Radio Broadcast Wednesday 06/19/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Hebrews P121 (06-19-24)

Faith is Responding Properly to Truth

~ A person that responds with thanksgiving in their heart to God, for what He did on the cross for them is responding in faith. A person that asks for what Jesus has already done is NOT responding in faith, but responding to Satan’s lies. Everyone has a choice today. God is NOT going to force anyone to believe. He has given you a free will to respond one way or another. For example, you can either trust in what man says, or you can trust in what God says. And most lean on their own understanding of things today, which is what man says to do. The first step is who are you going to place faith in, Man or God? If you say you place faith in Jesus, God in the flesh, then everything comes down to who do you say Jesus is? If He is God (which He is), and He claims that God created everything, then God certainly created everything as the book of Genesis describes. If you find out that you have been believing a lie, and God shows you in his word, that what you believed was indeed a lie, you change your mind, through the renewing of your mind. That is what repentance is all about. Repentance is a change of mind, and we are NOT talking about sinning, but we are talking about what a person believes throughout the entirety of the word of God and even of the things of the word which are clearly explained in the word of God. For without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is getting rid of preconceived notions, and thinking correctly about things today. Another example is, if the word of God says God is not counting your sins against you today (which it does), based on a new covenant agreement between God and Man, then faith says I believe that, and recognizes that God is NOT counting anyone’s sins against them today. Now you might not understand how that is possible, given that Man says you need to get right with God by asking for forgiveness, but that is NOT faith. That is trusting in what Man says about God instead of what God says about Himself. If Jesus, God in flesh took away the sins of the whole world (which He did at the cross), then there is NO more forgiveness that is going to be given by God ever again. Jesus is never going to die on the cross ever again. And without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

~ Romans 1:17
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” ^{Romans 1:17}

~ 1 Corinthians 2:14-16
The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.^{1 Corinthians 2:14-16}~ Psalms 118:8
"It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man." ^{Psalms 118:8}

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.”

~ “So we had an Old Testament, sacrificial system that you could see you. Could go and see an animal die, and you could see that that provided forgiveness, blood was shed, punishment had been paid for, Jesus came along and said, there’s a better covenant than this. There’s something better than that. I know that you can see that, but I got something that you can’t see. You’re just going to have to take it by faith. So again, what does man do? Well, man says, No, I don’t want to function with that, because, you see, once again, that’s a spiritual thing, and I can only be discerned spiritually and natural man can’t understand spiritual things. It’s foolish to him. Neither can a prideful spiritual man understand spiritual things, because he won’t rely on the Spirit to reveal it to him, and therefore he has to come to it only by his own understanding. So man comes along still and says, Well, I don’t like this invisible forgiveness thing over here. I want to keep something visible that I can see, because I can understand that. So we came along with confession, booths, alter calls, short accounts with God, First John one nine quoting, and everything else under the sun, because natural man can understand that. He can understand that. But natural man can’t understand spiritual things, but he understands quite well natural things. And Jesus comes along and says, there’s something better than natural things. That I’m going to die on a cross once and for all, and I’m going to provide forgiveness once and for all, and then you can live by that, by faith, and you have to be able to see that again, because I’m not going to come and die again. And when it says, When the Lord comes back the Second Time, he’s not coming to deal with sin, he’s coming to bring salvation for those who are waiting on him. And the reason he’s not coming to deal with sin is because he’s already dealt with it. But he says to us that if you’re going to walk by faith, and you’re going to have to walk by faith in a spiritual truth, not something that you can see, but something you can’t see, something better than what you can see.” ~ 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
A law without punishment has no meaning. So if you do not have punishment, laws don’t mean anything. So if you want to be under the law, there has to be a punishment for the violation of the law. And with God, the wages of sin is death. And so if there is sin, it has to be punished and someone has to die. Now he put into a system where, instead of you dying, because otherwise, you just alleviate the world. Why then there will be a sacrificial system where an innocent party will die on your behalf, and animals were used. And I was Kevin’s little Jonathan came up to me at the beginning of the service, telling about having this little rabbit. And I said, What are you gonna do with it? And his daddy said, Eat it. And John, kidding, of course. Well, John, no, no, no, no, no. He doesn’t want to eat that little rabbit. That’s his friend. That’s his pet. Well, quite frankly, that was exactly what the sacrificial system is all about, because they required you to bring an animal into your home and make them a little pet, so that you would sacrifice it, so you could see what sin brought into this world, death of who? Somebody, something you loved. There was a picture of who had to die for us, Christ, Jesus, someone whom God, the Father, loved.

