Radio Broadcast Wednesday 08/07/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Galatians P6 (08-07-24)

All Scripture is God-breathed and is Useful for Instruction,

for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16 Pay attention to the details.

“I am amazed that so quickly you are deserting from the One having called you in the grace of Christ to another gospel, which is not another, except there are some who are troubling you and are desiring to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel out of heaven should preach a gospel to you contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let him be accursed! As we have said before, even now I say again: If anyone is preaching a gospel to you contrary to what you received, let him be accursed!” Galatians 1:7-9

There are people today that think if they get a doctor’s degree in divinity that they are special. There are other people that think that if they memorize whole passages of scripture and can repeat them to people, that they are special. And people put these false teachers up on a pedestal, and literally idolize them, as though they are something special. Nope, none of that makes them special to God. And don’t be fooled, Satan knows the word of God backwards and forwards too. And the demons have been around a lot longer than any of us, so they too can repeat great amounts of Scripture back to people and make them think that they are special in the sight of God, and at the same time, intentionally be off in one or two KEY areas of Scripture, to the point that they are teaching a different gospel, which is no gospel at all. And these false gospels are passed down from one generation to another, and people will quote from bibles that are translated by these false teachers, and think nothing of that either. Words are important, and the words we use are important too. And Man can pass on wrong teaching without even realizing it.

Folks, we are in period of time where the deception is so great, that only those that are trusting in the Holy Spirit to teach them ALL Truth is going to make a difference in their life. For without the Holy Spirit in you, a person will be lead down the wrong path, time after time. And if the Holy Spirit is alive living in you, it says you have the mind of Christ living in you. And it also says we have been given a sound mind ourselves. So we better start using it. Details matter in everything, especially the word of God. So ask for Wisdom from God directly and I will repeat it again, for when you ask, trust Him to supply it with great abundance, and He will. This is a promise out of the Word of God. And He will teach you ALL Truth. Trust in Him and Him alone, for God cannot lie.

But don’t go into learning with an attitude of pride, thinking you know everything about everything, or even in one area scripture if you think you know something about something, for only God knows everything. The Truth is much deeper than anyone can imagine. And the lies are much more so than people understand. It’s only when a person humbles themselves before God, only then will God teach them Truth, and show them the lies of the world around them.

And be not surprised, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” 2 Corinthians 11:13-15


To the churches of Galatia:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, the One having given Himself for our sins, so that He might deliver us out of the evil age having come presently, according to the will our God and Father, to whom be the glory to the ages of the ages. Amen.

I am amazed that so quickly you are deserting from the One having called you in the grace of Christ to another gospel, which is not another, except there are some who are troubling you and are desiring to pervert the gospel of Christ.

But even if we or an angel out of heaven should preach a gospel to you contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let him be accursed! As we have said before, even now I say again: If anyone is preaching a gospel to you contrary to what you received, let him be accursed! ^{Galatians 1:1-9}

Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. For I certify to you, brothers, that the gospel I preached was not devised by man. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

For you have heard of my former way of life in Hebrewism, how severely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Hebrewism beyond many of my contemporaries and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not rush to consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to the apostles who came before me, but I went into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

Only after three years did I go up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas, and I stayed with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. I assure you before God that what I am writing to you is no lie.

Later I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. I was personally unknown, however, to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the account: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God because of me. Galatians 1:10-24

Pray to God:

Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

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.”

~ “I don’t care what handle someone has put on them. I don’t care they call them doctor or double doctor, made no difference at all to me, that sounds cocky. Say Paul, you’re arrogant. That’s what he’d be called today. You’re arrogant. You’re not listening to the big boys. Isn’t that right? Just exactly what’s going on. You’re not listening to the big guys. You’re arrogant, and people will call you that when you know what God has taught you, and you know what God has said, and you stand boldly and proclaim it, people stand back and say how He is arrogant. Who does he think he is? And then they start saying. Wonder what this one would say. How many times have you heard you may have done it yourself. When I first started teaching the true meaning of First John one nine people immediately started going to everybody under the sun. Poor old major Thomas used to get attacked every time he went to speak someplace. He said somebody was coming down and said, Hi, I’m a friend of Bob George. What do you think about first John 1:9? Said, I don’t need Major Thomas’ confirmation of First John one nine to believe that’s true. I don’t need Charles Stanley’s approval of that. I don’t need Chuck Swindoll’s approval of that, or anybody else who’s so called biggies in the Christian world. I don’t need that approval to know that’s true. God’s taught us it’s true. Could prove it. So I don’t need to be going to somebody else. What do you think about this? And people do that all the time. What do you think about this? What do you think about this? Well, what does it matter what they think about it? What do you think about it? You study God by a Bible friend, yeah, the Spirit of God is living in you. The issue is, what do you think about it? That’s the same thing Paul is talking about. These people seem to be important, but whatever they were didn’t make any difference to me.” ~ Bob George

