Radio Broadcast Wednesday 05/15/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Hebrews P106 (05-15-24)

In This World You Will Face Trials and Tribulation

~ Today, we have these smiley preachers (Satan’s messengers) that preach the lies of the world. They preach unrealistic expectations, and when those expectations are not met, then depression sets in. We need to stop listening to the preaching of the world. And those of us in Christ Jesus know full well the smile it and claim it people out there. They are preaching a different gospel all together. And they are leading the sheep to the slaughter. They are all Judas Goats, and that is what a Judas Goat does, is it leads people that are blindly following them to the slaughter house. We need to tell people the truth. Everyone is going to face tribulations in life. It’s in the midst of those tribulations that being in Christ Jesus, and having His Holy Spirit living in the believer, that gets us through those trials and tribulations of life. And as we saw in Hebrews chapter 11, the faith chapter, there were many many folks that faced unimaginable tribulation, but they trusted in God to get them through the tribulation of their day. Today, we have the Holy Spirit living directly in us, and because of that, we have a better hope. We have Jesus with us no matter what life throws at us. And He, the Holy Spirit wants to renew our minds so we understand the Truth of the word of God and the Truth of the world we live in. That is where God’s discipline comes into play. He is constantly training us, as sons of God, who are born again of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is our Counselor for Life.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pray to God:

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

~ “He gave us a spirit of love, and a sound mind. And a sound mind is looking at life very, very realistically, not through rose colored glasses, nor what the world is being conned into at every step that you can imagine. And that is, what’s your fantasy. And living in a world of fantasy. Which is nothing more than fortune telling, sitting around fantasizing what life should be like, instead of facing what it is really like. And you sit around and fantasize and visualize long enough, and your emotions do not know whether what you’re putting in your mind is real, or whether it’s imagined, because we are designed by God whereby our emotions merely predictably respond to whatever we’re thinking. So if I’m sitting there visualizing, I am thinking, aren’t I? And I’m thinking about something and my emotions are going to predictably respond to whatever I’m thinking. And so if I’m sitting around, fantasizing, visualizing, that is not reality, that is imagination. But my emotions get wrapped up in what I am thinking to the point where we think this must be real, because I feel like it’s so real. And after all, if I feel it, it must be real. Don’t confuse me with facts. My mind’s made up, because I feel it. And so God is bringing us back to a sound mind. God is returning us continually back to a sound mind to look at life, as it is not as you would like to visualize it being to look at life, soberly. And with a sound mind. Now, that’s what he’s talking about here enduring hardship, as a discipline. Are you gonna go through hardships in life? Yeah, two ways to meet it, Woe is me. Or great is he. You’re gonna have to go and one of those two, woe is me, our great is he. And that’s the discipline of life. And that is the attack on us where Satan is constantly trying to get you to think Woe is me. Instead of looking to the Lord Jesus Christ.” ~ Bob George

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

Announcer 0:12
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.

Bob George 0:27
Well, let’s turn to the book of Hebrews, chapter 12. We’ve come down to the point in chapter 12, where we’re dealing with this thing called discipline. And the book of Hebrews, as we’ve talked about, for these many weeks and months together, is a book that is dealing with the total sufficiency of Christ Jesus in all things, greater than the angel is greater than Moses, greater than the prophets. He is God himself who came to this earth in order to not only show us what God is like, but to show us what man is to be like, that is man from God’s vantage point. And so we’ve we’ve come to, to bring people to truth. And that’s what this whole book is about, that we walk by truth. And part of the error that we have in regard to our knowledge of God and His people of God is the fact that we are conned into this belief system that many times the world and unfortunately, many times the religious world puts on us, and that is that when we become Christian, everything is going to be rosy. And we’re never going to have trials, you’re never going to have tribulation. Which history certainly does not bear it out from a country standpoint. And it certainly doesn’t bear it out on an individual basis as well either. Probably as far as a country is concerned, and its original founding. And at a time in life, where, where the message of Christ at least a Christian message, a nation that was founded on Judeo Christian principles, at least it wasn’t too many years ago, we’re fighting in a civil war. Brothers fighting brothers killing brothers. Probably one of the greatest tragedies that ever has been falling upon this country is the civil war. And so we not only see these inadequacies in our own lives, but we certainly see that all a country is is just a bunch of yous and me’s. And, and when us and me stop trusting the Lord, you’ve got a whole country that stopped trusting the Lord and, and you’re gonna see a devastating effect on the world in which we live today. And so this book of Hebrews is, is explaining to us that in this world, today you are going to have tribulation. But it says in the midst of that type of thing, fear not that I’ve overcome the world. And again, we have this idea that when we become a Christian, everything’s going to just be rosy and we’re not going to have any problems anymore. And so, we studied the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews here that that is not the case that sometimes people walk by faith and were administered justice. They were made kings, it talks about the fact that gained what was promised shut the mouths of lions, it’s the type of faith that today has become very popular, better known as name it and claim it whereby everything is going to be okay. All you got to do is to visualize world peace, isn’t that a dandy? Just sit and visualize it. That all you have to do is just if you can just have enough faith, why everything’s gonna go great for you. And if things aren’t going great for you, it’s because you don’t have enough faith and then we read on to the next verses where it talks about the fact that people were tortured refuse to be released. Face jeers chained, put in prison sawed into somewhat of a less desirable way of life, walked about and sheepskin and goatskin destitute, mistreated, persecuted, the world was not worthy of them. They wandered mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And yet it said every one of these people were commended for their faith, because faith is not. If I have faith, God’s going to reward you with all kinds of blessings. Faith is in this world, you’re going to have tribulation. That’s a part of faith of believing God in this world, you are going to have tribulation. But he said Fear not have overcome the world. So faith isn’t that if have enough faith, I will not have tribulation, which is what the flesh would like to do to get down to a point in life where we don’t have any problems. And it seems like that that’s what the whole world is geared for is to like it’s unusual to have problems. It’s unusual to be depressed. It’s unusual to have any kind of anxiety. It’s unusual for a kid to be fidgety. It’s unusual for a kid to have a poor concentration span. It’s unusual to ever be unhappy. And because we bought that lie that that’s unusual, why we have been lured into a trap, where everybody is rushing to one pill to another to one counselor to another, in order to try to get a quick cure and a quick fix because it’s so unusual for me to be depressed or have anxiety or fear or any of those things. Quite frankly, the time you ought to go to a counselor if you ever feel good. That’s what’s unusual. And yet, we are into this quick fix mentality that all we have to do is to get a quick fix on something because it’s so unusual for us to have trials and tribulations.