So we had an Old Testament, sacrificial system that you could see you. Could go and see an animal die, and you could see that that provided forgiveness, blood was shed, punishment had been paid for, Jesus came along and said, there’s a better covenant than this. There’s something better than that. I know that you can see that, but I got something that you can’t see. You’re just going to have to take it by faith. So again, what does man do? Well, man says, No, I don’t want to function with that, because, you see, once again, that’s a spiritual thing, and I can only be discerned spiritually and natural man can’t understand spiritual things. It’s foolish to him. Neither can a prideful spiritual man understand spiritual things, because he won’t rely on the Spirit to reveal it to him, and therefore he has to come to it only by his own understanding. So man comes along still and says, Well, I don’t like this invisible forgiveness thing over here. I want to keep something visible that I can see, because I can understand that. So we came along with confession, booths, alter calls, short accounts with God, First John one nine quoting, and everything else under the sun, because natural man can understand that. He can understand that. But natural man can’t understand spiritual things, but he understands quite well natural things. And Jesus comes along and says, there’s something better than natural things. That I’m going to die on a cross once and for all, and I’m going to provide forgiveness once and for all, and then you can live by that, by faith, and you have to be able to see that again, because I’m not going to come and die again. And when it says, When the Lord comes back the Second Time, he’s not coming to deal with sin, he’s coming to bring salvation for those who are waiting on him. And the reason he’s not coming to deal with sin is because he’s already dealt with it. But he says to us that if you’re going to walk by faith, and you’re going to have to walk by faith in a spiritual truth, not something that you can see, but something you can’t see, something better than what you can see.

Now, that’s what this whole book of Hebrews has been about. Is guys, there’s something better. There’s something better than just my being happy. There’s something called having joy. There’s something better than everything going my way, and that’s something called letting things go God’s way. There’s something better in life than getting my own way. And Jesus said, Not my will, but yours be done. And that is having things his way. You see, we have such a tendency, don’t we, to to live for our own gratification. We allow bitterness and resentment to creep up in our hearts, and we hold on to it because it’s natural. You see, I can see those things I’m bitter about in my mind. We find out folks that from God’s vantage point, when he said, there’s the planting and the sowing, that’s that is something that is as real as rain, planting and sowing, I plant a thought, and it’s going to reap a consideration of that thought. If I think it, I can consider it, is that true or not? So I plant a thought, and therefore I consider it, then I plant the consideration. And when I plant the consideration, it reaps an action, and then I plant the action, and it reaps in habit. I then plant the habit, and it reaps bondage and slavery. All I have to do to become a slave to something is think it and consider it, that’s all. It’s like in marriage, and that’s what Hebrews is talking about. To be honored, for the marriage bed to be kept pure, for marriage to be something to be honored. You see if, if I allow the thought to come into my mind, man, I’m getting out of this thing, and I can consider it, and then if I plant considering it, I’ll act upon it, and if I act upon it, that’s going to become a habit, and that habit can become slavery. That’s why in marriage, as far as I’m concerned, and God certainly knew, and we certainly know that everybody doesn’t stick together and hasn’t stuck together, but as far as God’s intent, and as far as our intent, because there isn’t anybody that goes to the minister that I know of when he got married with the thought, I sure hope I can get divorced someday. Is that idea that I’m not going to entertain that thought, I’m not even going to let it be a consideration of getting out of this that’s not up for option. And if that is my premise, that it’s not up for option, then I’m not going to consider the thought, because I can sure get the thought, can’t you? I guess you don’t want to say that too.