Bible Study Booklets

Join Bob George in this chapter by chapter exposition of the letter to the Galatians. Available for download the complete series on the Book of Galatians. The Letter to the Galatians is key to understanding Law and Grace, the new covenant, and being one in Christ Jesus.

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
So he says, Be careful. He said, Am I trying to win the approval of men or God? Now folks, teaching what we’re teaching today is not going to win the approval of men. That’s why it’s hard to stay on radio stations. We’ve been kicked off of the best of them. No, we’ve been kicked off of all of them. And if I was wanting to win the approval of man, I could just change what I’m teaching. That wouldn’t be hard to do. Just change what you’re teaching and just be up with the biggies. But there has to come a point in your life where you say, am I going to seek the approval of man, or am I going to seek the approval of God and teach what I know to be true with no bias, and is, are there consequences doing that? Yeah, there are. Yeah, you sure are you get kicked off of everything you’re on. But again, God is still faithful, isn’t he, and his grace never stops, and if it stops one place, it’ll just pick up another. So he says, I’m not trying to win the approval of men, or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. I received it by revelation from Christ, Jesus.

We talked again last week. What it says, No eye has seen, no ear has aired, nor mind is conceived of those things that God has prepared for those who love him, but it must be what? Revealed by the Spirit you’re not taught it, it’s revealed. Well, then what in the world do we have teachers for? Well, God gave us pastor teachers as gifts to the body of Christ, just like he gave evangelists and prophets as gifts to the body of Christ to teach the meaning of the word of God as it has been revealed to you. That does not mean that you will catch the revelation from me. You’ll catch the revelation from God. So I can teach you what it says. I can teach you what God has revealed to me, what it means, but for you to know what it means, God’s got to reveal it to you, otherwise you have Bob George’s faith, or Lutheran’s faith, or Calvin’s faith, or the Pope’s faith, or whoever else that you want to put on there, Billy Graham’s faith or Chuck Swindoll’s faith. That’s all you have until the Spirit reveals it to you. And so that’s why people become followers of Luther or followers of Calvin, followers of People to People, followers of any of be of men is because they have our their faith is based in what that man says instead of what God has revealed to you. Now, is there anything wrong with being supporters of men who have taught you and led you to depend upon Christ to reveal? Nothing wrong with that at all. So if that doesn’t happen, the message will never go on. But you have to realize that the object of your faith is not in a man, it’s in Christ, and He alone will reveal the meaning of the word of God to you. That’s a promise he has for you.

For when you heard of my previous way of life in Hebrewism, how I intensely persecuted the church of God, in essence, as a matter of fact, I tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Hebrewism beyond many of my contemporaries, and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. Now there again, folks, can we worship at the foot of tradition? And you can have people today who you can give total truth to out of the scriptures, but it does not tie into my traditions, and therefore there’s a closed ear to anything you say. Is there anything in the Scripture about the worship of Mary? Anything? Not a word of Mary being a co-redemption with Jesus, co-redeemer. Anything in the Scripture about that at all was Mary blessed. Sure carried the Son of God a womb. Was Mary a wonderful lady? Probably so. Did she? Did she and Joseph ever have you know? Yes. Did He have brothers and sisters? Yes, is that taught in some segments of so called massive forms of Christianity? No. So why is it there? Tradition. It’s not in the Scripture, no, no justification for it, but it’s there, and in so doing many times because of that kind of emphasis, that error that the other group, the Protestant group, talks not enough about Mary. That’s what happens when you push something that’s not true. You. Rebel against it. And so what you what you have, I’m just that is just one example of error of tradition that is very prevalent in the so called Christian world.

