Classic Christianity Radio (03-06-19) – Classic Christianity Part 3
Bob George explains how we have the need for meaning and purpose in our life. We look to find fulfillment in life through things in this world that we think satisfy, but then find ourselves dependent or controlled by such things, and find that we are never completely satisfied. We ultimately found ourselves dependent on people or things for needs that can only be met through Jesus Christ.
Bob George explains our need of unconditional love and acceptance. We want others to love us. If you looked at 1 Corinthians 13, and demanded your spouse to fulfill all those characteristics listed there, what kind of unrealistic expectations are you putting on your spouse? Yet, we try to control others to ensure our needs are met and are woefully disappointed. We have unmet expectations, and in so doing we attempt to control other people to ensure our needs are met. You cannot get other people to produce these characteristics. We try to get that need of unconditional love and acceptance met by others but that is a spiritual need that can only be met by Jesus Christ.
Bob George explains how we cannot even live the Christian life because we never could. Our flesh is incapable of doing so. We try in the energy of our flesh to do things we could never do. We could never love, but God can. As one goes through the list of characteristics of love in 1 Corinthians 13, and asked ourselves how well we are doing, and we were honest with ourselves, we would see that we fall short. Yet, if we go through that same list and ask how Jesus did, we get a perfect answer. Jesus truly is God in the flesh, and is alive forevermore. Looking to God to do something we could never do is the key to a renewed understanding to walk in the abundant life God had promised. Indeed, God placed the Holy Spirit in our lives for that very purpose, for Him to live His life in and through us, as we make ourselves available to Him.
Bob explains the principle of the vine and the branches from a parable Jesus taught to his disciples when he walked on the earth. We were never designed to be independent of God but we were created to be dependent on Him, in a vital loving relationship of complete trust. By having our minds renewed by the power of the Spirit, to know God, who is love, then we become dependent and controlled by His love. As the branch cannot bear fruit, neither can we produce love. The vine, who is God living in us, produces the fruit of the Spirit, which includes love, and that manifests itself through our bodies. So it by our love for one another, the love which God produced in and through us as we rest in Him, that the world will know we are His disciples.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.
For this love to be produced or met, we must go to God and not people. By being controlled by the Spirit of God, by the love of God, God will produce the fruit of the Spirit in us and through us.
Ephesians 5:18
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit
Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Can you say along with the apostle Paul, that to live is Christ and to die is gain? Do you boast all the more in your weaknesses that the power of Christ might be manifested in and through you?
Philippians 1:21
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
This is why Jesus came, to give us new spiritual life. We were all born spiritually dead, dead in our trespasses and sins, and in need of new life, God’s life.
Ephesians 2:1-10
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Christ is our hope just as the Samaritan woman that Jesus met on the road to Samaria found that hope. Knowing God and his love, expressed to us in Christ Jesus, is the key to walking in fullness of life. Does God have the characteristics of 1 Corinthians 13? Yes, he meets all those characteristics for God is love.
1 John 4:8
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
When we agree with God, then you agree that this is how you want to live and for this love to be worked out through you. But are you making yourself available to Him? We find ourselves in need of our minds being renewed and we go to God as our Father to help us. So we go to God and say, “I want you to do it because I can’t.” We must die to our self efforts, coming to the end of ourselves. Are you born again, having the Spirit of God living in you and through you? (Ephesians 2:1-10). Are you a believer, but striving in the energy of your flesh?
Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Love is so important. Love neutralizes everybody in the world. Religion does not neutralize. Religion says, “I can do it.” The way of the Spirit says, “come to me and let me do it”. Love brings us to death of our own sufficiency so we can walk in dependency upon Him, who is love. That dependency brings about control. Who do you want to control your life? Jesus. How does that come about? By my dependency on Him. If I am not depending on Him, He cannot, and will not, control me. What causes me to depend on Him? Realizing I cannot depend on me. The Samaritan woman at the well came to understand the message of living water that Jesus talked about that springs up to eternal life.
Look again at 1 Corinthians 13 and replace the word “God” everywhere you see the word “love” for God is love.
God never delights in evil. Do we ever get involved in evil? Yes. Does He delight in evil? No. Is He keeping a record of it? No. Is He angry with you? No. Is God kind to you? Yes. Is He patient with you? Yes, and is He not through with us yet. God always rejoices with the truth. God always protects. Do you need protection? Yes. God always protects you. God always trusts you. You cannot truly love someone if you do not trust. How many of you can say that I am 100% all the time trustworthy? No, not all the time. I wish I could. I want to be trusted all the time. So where am I going to look for that? To God because not going to get it on that continual basis that brings joy to the heart. God will always persevere with you. God will persevere with you until He brings you home.