And my friends what that does, it creates what’s called an unrealistic expectation. And when you have an unrealistic expectation, you’re going to live in disappointment. When you have an unrealistic expectation that everyone’s going to like me, that is an unrealistic expectation, they didn’t even like the Lord. So how you think you’re gonna like you? To live in an unrealistic expectation that I’m never supposed to have any trials or tribulations, when you run into them, you’re going to live in a constant state of disappointment, because of the unrealistic expectation. And so we have to watch don’t we, in this world in which we live today, we have to watch what kind of unrealistic expectations we’re latching on to, because any unrealistic expectation will bring you into bondage and discouragement, and will keep you in a total position of discouragement, fear, anger, self pity, depression and despair. There is no option except to that. And that’s where the Lord is saying that I came to renew your mind. In other words, to teach you truth. And let that truth set you free because that air is going to put you in bondage. Because if I have the air in my mind that everything’s supposed to be going well for me when things don’t, again, in that state of disappointment, I’m gonna go right down the spiral to depression in my life, and I’m gonna be wiped out. And so it doesn’t start with what do you do when a spiral is started? Where it has to start is up here at this level of unrealistic expectation, because if you don’t stop it there, you’re not going to stop it. Because it doesn’t do you any good to put some band aids down here if the problem is underneath the skin. And it’s the same thing in this world in which we live today that we we must get to truth. And that’s what this whole book of the book of Hebrews is about is get to truth. In this world, you can walk by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and have all kinds of trials and tribulations. I can look around this room and see many of you that are going and have and are going through those kinds of trials and tribulations mates that have deserted you. Illnesses that have taken place. One, parents, families, marriage difficulties, children difficulties, trials, tribulation, that’s life, folks. It’s not unusual. That’s life. On the day that man fell, and sin entered into the world, it says, Even all nature is groaning, even nature itself groans for the redemption that is coming. Because this world is in a mess. Sin entered into the world, and when it did, if headed for destruction. And so if you and I don’t face life with realism, in sober minded judgment, we’re going to be walking around with no judgment. Now that means a very simple thing that once we have come to Christ, and if we’re sitting in this room today in Christ, then we’re going to have to understand that like he says, in the scriptures, we endure hardship, as a discipline, not that God puts the hardship on you. But in the midst of the hardship, look at that as a discipline because in that hardship, you and I are going to make a choice. I’m either going to make a choice in the midst of this trial and tribulation that I’m some kind of a poor victim. I’m gonna I’m going to meet this hardship with Woe is me. How can anyone is niftiest me ever be going through any of these trials and tribulations or we’re going to meet that trial and tribulation and that hardship As the Lord Jesus is bigger than the trial. Now that takes a discipline mind, folks, and that’s what he’s talking about here. He’s not talking about gutting it out for God. It’s talking about the discipline of a sound mind that God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of a sound mind, and of self discipline, which is a fruit of the Spirit.