So he says that there he too was zealous for the traditions of my father’s. Do you suppose that as an example, do you suppose that the apostle Paul would have spit on the ground on the Sabbath? Would you suppose he would have? No. Would he have spit on a rock? Yeah, he had done that, but not on the ground. Why? Because the traditions of the father was that on a Sabbath, you can’t spit on the ground, because if you spit on the ground, it formed mud, and that’s work, and that means you’re working. You made mud and you worked on the Sabbath. Do you suppose he observed that? Did Jesus? No, no, he didn’t, no. And he healed the blind man. He just spit a big one right on the ground, and just made mud with it and spread it on his eyes and told him to go wash it off. And he could have waited till the next day. Saved himself a lot of problems, but he did it on the Sabbath. Now, what was the response to people into their tradition? They didn’t give a flip that that guy was blind and could see. All they were concerned about is you spit on the Sabbath. God forbid. So, but Paul would have been, he would have been a follower of that type of thing. If he lived in those day and age, he wouldn’t have on the Sabbath. He had to punch that Shabbat elevator. He rode up the top and got off at every floor.

But he said, I was zealous for that. But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me. Now, folks, that’s what happens when you are spiritually born again, God reveals His Son in you, and your Spirit testifies to the fact that you are a son of the living God. He chose to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles. And I did not consult any man. He said, Paul. Now, of all the unlikely people to go to the Gentiles, it was Paul. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He should have gone to the Pharisees. He could have matched their intellectual zeal, point by point. But he sent them to the heathenistic Gentiles who descended the Hebrews? Peter the fishermen. You know what that shows Folks, God doesn’t need your ability, only your availability. He says, I’ll send you to the most unlikely people in the face of the earth.

My early Christian days, one of my leaders told me, Bob, you’re going to have a great ministry with the intellectuals. I said, Really, yes, sir. How do you know? Because the Scripture says that God would take the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. He was a real encourager. Okay?

He said, I did not again. I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem. Said, I didn’t go to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was so I did not go and learn this message from Peter and all of the other apostles. I didn’t do that. I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus, and then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and to stay with him for 15 days, I saw none of the other apostles, only James, our Lord’s brother. So if anyone has any doubt as to whether or not the Lord had a brother, he had a brother. He had number of brothers and sisters. And there he was staying with James, who became the pastor of where? Of Jerusalem. So he says that I saw none of the apostles, only James the Lord’s brother. I assure you before God that what I am writing to you is no lie. Later I went to Syria. I was personally unknown to the churches in Judea that are in Christ, the they only heard the report the man who formally persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.

Well, when you have the reputation that you are the guy who was trying to destroy Christianity. And now you come in and start proclaiming it, somebody could think, I wonder what he’s up to? I wonder if he’s a spy? I wonder what he’s up to? But he said, incidentally, that they praised, they praised God because of me, 14 years later. So you’re talking about 14 years after the conversion of the apostle Paul, I went up again to Jerusalem, now this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along too. I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. So he is saying, I went back to Jerusalem because the revelation that God gave me in regard to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that revelation was such, and the effects of that were such that I had to go and to check out and to let the Apostles in Jerusalem know, who are ministering to the Hebrews what this gospel is, because it’s also applicable to them. And so this was a revelation that what? What was the mystery that was revealed to Paul we studied in Ephesians? Christ in the Gentiles, is your hope of glory, that God was going to take the same message that went to the Hebrew and give it to the Gentile. Was that good news to the Hebrew? Absolutely not. They hated the Gentile. They detested the Gentile, they went miles around Samaria on their way from the Galilee into Jerusalem, just to bypass Samaria. Why they hated them. When Peter went to Cornelius and went back to report to the Hebrews, they chewed him out for eating in the home of a Gentile we were looked at as dogs.

