Radio Broadcast Wednesday 05/29/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Hebrews P112 (05-29-24)

God Makes You Holy and Sets You Apart, Not You

~ We live in a world of Satan’s lies, even within the church. Those lies get passed on from one generation to another, and it is time to break the cycle. First off, begin with having a proper foundation and that Foundation is only found in Christ Jesus. Once a person is in Christ Jesus, and He is in them, then the Holy Spirit begins the process of renewing your mind. It is a continual renewal of the mind, for we have tons of lies built up in our heads by the world in which we were born into. And as the Holy Spirit begins the process of renewing your mind, He set you apart at the very beginning of your Life in Christ Jesus. God made you holy (set apart) for His good purpose for life. And as a reminder, we could not make ourselves holy even if we wanted to. Only God could and did that for each of us on the very day we accepted Him as our Lord and Savior. God set us apart. He made us holy. We are holy, because He is holy, and He lives in the true believer. He made us the temple of God. And that is the only way we could ever become holy in the sight of God. And without holiness, no one will see God. So do not lose heart when the Lord is disciplining you. You will discover many many things that are lies of the world that you believed in, that are of Satan, and not of God.

~ Hebrews 12:1-17

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.

Pursue peace with everyone, as well as holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many. See to it that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He could find no ground for repentance, though he sought the blessing with tears.^{Hebrews 12:1-17}

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.”

~ “Now, so he’s saying, strengthen these feeble arms of ours grow, make level the paths of your feet, so the lane may not be disabled, but rather healed. Now, verse 14, make every effort to live in peace with all men. And to be holy, that means to be set apart, you’ve already been set apart, so be who you are. Because without holiness, no one will see the Lord. That doesn’t mean if you don’t make yourself holy, you’re not gonna go to heaven. That means that holiness is set apartness, and anyone who has not been set apart by God will never see the kingdom of God, and only two people who have been set apart by God will be with God. So it’s talking about how you’re saved, and holiness. You and I were made holy set apart, the very moment we came to Christ, God did that for you, you and I could never do it for ourselves. And see to it, that no one misses the grace of God. Teach what you don’t miss this grace of God, because the law is going to continue to bury you, the law doesn’t discipline you the law beats you to death. And so you can’t be taught under the law. Because under the law, it is if you’ve done this bam, that’s it, you’ve had it, you can’t be taught by that. You can’t be taught to be a responsible driver, by the law, all the law does is stops you when you’re speeding, and gives you a ticket. But it does nothing to do with being a safe driver. Now, they’ve tried to correct that by these driving classes, that they. Have ever been one of those? I’d really go outside and get set on fire than I would to sit another one of those. But anyway, at any rate, it didn’t teach you to be a responsible driver, it just stops you when you speed. Now, it’s when you’re free. And when you’ve been freed from the law, and now indwelt by the living Christ, who is there constantly to teach us and to discipline us. It is there now that he’s in the process of teaching you and me how to be a responsible driver. In other words, as a child of God, should you be a reckless driver? You see what I’m talking about? So he’s saying to us, then that you don’t miss the grace of God, and that no bitter roots grow up to cause trouble and defile many.” ~ Bob George