Now, friends, that is why and what God says now that’s all going on under the skin. All of this is going on under the skin. And we sit down and we allow all kinds of things to happen under the skin, don’t we? Consideration, considering bitterness as an example, we get angry at one another and we get bitter toward one another. Why? Well, because things aren’t going my way. And that’s all natural. Things are not going my way. The things I want to do and the things I want to see are not happening. They’re not going my way. So somebody’s keeping it from going my way. And so whoever it is that’s keeping things from going my way is now the enemy, and I’m the victim. And so of course, if things are not going my way, God forbid, and there’s someone out there who are is causing things not to go my way, and they are the enemy and I am the victim. Why then, unless I just want to be Joan of Arc the martyr, then I am going to have to put into motion something to change that person, so that they will change, so that they will do what I want them to do, so I can be happy again. So I set into motion the process of getting involved in trying to change another person. And so my motive for changing you is to make me happy. And so off I go to try to change you in order to do what? Well make me happy, make me pleased, make everything go good for me, after all, I’m center of the universe. And so as the center of the universe, why certainly it should be evolving around me. And so I want to be sure that everyone’s doing exactly and precisely what I want them to do, and again, because they don’t, then I’ve got to set out to try to get them to do that. And now I become not only a manipulator of my own life, but I become a manipulator of someone else’s life. Have you ever tried to get someone else to do what they don’t want to do? It’s not easy, is it? And it takes work. You want to talk about exhaustion that’ll exhaust you. That’s a lot harder than digging ditches. Is desperately trying to get somebody to think a different way, do something different in order to make me happy. That’s work, and it’s exhausting, but we will actively engage in that, because, again, that’s physical, that’s natural. I can understand that naturally. I can understand that how to do that. I want a chess man to move I need to get up there and move it. I can understand that.

But God comes along, my friends, and he saying to you and me, and this is what this whole thing is about, is are you living are you going to live your life on a physical plane, or are you going to live it on a spiritual plane? In other words, if you’re a spiritual being, which, if you’re in Christ, then indeed you are. Then are you going to live on a natural plane, looking at things naturally, this is how you solve things naturally. Or are you going to be able to say, Lord, I can’t even change me, let alone them. And therefore my joy is not dependent upon what they do anyway. My joy is depending upon what you are doing, not what they are doing. And therefore I entrust, commit this situation to you, who alone judges justly and who alone knows what is best for the two of us, not for the one of us, because I’m looking out after me, but what is best for the two of us, or if we have a family, the four of us or the six of us. And so I’m going to trust this to you, instead of my trying to solve it, because every time I try to solve it and make a mess of it, and then to be able to sit back and relax. Because the reason you can relax is because your joy is not predicated upon whether they do something where they don’t. It’s predicated on the fact that I can trust the Lord who said I will complete the work that I began in you as well as them, and I can trust him with that, and therefore put my hands off of it and not be worried about it. Now that is not thinking on a natural plane, folks, because natural thinking does not understand those things. A natural mind does not understand what I just said. Many times. It’s tough for those of us who have spiritual minds to understand that, because we’ve never tried it. We’ve never put it into practice, and we’ve studied this book, like studying a book on how to swim when you don’t have a pool around. And so all you know is the academics of the mechanics as to how to swim, and you’ve never been inside the water, because we’ve never jumped in. We’ve never tried it. It’s what they talked about in Hebrews, that all of these things that we’re talking about were of no avail to the people, because they didn’t combine what they heard with faith. They didn’t put it into practice. They didn’t they didn’t act on it. They say Jesus is the sacrifice, not back there in Jerusalem. And they keep going to Jerusalem. They don’t put into practice. If Jesus is truly God, and Jesus is truly the only sacrifice for sins, I’m going to trust him. That’s it. Period. You going in there to Day of Atonement? No, I’m not gone. How come? Because Jesus is my forgiveness. Christ is my atonement. He’s the one that took away my sins. Not that lamb anymore. I’m acting on it. I’m putting into practice what Jesus said is true.

