ is ALIVE living in you, and you have been reconciled, he’s reconciled you be reconciled to God no fear to enter into His presence calling him Daddy Father. Then he said, I will get active in you to do my work and accomplish my will. So that you don’t have to be thinking about what to accomplish on your own. That’s rest, isn’t it. That doesn’t mean idle. You’re not idle. That’s resting. It’s peace. It’s called the peace of God that what? Passes all understanding. It’s pretty hard to understand that that Christ is doing something through us, instead of me having to go out and do something for God, isn’t it. Let’s just so contrary to to our nature. It’s so contrary to the flesh that says I want to go perform for God. And so he’s telling us to enter into the Sabbath rest. Now, here’s a for there. And this is where the word of God comes in for the Word of God is living and active. Now what’s the first thing it says it is? Well, it’s living Iisn’t that what Christ came I came at you might have one life. Now, that’s what the whole scriptures about folks. That’s what salvation is, life. Reconciliation, that’s an accounting term. That’s where he were a person who paid a debt that he didn’t owe for you and either owed a debt that we couldn’t pay. That’s an accounting term. I put it off of my books, do you gets that it’s off of God’s books, folks, do you realize that your sins are off his books? Or are we still on the sacrificial system where you got to go back and get it done again? By that one offering, what did he make you play made you forever perfect. And in who’s sight? Well, the side of God, all of you whom What else do you do? Made you holy, He is the one who did it all one offering day, so I’m not going to come back and die again, without the forgiveness of sins. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. So the only way more forgiveness could be executed on your behalf by me is if I came and died again, I’m not going to do that. That’s why I cried out from the cross it’s finished, is because it’s finished. That was how you were reconciled to God, for God made Him who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him now in his life, you could become the righteousness of God. So the reconciliation is what took care of the sin issue so that you and I, Christ raised from the dead, would be able to send the same life that raised Him from the dead into you and me and raise us from the dead. And that’s the proclamation of the gospel. It doesn’t come to Christ and get your sins forgiven. It’s Christ has already forgiven your sins and that forgiveness is in Christ. In Him you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, whereas forgiveness of sin? In him, you don’t come to Christ to get forgiven, you come to Christ to get him to get life and in that life is forgiveness. It’s the pin in the book. He took the pin forgiveness, stuck it in the book, Christ close the book and said, Here I am.

Announcer 27:11
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