What wonderful promises we have in God’s word for those in Christ Jesus!
Philippians 1:6
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:24
24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
God will continue to exercise this love in your life. I cannot experience this love if I think He is not patient with me. I cannot be controlled by a love that He does not have. I must be controlled by a dependency that He is always patient and kind with me. How many of you heard that if you got sick, or had a trial or tribulation, that God brought that into your life to humble you. That is like saying, “God is going to get you”. As if God is going to get you dependent if He has to kill you to do it. So when trials and tribulation comes, we think God did it.
That gets into the subject of discipline and punishment. Does God ever punish you for your sins? No. Who did He punish for your sins? Jesus Christ, and all of it. Jesus took the punishment for all our sins. There is no condemnation for you.
Colossians 1:20-22
20 It was through what his Son did that God cleared a path for everything to come to him—all things in heaven and on earth—for Christ’s death on the cross has made peace with God for all by his blood. 21 This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies and hated him and were separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends. 22 He has done this through the death on the cross of his own human body, and now as a result Christ has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are standing there before him with nothing left against you—nothing left that he could even chide you for
Romans 8:1-4
So there is now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 For the power of the life-giving Spirit—and this power is mine through Christ Jesus—has freed me from the vicious circle of sin and death. 3 We aren’t saved from sin’s grasp by knowing the commandments of God because we can’t and don’t keep them, but God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours—except that ours are sinful—and destroyed sin’s control over us by giving himself as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 So now we can obey God’s laws if we follow after the Holy Spirit and no longer obey the old evil nature within us.
Does God discipline you? Yes, Does He discipline when you need it? Yes. How often do you need it? 24 hours a day. Discipline is teaching and training, discipleship really.
Proverbs 3:11-13
11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke,
12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.
13 Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding,
By the power of God, the biggest thing I need is my mind to be trained, to be renewed in knowing the love of God. God is my Father and delights in me. I need my mind retrained that God is always patient, always kind, keeps no record of wrongs, always rejoices with you, and never fails me. I need to keep my mind focused on the truth that this truly is the love of God.
We are made of a body, a soul, and a spirit. All three are individual, not combined, and all three have individual needs.
1 Thessalonians 5:23
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The need of unconditional love and acceptance is a spiritual need that cannot be met at the level of the soul. It is a spiritual need that only Jesus can meet. Until we let Jesus meet that need, we will be trying to get that met from each other, on the level of the soul, rather than Jesus Christ. Only Jesus Christ can meet that need. As wonderful as your spouse is, your spouse cannot meet your need of unconditional love and acceptance. That need has to be met by Jesus and not by one another. The Samaritan woman, who had five husbands and the one she was living with now was not her husband, found unconditional love and acceptance in Jesus Christ.
Now, once that need is met, then what goes into effect is the vine and branch principle. Ponder over the meaning of the parable Jesus shared with his disciples in John 15.
John 15:1-8
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
You are the branch and you cannot produce anything. God is the life, the vine, that will produce love in you, if you let Him and abide in Him. In the pruning process, the branches are trimmed back so the life in the vine has less to go. The sap, or life of the tree, comes to the end and bears fruit. The fruit is not produced by the branch. The branch only bears the fruit and the vine produces the fruit. You do not have to tell the branch what to do or how to produce the fruit. You tell the branch to abide in the vine and the vine will produce the fruit. The branch does not brag about how much fruit he has because he did not do anything with producing fruit. Keep your mind focused on who produced the fruit. The branch is not the big deal, the vine is.
2 Corinthians 10:12
We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.
1 Corinthians 3:5
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.
This life is an effortless life. So it like someone saying if you want to float, then relax. And the guy says, “I want to go float.” And you respond, “If you want to float, relax.” He says, “But I want to float.” Yo say again, “Well, if you want to float, you will sink. All you do is relax to the buoyancy of the water and then you will float.” You cannot work at producing fruit. You cannot work for it but are to simply rest in Him. Have you heard someone say, “now once you are saved, you need to do something for God.” No, just make yourself available for God to do something through you. God initiates and you respond.
So what do we do. I cannot love but I can do this church stuff. So we do this church stuff and yet are mean as a hornet. Rest in Christ and let Him produce this kind of love through you. God is saying to us, “Rest in me and let me produce this love in and through you.”
In the flesh, I would like to be able to not keep a record of other people’s wrongs. I would like to be kind and patient with people all the time, but I cannot. I need to learn to abide in Him who does. That is Jesus’s life, not mine.
Philippians 1:21
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Galatians 5:16-17
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.