Bible Study Booklets

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 0:29
Well, let’s turn to the 12th chapter of Hebrews. We’ve been talking all over the last number of weeks about this 12th chapter, the book of Hebrews that deals in this thing that people get all messed up on. And again, try to use it as another means of bearing people on guilt trips. But the discipline that comes from the Lord is, is not a bad thing, that discipline is a wonderful thing, because it’s preparing us for the battles ahead. When you see as we grow in life, you’ll see that many times with kids and adults that have copped out in their lives on different things that we cop out on booze, drugs, whatever it might be. But if you were to take a timeline of age, then let’s say, from age one, and let’s say up here is age 30. And we should be maturing, we run into problems of life, and we meet those. A little three year old has three year old problems. And so he has to meet those as a three year old. Little Jonathan down there will have problems his age, and he’ll meet those at that particular time. And with that, he will grow and mature according to his age and the experience that he runs into. We then get into our earlier years and, and many times into the teen years. And all of a sudden, you see some kids start copping out on drugs, or booze, or whatever it might be. And what happens is, instead of running into 15, and 16 year old problems and meeting those problems and maturing, why we start copping out, and our maturity level absolutely bottoms out. And so here we are, copping out all of our lives getting older, which you know, the only option to that is death which corrects this. But when you’re 30 years of age, you’re sitting here with the maturity of a 15 year old. So you got a 30 year old kid on your hands in maturity, because we have stopped maturing in accordance with the age and the problems we run into. And every walk of life, we run into new problems. And if we’re not equipped for them, we don’t know how to handle them. And so here you are trying to handle 30 year old problems like a 15 year old. And so the older you get, without maturing and being disciplined again, by the Lord, the older you get on that the worse shape, you’re gonna be down here. Because when I was 16, I ran into 16 year old problems when I was 20, I ran into a 20 year old problems for us 30, I had 30 year old problems now I’m 60, practically and I’m gonna run into 60 year old problems. And if I’m not equipped for 60 year old problems, then I’m gonna try to be handling these problems like a 20 year old. And I’m gonna find myself falling on my face getting involved in depression, despair and everything else. Because I’ve not grown, I have not been disciplined by truth that sets you free. And so when the Lord is talking about this thing of discipline, it’s not punishment, punishment, is retaliation for an act that you’ve done. Well there is no punishment for you and me from God’s vantage point. Our sins have already been punished. And Christ Jesus took that punishment on the cross for us. So there is no more punishment. And discipline is not punishment. It is the way in which God teaches us so that we can grow and mature to be able to meet the problems that are up ahead in our lives. And God knows what those are, you and I don’t, thank goodness, we’d probably solve that problem by going out and shooting ourselves if we did, but we don’t we don’t know what those things are, but God does. And so we’re living in a in a progression of God knowing what is up ahead. And he is trying to train and equip us for what’s up ahead. Now when we refuse that discipline, and when we refuse that teaching, and we keep thinking I’m smarter than God, and I don’t need God and I don’t need the wisdom of God. Why then God cannot teach you anything. And the only thing that can happen is that you’re just going to keep getting older in age and dumber in maturity. That’s just all there is to it. Because if we’re not smarter 20, how do we think we’re gonna get smarter 30? And how smart are we got to be at 40 if our smartness all comes from nothing but the wisdom of the world, which is but foolishness to God. And so in this world in which we live, we obviously know that we’re going to age chronology from a chronic chronological standpoint, we’re going to age unless we die. But the issue is, what about this maturity thing. And that’s why the Bible is telling us to take childish things and put them away because you’re not a child anymore. And when Paul was admonishing, and that was a discipline upon the Corinthians when he was saying, I used to think when I was a child, I thought like a child, I acted like a child, he said, Put these baby things away. Quit getting hung up on baby things, on on your gifts, quit getting hung up on those things, those are baby things, and they will not sustain you in the crunches of life. And so he’s saying, if you’re going to grow and mature, you’re going to have to grow and mature by by confidence in the one that is worthy of your competence. And that’s Christ Jesus, not in what you’re doing or what you’re not doing, but in Him, who has total wisdom, and will give it to you freely and abundantly if you let Him. And so, we are, we’re continually entering into these problems.

And that’s one of the things obviously, that happens in marriage. That’s why probably women will say, and rightfully so the man doesn’t have a brand new head till he’s 30. And that may be too soon. I’m not sure. But, but when I think back on my life sometimes is as a single guy, I certainly wasn’t thinking very maturely. And, and I want to tell you, when when I got married, to let go of singleness, and to die to singleness, that was not an easy thing to do, because boy, you had been footloose and fancy free, and you can do what you wanted to do. And I knew there were some restrictions now, as far as being in marriage couldn’t do all the things I wanted to do before. But outside of that, you’re still out of freedom. And so you’re just you’re just like a dumb kid walking around. And you don’t realize that when you get married, that there’s commitment there, you now have to cooperate. Well, God forbid to cooperate, I don’t want to cooperate what my way. And so I tried, and, and that’s true, too. And so so we enter into this institution of marriage so many times, so ill equipped, because we really have not been being matured by the Lord up until that time. And that’s why there’s a lot of head knocking and conflicts that many times take place. Doesn’t have to remain that way if we will be taught by the Lord. And when we neglect the teaching of the Lord. Again, the problem with that isn’t that God can’t if I’ve been neglecting the teaching back here at 16, that when I’m 30, that God can’t do something. But the fact is, I’ve missed all of this maturing up until that time, so I missing a maturing in Christ. That’s what discipline is for. That’s what the discipline of God is for, is to equip you for what’s Up ahead and life. Now, that’s a wonderful thing to realize that God’s been interested in us in it, that He loves us so much that he, knowing what’s up ahead, is constantly in the process of preparing us for that. So that’s what all of this is about.