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Bob George 14:26
In the world in which we live, you’ve got natural man and you’ve got spiritual man. You’ve got natural thinking and you have spiritual thinking. You have natural behavior and you have spiritual behavior. It’s all tied in. There are two different worlds that we live in, folks, two different worlds. You and I are in this world, but there’s a possibility to not be of it and in it, and of it is totally around, how do you think and how do you perceive life? The Bible says, if you’re angry with each other as a man and wife, settle a thing before you go to bed. How many of us do that? How many of us do that? Or do we say, I’m going to stay mad all night. I’ll show her, I’ll just torture her. Or do we settle it? Why does God say settle it? Because he says, otherwise, Satan’s going to get a foothold in your life. When Satan with a foothold. Now natural man doesn’t understand that natural man comes down says, Satan. Who? Who you talking about? Come on. But you and I know what Satan and satanic pressure is, and we also know what the word of God says. It says, straighten it out. It says, don’t harbor bitter, envy and selfish ambition in your heart. Don’t harbor bitterness in your heart. How come? Well, number one, because you’re the benefactor of that and it’s going to eat your lunch. You know, folks, there’s a certain degree in which we are constantly thinking, well, this is best for the family, that I do it this way and and we get this, this kind of a martyr’s complex, well, this is best for them. And so, you know, I’ll quit drinking because it’s best for the family. And so I’ll quit drinking. So that man, quit drinking because it’s best for you. The best motivation we have is selfish. God wants you to quit drinking, regardless of what it does for the family, if you’re a boozer. God’s instructions are to you and to me because he loves you individually. So he isn’t sitting down saying, Well, I really don’t give a flip about you, but I sure like your family. So for the benefit of the family, I love even though you’re a slob, well, y’all quit doing this, man He loves you and he wants the best for you, and these instructions are for you. And the reason I don’t want to be sticking drugs in my body is because it isn’t good for me. Whether it’s good for the family or not is not the issue. It’s not good for me. You and I think we need to understand that bitterness is not good for me. It sure isn’t good for my family, but it’s eating my lunch. Have you ever noticed that? And you can be bitter toward somebody, and they don’t even know you’re bitter toward them, and they’re sitting over here in Kansas City someplace, enjoying their meal, and you’re over in New York getting ulcers in the finest of restaurants, getting ulcers because you’re mad at this guy back in Kansas City, and he doesn’t even know you’re mad at him, he can join his meal. Now, who’s the recipient of bitterness? You. That’s why you can’t afford the luxury I can’t afford the luxury of hating someone. Why? Because after a while, that hate starts falling on people that I love. Because hate doesn’t care what it falls on. Neither does bitterness and neither does resentment. Have you ever noticed you start getting bitter toward one person? Next thing somebody else comes along. You’re bitter towards some person. You go to somebody and say, Hey, I’m having some trouble with this guy over here. I’m bitter. And the guy says, What’s your fault? And he said, Well, I don’t like you either. So now it starts spreading all over the place. We can’t afford the luxury. We can’t afford the luxury. So from God’s standpoint, and if we’re going to think with a spiritual mind instead of a natural mind, and we have the mind of Christ living in us. So we have the capability of doing that, not because we’re smart, not because we’re educated, because we’re saved, that we have a kingdom therefore, and this is what he is talking about, that you and I have come to a different kingdom altogether. It’s a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And so therefore, in verse 28 of chapter 12, it says, Let us be thankful. Let us be thankful. The song was saying to give thanks. And so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. For God is a consuming fire. He never He never dies, he never burns out. He’s always there. So therefore, after we’ve learned this sufficiency of Christ and the supremacy of Christ and and that he is everything. It says, Keep on loving each other as brothers. Are we brothers and sisters in Christ? It says, Keep on loving each other. Is your wife? Your sister in Christ? It says, Keep on loving her. Because your husband, your brother in Christ? It says, Keep on loving him.