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Bob George 13:53
And so the message that Paul was giving out was, these Gentiles are coming to the same God that you came to, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is also the God of the Gentiles. And so he went up to them in response to this revelation, and set before them this gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this. He said privately to those who seem to be leaders. So look how he words these. I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders. Do you think Paul was impressed with anybody? He wasn’t impressed with anyone except the Lord. He wasn’t even impressed with Peter. He chewed him out in public. Paul was very independent. And that’s what happens to you when your focus is on Jesus, you become very independent, and there isn’t anyone that impresses you, because you’re not impressed with you, and there isn’t anything to be impressed about any of us. Is that right or wrong? If we don’t believe that, look in the mirror, there’s nothing to get impressed about. And so he was not impressed with them. He wasn’t impressed with himself. He was impressed with the Lord. So he said, I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain. He said I was for fearful that all of this things that I’m doing is just in vain. We did not give it to them. We did not give in to them for a moment. Now, what’s he talking about here? Didn’t give in to them. What were the so called leaders saying? They were saying, you are preaching to Gentiles and not giving them the law, if anybody to be a true believer has got to be circumcised, anyone’s who’s a true believer has got to become a Hebrew, get under the law like we are. Remember last week, or the week before, we talked about when, when, when Paul came back and proclaimed to what had taken place among the Gentiles, and how James sat back and said, in essence, that’s nice, but do you see all these Hebrews who have come to Christ and are zealous for the law? That’s who he was running up against, the leadership among the Hebrews, who were saying this, Christianity is okay as long as it’s an extension of Hebrewism. But if you come out and put that on its own, we don’t like it. So he was running into terrible opposition. He said, Paul said, I didn’t give in to them for one minute. They were supposedly leaders, but I didn’t give in to them.

Why didn’t he give in to them folks? Why didn’t Paul give into what they were teaching? Because it was contrary to what God had taught him. I can’t emphasize this enough, guys, God has to be your teacher. You cannot live in dependency upon somebody else and folks that unfortunately, is what this ear tickling thing takes place. If all coming to church is is coming and swinging and swaying with Sammy Kay and getting your goosebumps all up and then hearing a 15 minute message on something that is not going to do it, you’ve got to take time in the Word, you’ve got to study the Word. You should your heart should be open to wanting to know what is in the Word. Those are love letters to you from God. And we depend on other people instead of sitting there and scribbling our Bibles up to you can’t even recognize them, and studying that Bible and reading the scriptures, that’s a love letter to you. And the reason Paul was able to say, I didn’t give in to what they were saying for one minute is because God taught me truth. And when God has taught you, you are taught, you’re taught. So he said, I didn’t give into them for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might remain in you. As for those who seemed to be important, you see how he’s putting this. Seemed to be important, men who appeared to be in leadership roles.

Now, folks, let me ask you a question, what in a world are we doing sitting around, studying church history and gearing our churches around the early church when it was messed up more than any church it’s been since? And you have people who sit around and all they do is study church history and try to mold their organization around the early church. That early church was screwed up from the day one here in Jerusalem, 49 AD, messed up beyond comprehension. People didn’t look at what Paul was doing as the church. They looked at what was going on Jerusalem as the church. That’s Jerusalem. That’s like, that’s Washington, that’s Washington, DC or Rome. Paul wasn’t there. He was out in these little boondock places, just sharing Jesus with people. But what he was sharing with them was truth. And so he says, As for those who seemed to be important, whatever they were, makes no difference at all to me.

I don’t care what handle someone has put on them. I don’t care they call them doctor or double doctor, made no difference at all to me, that sounds cocky. Say Paul, you’re arrogant. That’s what he’d be called today. You’re arrogant. You’re not listening to the big boys. Isn’t that right? Just exactly what’s going on. You’re not listening to the big guys. You’re arrogant, and people will call you that when you know what God has taught you, and you know what God has said, and you stand boldly and proclaim it, people stand back and say how He is arrogant. Who does he think he is? And then they start saying. Wonder what this one would say. How many times have you heard you may have done it yourself. When I first started teaching the true meaning of First John one nine people immediately started going to everybody under the sun. Poor old major Thomas used to get attacked every time he went to speak someplace. He said somebody was coming down and said, Hi, I’m a friend of Bob George. What do you think about first John 1:9? Said, I don’t need Major Thomas’ confirmation of First John one nine to believe that’s true. I don’t need Charles Stanley’s approval of that. I don’t need Chuck Swindoll’s approval of that, or anybody else who’s so called biggies in the Christian world. I don’t need that approval to know that’s true. God’s taught us it’s true. Could prove it. So I don’t need to be going to somebody else. What do you think about this? And people do that all the time. What do you think about this? What do you think about this? Well, what does it matter what they think about it? What do you think about it? You study God by a Bible friend, yeah, the Spirit of God is living in you. The issue is, what do you think about it? That’s the same thing Paul is talking about. These people seem to be important, but whatever they were didn’t make any difference to me.