And that’s why it says therefore strengthen your your feeble arms, chapter 12, or in inverse 12, and your weak knees. Why? Well, because we’re weak, and we’re feeble, we think we’re strong, we think we’re adequate. And the world prepares us for that. And the world prepares us that if we’ve been to school, and we got our degrees, we’re smart and adequate. And then we run into life feel, I don’t even know how to get along with my husband or my wife. That’s what happened to Von Braun is he sat back and said, I got the intelligence to figure out how to get a rocket from the earth to the moon and back. But I can’t figure out how to get along with my wife. That’s when I realized there’s something wrong with me. And that’s when he realized that I have something I need more than education. There’s something wrong deep down underneath the skin in my soul, and came to know Christ as his personal Lord and Savior and then grew in it. There’s a difference between that.

There’s a lot of people who are born again that have just been left on the operating table and they’re still kicking in their diapers 20 years later and making a mess. And never been potty trained by God. And we’re still babes because we refuse to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we remain babes. Now, again chronology, from a chronological standpoint, we’re older, but from a maturity standpoint, we’re still a babe.

Now, so he’s saying, strengthen these feeble arms of ours grow, make level the paths of your feet, so the lane may not be disabled, but rather healed. Now, verse 14, make every effort to live in peace with all men. And to be holy, that means to be set apart, you’ve already been set apart, so be who you are. Because without holiness, no one will see the Lord. That doesn’t mean if you don’t make yourself holy, you’re not gonna go to heaven. That means that holiness is set apartness, and anyone who has not been set apart by God will never see the kingdom of God, and only two people who have been set apart by God will be with God. So it’s talking about how you’re saved, and holiness. You and I were made holy set apart, the very moment we came to Christ, God did that for you, you and I could never do it for ourselves. And see to it, that no one misses the grace of God. Teach what you don’t miss this grace of God, because the law is going to continue to bury you, the law doesn’t discipline you the law beats you to death. And so you can’t be taught under the law. Because under the law, it is if you’ve done this bam, that’s it, you’ve had it, you can’t be taught by that. You can’t be taught to be a responsible driver, by the law, all the law does is stops you when you’re speeding, and gives you a ticket. But it does nothing to do with being a safe driver. Now, they’ve tried to correct that by these driving classes, that they. Have ever been one of those? I’d really go outside and get set on fire than I would to sit another one of those. But anyway, at any rate, it didn’t teach you to be a responsible driver, it just stops you when you speed. Now, it’s when you’re free. And when you’ve been freed from the law, and now indwelt by the living Christ, who is there constantly to teach us and to discipline us. It is there now that he’s in the process of teaching you and me how to be a responsible driver. In other words, as a child of God, should you be a reckless driver? You see what I’m talking about? So he’s saying to us, then that you don’t miss the grace of God, and that no bitter roots grow up to cause trouble and defile many.

Guys, you know, bitterness is one of the most damaging emotions that we can have is to be bitter, let bitterness creep in, it will eat your lunch. And when we allow ourselves to get bitter, it says it causes trouble. And man, it defiles many, many, many people. Bitterness does not stop with just me being bitterness. I can’t leave it there. I’ve got to spread it. Have you noticed that? If you’re bitter, you’re gonna let some people know.