You see again, the old flesh says, Yeah, but you don’t know. God says, Yeah, I do know, but you don’t know how he Yes, I do. I forgave how he treated you, but you don’t. Yes, I do say, Keep on loving them. Now again, when you’re talking about this thing of love, then man looks at ushiguh feelings. And so we sit around and try to conjure up, well, okay, I’ll love him. So we’re down here trying to, trying to love. And love is not a feeling. It’s an action. Has nothing to do at all with feelings. It’s an action. Love is patient. I don’t have to feel patient. Says, Be patient. Love is kind. I can be kind. Don’t even have to feel it. I can be long suffering. I cannot keep records of wrongs. I don’t have to feel like, I feel like keeping records, records of wrongs. But it says I’m not going to, and what that means is I’m not going to bring it up. You know, some of the most damaging things we do to each other is when we have a little bag of tricks that we use for a great offense, and that is to keep very detailed records about what everybody’s done to you so that you can draw it out of your computer at a moment’s notice to use as an attack weapon. Have you ever noticed that? And that’s why somebody says, Well, you did this. And what do we say, Yeah, but that’s what you did. They say, Yeah, but you did this for, I did? No, you did this back for you did. And pretty soon you don’t know who did who didn’t, but it’s an attack weapon is to dig up the past and use it as an attack weapon against somebody else. And you know, they’re in anything that hurts you anymore than somebody bringing up what you’ve done wrong. You know why it hurts even more as a Christian than it does as a lost person, because as a Christian, you know full well it’s behind God’s back, and you’re wondering why in the world, in it behind yours.

But you see my friends, In this world in which we live, it’s a very seldom that you’re ever going to receive that kind of forgiveness from people where it is totally behind their back and never going to see it brought up again, but the relief of that is in the knowledge that it is behind God’s back, never to bring it up again, and whether it’s behind your back or not, is between your relationship with God. I can’t make you that way. I can’t make you that kind of a person. God’s going to have to but from my standpoint and my dealing with you, I do have a choice as to whether or not I’m going to bring up your past to you, or whether I’m going to leave it alone. That is a choice, whether you do it or not with me. I can’t control that. That’s between you and God, but I can determine on my behalf that if Christ, Jesus is dealing with me that way, then that’s the way I want to deal with you. Then I do have a choice that that’s where I’m going to do in dealing with you. Now, folks, can you correct anything you’ve done wrong in the past? Can you correct what you’ve said to each other yesterday, two hours ago? Whatever it might be, there isn’t any way to take that back, is there? So the key to it is to be able, once again, to entrust that to the one who judges justly and to move on and to love one another. What kind of a world do you think we would live in today? What kind of America do you think we’d have today if everyone was doing this?

You see, God is not stupid. God made man. He knows man, and what he’s saying to us that if you want to live life to its abundance, this is where you do. It doesn’t make sense naturally. Natural says get even be bitter, punish those who have done. Nothing against you, whether it’s psychologically or however it might be, get even get yours before they get you that all of that is what natural says. And again, the minute I think it, I can consider it, and if I consider it, I’ll act on it. And again, the only problem with that is it takes you right down the spiral to disaster and bondage. So he says, folks be loving to each other. Don’t forget to entertain strangers, because by doing that, some people have entertained angels without knowing it. I don’t quite understand that, but that’s what it says. Now, I don’t remember ever entertain an angel, but it’s hard to it’s hard to say, but it’s there. And what it’s saying is, be hospitable. Remember those in prison, it says as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated, as if you yourself were suffering. And again, it’s an attitude of, if you had a brother that was in prison, don’t look at that as if that couldn’t happen to me. If your if your brother hurts, hurt with them. If they are rejoicing, rejoice with them. It is a hard attitude that says that we belong to one another, that if we if our perspective is right and if it is correct in regard to what this body is, then we understand that just as I have one head, but I’ve got Many parts to my body, but these many parts form one body. And as the scripture says so, it is in Christ that He is the head. And though the parts are many, they form one body. And therefore you and I, we belong to one another as brothers and sisters. In Christ, that’s what it’s talking about, we belong to one another. That’s why, in Christ, there is no Jew, there is no Gentile, there is no slave, there is no free, there is just oneness. In Christ, Jesus, we belong to one another.

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.