God does not judge by external appearances. These men added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Hebrews. So they acknowledged something they had they acknowledged that God has entrusted this message to you to take to the Gentiles. For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Hebrews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.

James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars. I don’t think Paul was real crazy about all that gang, but he said those reputed to be pillars. Now, I mean, that’s that’s kind of strong language, isn’t it, when you think about they’re reputed to be pillars, but I know better. Let me ask you a question, folks, how many of you think John and Peter and James were sinless? How many of you think that these men who God picked never committed sin? Do we have any idea what was going on in their lives? No, it doesn’t talk about it. Thank God they didn’t have TV back then. You don’t have a clue. But we say, Oh, those are pillars. And Paul is saying, well, those reputed to be pillars because they’re just people with feet of clay. How many of you think Billy Graham never sins, or anybody else that you’ve ever known? Dwight L moody, one of the greatest evangelists that we’ve known. Did he ever sin? That’s all he’s getting us to see here is there aren’t any big deals. If you are proclaiming the grace of God, it’s because of the grace of God. If you’re the recipient of the grace of God, it’s because of the grace of God, and there none of us are big deals. In the Scripture. It makes no distinction between laity and between people in the pulpit. Do we? Oh yeah, they’re pillars, and then the pillar falls, and we just act like, Oh my god. How’d that happen? Well, How’d it happen with you? I mean, if the hearer can sin, the speaker can sin.

And so he’s just merely saying, get your eyes off of men. And Paul talked about, on another occasion, who is Apollos, who’s Paul, who’s Peter? We’re only servants. We sow seed, we water, but only God can make it grow. So quit making heroes out of people. There aren’t any. Now, when we see that, are we going to live better? Are we going to live easier than when we’re sitting there thinking somebody and then we get that idea of, Oh, they’re so good. I could never be that good. Well, you don’t know what they’re thinking. So folks, he wants us to face this whole gospel with reality. He wants us to see things realistically, and you can’t look at something realistically when you got people up on pedestals. Am I right or wrong on this guys? We’ve got people who are presidents of the United States when they’ve been dead 100 years. They’re pedestals. They weren’t theb, and they aren’t then. They weren’t then, they aren’t now, but we put them there. He’s saying, quit doing that, and just accept all of us as who we are, people who have been saved by the grace of God, sinners who were doomed to hell, who have been transferred from darkness to light by the grace of God.

So he said those reputed to be pillars gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. When they recognized the Grace had given to me, they couldn’t deny that Paul was living in grace. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Hebrews. So in essence, it’s kind of like saying now, Paul, why don’t you and old Barney, you can’t just kind of get out of our hair and you go to the Gentiles, and we’ll keep right here with the Hebrews. Was that a compromise? Probably to a degree. I don’t know whether there was a real interest in seeing them go to the Gentiles or not. I think there’s a bigger interest in just get them out of their hair, because if they hung around Jerusalem, they were going to be teaching grace to these Hebrews who are still under the Law, and we’re going to have more turmoil and you could ever imagine. And that was probably true. So let James deal with that.

All they ask is that we should continue to remember the poor as if they didn’t the very thing which I was eager to do. And when Peter and then it turns right around, remember the poor and turns right around, hitting this again. Said, when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Now, I don’t know where that came from. That just kind of out of the blue. He’s telling his story. He just got through talking about the fact they agreed you go to the Gentiles, but Peter evidently wanted to go to the Gentiles too, but he said, I opposed him to his face before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. That’s Peter. That’s the Pope. (sarcasm) That’s the apostle Peter. Why did he bring this in? Again, I think it’s those reputed to be, those who appeared to be. And he just brings in, again, an example of the failings of human beings.

Announcer 27:11
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