Click to Donate to Bob George Ministries

If you’re enjoying the Book of Hebrews, check out our website, Shop.BobGeorge.net. There, you’ll find a whole collection of messages from the book of Hebrews, 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 14:00
And so when we let bitterness, envy and strife, selfish ambition, and those types of things creep in, it is going to affect so many people. Bitterness occurs when I don’t get my own way, when I am not getting my own way. And you’re the reason you’re the reason. If it wasn’t for you, I could be getting my own way. If it wasn’t for you, I would be happy. If it wasn’t for you, I’d be able to do what I want to do. And so obviously, the entire reason for my misery is you. And so the solution to that is to either get rid of you, or what we tried to do because I didn’t real desirable is to make you so miserable that maybe you’ll shape up. And so I think I’ll put enough heat on you. And I’ll put enough pressure on you that maybe and hopefully just in time, you’ll get miserable enough to just change your ways. Because if I can get you to change your ways to be like I want you to be, then I will. And I’ll be happy. And God forbid I’d ever be unhappy isn’t that, right? That’s what bitterness, that’s where it comes from bitterness comes when we want, what we want when we want it. And if someone is not playing our game, then I am bitter. Because they’re making me unhappy. Now, the Bible says, See to it, that you don’t miss the grace of God, and that no bitterness grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Why are those two tied together? Because, quite frankly, guys, it’s the grace of God, that is the only thing that can cure bitterness. It is the knowledge of the grace of God is the only thing that when I began to meditate upon that and understand the grace of God, is the very thing that keeps me from saying, wait a minute, who said that I had to have my own way? I mean, did Jesus get his own way was he just thrilled to go to the cross? I can just hardly wait to get up there and get beaten half to death. I mean, didn’t Christ say that I didn’t come to be served, but I came to serve. Didn’t he say, to serve one another in love that you’ve been called the freedom but don’t use your freedom to indulge the flesh, but rather to serve one another in love. And then I do not have to live on this earth getting my own way. Isn’t that pretty much what the grace of God is the grace of God was given to us for our benefit. In other words, it was done to serve you and me.

I was listening to a fella the other day. He’s a brilliant scientist. And he was talking about how that they are starting to look and discover that whereby in past that this little thing called the earth, just sitting out here was just kind of out there and just kind of there. But that has, the more that they have studied the universe, that they have come to realize that all of the stars, all of the things that are out there were made for this little globe. Because if it was not for the amount of stars that were out there, we could not be producing the hydrogen and the oxygen that is necessary for the air here. And that God loved us so much that in his preparation, not only did he give us a planet to live on, but an entire universe to serve the planet. And that the stars and the universe is there for the purpose of serving and keeping intact, this little globe on which little you and me live. That’s a picture of the love of God for us.

Now, when we understand that, that’s what he’s saying, Why would you do you want to let bitterness creep into your heart toward other people, when God isn’t bitter toward you. And it’s the only thing that makes us look at ourselves. And we get down and we remember, and boy, I remember when you did that. And remember you did that. And I remember he did that. And I remember needed that. And remember that he does go on and on and on. And then God comes along says I forgot all your sins, I put them behind my back. never see them again. And love that and keep records of wrongs. Doesn’t keep records of what you do, but he doesn’t. And so when I’m keeping records of wrongs, it’s the grace of God that comes and says, Bob, hold on, a minute. Are you are you my child? Yes, I am Lord. Then if I’m not keeping records of your wrongs, and I’m certainly not keeping records of Amy’s wrongs, or I’m not keeping records of this person over here that you weren’t real happy with wrongs. Why are you keeping records of their wrongs? I mean, are your standards higher than mine? If I was willing to forgive them and put it behind the back and never see it again, why aren’t you? And the only answer to that is cause of my pride. said yeah, now you got it. Now, are you ready to deal with your pride? Because, again, pride is what comes before what? Before the fall. And it is our own pride that causes 99.9% of our problems is pride. And the only counteract into pride is love. And the only source of love is Christ. And that was given to us in the grace of God. And that’s why he says, See to it, that no one misses the grace of God. If God so loved you and me and everyone in this room what right would we have to have bitterness toward anyone in this room? As an example. Or outside of it as well, but I’m just saying we can see these. And the answer to that is, we have no right at all. If God forgave me, and does not keep records of my wrongs, then why should I keep records of yours? Now, that’s the grace of God that will change our lives and change our hearts and change the way that not only we perceive ourselves, but the way we perceive one another, as well. Bitterness, there is no place for it, he said.