He gave us a spirit of love, and a sound mind. And a sound mind is looking at life very, very realistically, not through rose colored glasses, nor what the world is being conned into at every step that you can imagine. And that is, what’s your fantasy. And living in a world of fantasy. Which is nothing more than fortune telling, sitting around fantasizing what life should be like, instead of facing what it is really like. And you sit around and fantasize and visualize long enough, and your emotions do not know whether what you’re putting in your mind is real, or whether it’s imagined, because we are designed by God whereby our emotions merely predictably respond to whatever we’re thinking. So if I’m sitting there visualizing, I am thinking, aren’t I? And I’m thinking about something and my emotions are going to predictably respond to whatever I’m thinking. And so if I’m sitting around, fantasizing, visualizing, that is not reality, that is imagination. But my emotions get wrapped up in what I am thinking to the point where we think this must be real, because I feel like it’s so real. And after all, if I feel it, it must be real. Don’t confuse me with facts. My mind’s made up, because I feel it. And so God is bringing us back to a sound mind. God is returning us continually back to a sound mind to look at life, as it is not as you would like to visualize it being to look at life, soberly. And with a sound mind. Now, that’s what he’s talking about here enduring hardship, as a discipline. Are you gonna go through hardships in life? Yeah, two ways to meet it, Woe is me. Or great is he. You’re gonna have to go and one of those two, woe is me, our great is he. And that’s the discipline of life. And that is the attack on us where Satan is constantly trying to get you to think Woe is me. Instead of looking to the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Bob George 13:33
Now at the beginning of chapter 12, that’s where he’s saying, run this race with perseverance, run it. Keep our eyes and verse two fixed on Jesus. And that’s not visualizing some what he looked like, who is the author and perfecter of our faith. It’s to keep looking toward the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who said Greater is he that’s in you, that is in the world, keep trusting the Lord with perseverance. Not giving up when things aren’t going, you’re in my way. He’s the author. He’s the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the throne of God, he trusted the Lord Jesus Christ trusted his own father, Father, not my will, but Thine be done, carried out the act of God that was in the mind of God before any of this occurred, and went to a cross hung in there on the cross, like I said, spikes did not hold Jesus to the cross, love held him there and stayed there until such time that the world’s sin went upon him and he who knew no sin became sin for you and may so that through that transaction and being raised from the dead you and I can live today. So the this scorn that the trial, the tribulation, the suffering that he went through, was for the good and the benefit of others, which is a far cry from the selfish desires that we have, isn’t it that look out after number one, and forget about everybody else. That’s what he keeps trying to tell us constantly in regard to this Christian life, you and I are a body, we’re in the body of Christ, he is the head, you’re a part of the body, you’re a part of the body, you’re a part of the body, you’re a part of the body, we belong to one another. And if a body if we truly are a body, I see that my body is more than this finger. Now, this important fingers important, but it’s only a piece of the body, and it’s there to serve the rest of the body. And when you and I see that we have been called by God to be a part of this body, it means there’s something more important than me. And that is for the good of the body. And do we want to serve the body? Or do we want to just serve the desires of our own flesh? Now the flesh says serve me, bring me convenience, let me be happy, let me be noticed, let me be me. I me, me and I. And to serve means close look at others interests over and above that of ourselves. And that is where it takes discipline, folks, two options. The law, you cannot have the law without punishment. The law has no meaning at all does it without punishment. Drive 55 sign had that lot means nothing if you don’t get a ticket for going 65. So the law plus punishment, however, means bondage to you. There is no freedom there. It’s bondage. It’s what you have to do when the flesh has a tendency to go out of control. It’s what you have to do in a society to keep it from killing itself. The Lord came up with a deal An eye for an eye on a tooth for a tooth and we sound and we have think oh, that’s harsh. No, that is harsh. That’s what keeps humanity in check. Because we don’t go an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. You hit many I’ll rip your head off. I don’t want your eye, I want your head. You see an eye for an eye, you flirt with my girlfriend. I’ll flirt with yours. That’s an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Does man go along with that? Oh no, you flirt with mine, I’ll shoot you. You do some out like a burn down your city. That’s why you have to have laws to curtail this unbelievable flesh of ours. That’s never satisfied with an eye for an eye. It’s always I’m gonna get more, I’m gonna get my pound of flesh. And so we have to understand that law plus punishment, even though a necessity to those out of Christ law plus punishment equals bondage. We also need to understand that grace plus discipline is what equals freedom. Grace without discipline put you right back to the same bondage of law plus punishment. The law without punishment equals a license.