See to it that no one is sexually immoral, or is like godless, like Esau, who for a single meal, sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. And afterwards, as you know, when he wanted to inherit his blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought a blessing with tears. Well, in regard to the sexually, or sexual immorality, the word of God, again, speaks to us in many instances about that of not even giving a hint of that type of a thing. If you look back in the fifth chapter of Ephesians, Ephesians, five, beginning in verse three, he said, but among you, and here again, he’s talking about people who are in Christ, there should not even be a hit, it says of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity, or greed. Because these are improper for God’s holy people. Now it’s interesting, isn’t it? When you’re talking about when people again, when we get into this judgmental spirit of ours, how we will never mention, you know, when you talk about the grace of God and everything, and people always say, You mean, tell me that if someone went out and committed adultery that they were gonna go to heaven? Or you mean, tell me that if someone went out and murdered? Isn’t it strange that and these kind of lineups that along with the sexual immorality is things like greed? It can you imagine someone stabs at you mean, you tell me if someone is greedy that they’re, we don’t mention those words. We’ll die or no one talks about those. We just talk about the biggies. But you see the reason for a four dot even a hint of sexual immorality or any type of impurity or greed? Because is because they’re improper for God’s people who have been set apart. If you notice, it doesn’t say there among you should not even be a hint of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity or greed. Because if you do any of these, God’s gonna zap you in the head, does it say that? Well, God’s gonna really get you, did it say that? No, it said that the reason for putting these things aside is because they’re improper for God’s people. In other words, they’re inconsistent with being set apart. If you’re a child of God, to be set apart from the world, I’ll guarantee you, especially in this day and age, to be set apart from the world. If you are not even giving a hit of sexual immorality, you’re set apart from this world.

It is, as I mentioned, on there on the radio last week, the thing was, was hitting me as I was talking to some of our younger staff. And as I mentioned, I’ve seen this country of ours, I’ve seen America back in the days when, as I equate it, it was the the innocent, fair haired kid. I saw America back in those days, I grew up in America back in those days. I saw America where in my little hometown that I grew up in Indiana, we never owned we never had a key to the house. There had never been a murder in the city. There was not racial overtones at all in the city. No one ever thought anything about that type of thing at all, or just people that never entered our minds. You grew up in, in a part of the world were a part of the place where where the policemen were respected. elders were respected. You respected your elders. It was back in the days when you would have never thought ever thought of ever striking out at your school teacher. They were respected people never would have given a thought of one kid one time tried to hit a school teacher and that kid was literally ostracized out of the school back. Never would have given a thought of an art and not by the teachers by the kids. What kind of a guy is that kind of a crumb bum is that one to strike out of his teacher? To stand in front of a policeman, and look up and defing city space, unheard of policemen were respected. Officials were respected that in those days, the biggest problems in school were chewing gum, running in the hall, and being late for class. Those were the three biggies back in those days. That was it. Wouldn’t you love to be returned to that? Oh, guys, I have seen a world like that. I’ve seen that those of you who are my age and that we’ve seen that we’ve seen and I have seen that fair haired kid, go to the gutter. In this country. Many of you who are younger, like I say, by the time you came on the scene, that kid that I’m talking about was already halfway emmesiated. He was already about half gone. So you’ve kind of seen a guy that was already messed up, get a little bit more messed up. I’ve seen the guy who wasn’t messed up at all. And today, we live in a in a day and age where you watch television if you do. And it is nothing. I mean people, actresses, actors, people in high places say oh, yeah, we just want to, yeah, we’ve been living together for four or five years. Yeah. And then and stand up and say, Hey, I’m homosexual. Look at me. And you look at that, and I will tell you it may not shock you younger people. But I want to tell you to me, I cannot comprehend.

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.