Now let me go back the law plus punishment equals bondage. But the law without punishment equals a license. And grace plus discipline will bring freedom and Grace without discipline will put you right back into bondage. You see, people come and say I love this grace. But I don’t want to be disciplined by the Lord. I don’t want my mind to be renewed. I want to know which is just the greatest news I want to know I’m free. Man, I like that I want to know that there’s no condemnation waiting me who belong to Christ Jesus. That’s marvelous, wonderful. I want to know that I’m a joint heir with Jesus Christ. I want to know that there’s no there’s nothing I can do that will ever separate me from the love of God. I want to know all those things and that is really neat. But I don’t want the Lord to discipline me and to tell me how I should be thinking as a result of those things. Now what the Christian world has done is forgot to teach people their identity. And so I don’t know who I am and just teach you human behavior. So if ever got you behave, and you wouldn’t know who it was it was doing it. Are you behaving? Yeah, who are you? I don’t know. So you don’t know who it is, it’s behaving. But I’m assuming when I’m talking to this group here, that I’m talking to people who know who they are in Christ, if you don’t, you should now and understand your identity in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you’re a child of the living God, redeemed by his blood, preserved by his blood, sustained by his blood, you are in Christ, and Christ is in you, and you literally possess the life of the living God living in. So I’m assuming we know that. Now, if we know that, then the other issue is, is that grace? Yes, that is grace. Is that where it stops? No, that isn’t where it stops. Doesn’t it say that it is the grace of God that teaches you and me to say no to unrighteousness? And that what it says the grace of God teaches you? And it says in here, that No discipline seems pleasant at the time that it’s painful later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. What are we trained by? Well, you’re trained by the loving discipline that comes from God.

Now, again, where it says in here, and in verse nine, moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them for that. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits, and live? Folks, when it talks about that our fathers discipled us for a little while as they thought best and sometimes they would have they thought best wasn’t best. That’s human discipline, that many times spells itself out in punishment. But here’s the but God disciplines us, for us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. Now, folks, punishment is always an act, an act of retaliation backwards for something that you have done that’s being punished. There is no punishment for you, who are in Christ Jesus. There is no punishment for you who are in Christ Jesus, do you all understand that? Why? Because the law of the Spirit of Life, The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is like God’s punishment on sin was what? Death, the law of the Spirit of Life set me free from that law of sin and death. There is no condemnation awaiting you who belong to Christ Jesus. So understanding that there’s no punishment, we then understand that when God then it’s in the act of disciplining you and me, it is for our good. And the reason for it is so that we can share in His holiness. And all that means is that we can share in being set apart by the very mind of God that we possess. In other words, it’s to be able to think like God and that is what he is interested in is getting you and me who possess the Spirit of God, enabling us to understand spiritual things. It’s what enables us now to begin to have the mind of Christ and to begin to think like Christ. Now, once again, if I am thinking that everything ought to be going really good for me, because I’m in Christ, am I thinking with the mind of God? Are you or not? No, how come? Well, God didn’t say that. Does man say that? So who are we thinking like? What’s that gonna do to you? What’s that kind of thinking going to do to you? Well, that’s gonna keep you in despair. And do you want freedom? Yes, I want freedom. So Grace, and understanding the grace of God. That coupled with a discipline upon our minds is what’s going to produce freedom. That is why it says truth set you what? Free. We talk about a free country. This country will only be free whenever they get back to truth. Pussyfoot around, politicians. When do they pussyfoot around? Every time they open their mouth. Watch my lips because it’s more important to get elected than it is to tell truth.

Sit down in this day and age and it’s not one sin is any worse than another. But you sit down, and you’ve got on the books in Texas where sodomy is a crime. And so you have a deal as to whether or not people engaged in a crime ought to be on the police force or not. And they say, yeah, let them on. Let them on. It’s a crime but let a criminal go on the police force.

It’s time that people as an example, in regard to these issues that are taking place for people to be able to stand up and say, I’m tired. I am sick and tired of being conned by the opinions of the world. Homosexuality is NOT a sickness, it is not a people. It is a sin. It’s a sin that Christ died for. Christ loves the sinner. He died for the sinner. But don’t rationalize the act as being a sickness. It is not. It is a sin. People get up and say I demand to be in the army. Or I’ve demand this near that’s not the only group demanding I demand this and we pussyfoot around the issue. It’s time to get up and say you don’t have any right to demand anything because of the way in which you like to have sex. And like the guys on our staff said, if it wasn’t for sex, why would you want to be homosexual? I mean, why would you I mean, what is their if it isn’t that? So does that give you a right to walk around and say we you know, these people, this group of people, we like to have sex this way we hadn’t like hairy better than Mary. And so, and we demand some rights because this way we like to have sex folks. Don’t complicate this issue. And if we will, if you want me to get more dramatic and more precise, I can. So don’t complicate this issue with a bunch of gobbly gook. It is a sin of man.

Announcer 27:11
Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord find more information online at BobGeorge.net. There you will also find available CDs, DVDs and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.