Radio Broadcast Wednesday 10/04/2023

Classic Christianity – Book of Hebrews P17 (10-04-23)

The Body of Christ is Here to Serve One Another in Truth and Love All With the Same Holy Spirit

~ In these last days, things are so important that we are told to pay attention to the details. Details matter in everything. The word of God has a message to each of us today. We learn things from one another. The body of Christ teaches each other through the Holy Spirit using each of us as He sees fit. Some are given wisdom, some are given knowledge and understanding, some are given more faith; but all of this comes from the same Holy Spirit. God wants us to grow in the knowledge of Him and the Truth about the world we live in today and the lies of Satan, and the ultimate conclusion of this age. So pay particularly close attention to all the details. By now, most of you that have been listening to the program for some time now, know that Jesus forgave you of ALL sins. And you have exercised faith in that very truth. And we also know that most of the world does NOT believe in total forgiveness and that includes most of the so-called Christian world. They think more forgiveness is required by God. And hence, we have a very powerful message of reconciliation by God, “God forgave you of ALL of your sins at the cross and He is Not counting any sins against you.” But the message of grace and truth doesn’t stop there. There is much more wisdom and knowledge to be understood from the word of God.

There are those within the body of Christ Jesus that have been given more wisdom and more knowledge from the Holy Spirit and He wants each of us, to listen carefully and to verify within the word of God if it isn’t so. For all of these things are given as gifts (children of God with knowledge and understanding are gifts) to the body of Christ. We are there to support one another, because we collectively are the body of Christ down here on earth at this moment in time. So pay attention, for we even see within the word of God that the Bereans went to the scriptures daily to verify what was being said by Paul and Silas was TRUE or not. Be like the Bereans and dive into the word of God. Allow Him to teach you All truth. “And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.” Acts 17:11

Serving one another in Love, is the Holy Spirit flowing through each one of us sharing Truth with one another. Like John the Baptist, the sharer of Truth, Truth is paramount over anything else when it comes to the message of the word of God, because God is Truth and God cannot lie, and don’t slough off the details within the word of God, nor the wisdom of the Holy Spirit shared by children of God. And each of us knows how to test the spirits (we are told that too from the word of God) to see if the things being said are true or not. And don’t trust in man (no man), for a man can be in error without even realizing it. But in EVERYTHING take it to the Holy Spirit in prayer and ask Him to reveal ALL truth to you. And remember, love is not overlooking lies, but proclaiming truth. And when a person proclaims truth, it may be harsh for some people to hear it, as was the case when John the Baptist spoke to some people himself. He spoke the Truth, and the teachers of the law hated him for that. Because he exposed them and their lies, and the fact that they were working for Satan and they were a brood of vipers. Yet Jesus commended him above all men at that point in time.

~ “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” ^{Matthew 3:7}

~ “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.” ^{1 Corinthians 12:7-11}

~ “Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” ^{Matthew 11:11}

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~ “In a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you are free to be led not by a group, but to be led by the Spirit of God who lives in you. And therefore that’s what it means to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t say to be controlled by spirit filled Christians, but to be controlled by the Holy Spirit of God who lives in you. If Christ is ALIVE living in you, He is perfectly capable of teaching your mind controlling your emotions directing your will. He does not need me to tell you how to behave. And therefore my role is not to be here as a fruit inspector. My role is not here to be telling you What to do and what not to do. If the Lord Jesus Christ can’t get through, for sure I can’t. Now we do have some advantage being married because if the Spirit doesn’t get through why your mate normally will. But outside of that you’re not here to control one another, we’re here to love one another. He didn’t say that you have been called to freedom, my brothers now don’t use that freedom to indulge the flesh, but rather use that freedom to control one another in love. Of course, you know, in love Yes, and love, I want to control you. You get the picture? And that’s what gives you freedom to be what God wants you to be. And you don’t have to organize the Holy Spirit. It’s the type of thing that if I am trusting God in my life to lead me, then why would I think the same God who lives in you can’t lead you? And if that’s the case, then what do I need to try to get you to do things for?” ~ Bob George

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Announcer 0:12
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Bob George 0:29
In a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you are free to be led not by a group, but to be led by the Spirit of God who lives in you. And therefore that’s what it means to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t say to be controlled by spirit filled Christians, but to be controlled by the Holy Spirit of God who lives in you. If Christ is ALIVE living in you, He is perfectly capable of teaching your mind controlling your emotions directing your will. He does not need me to tell you how to behave. And therefore my role is not to be here as a fruit inspector. My role is not here to be telling you What to do and what not to do. If the Lord Jesus Christ can’t get through, for sure I can’t. Now we do have some advantage being married because if the Spirit doesn’t get through why your mate normally will. But outside of that you’re not here to control one another, we’re here to love one another. He didn’t say that you have been called to freedom, my brothers now don’t use that freedom to indulge the flesh, but rather use that freedom to control one another in love. Of course, you know, in love Yes, and love, I want to control you. You get the picture? And that’s what gives you freedom to be what God wants you to be. And you don’t have to organize the Holy Spirit. It’s the type of thing that if I am trusting God in my life to lead me, then why would I think the same God who lives in you can’t lead you? And if that’s the case, then what do I need to try to get you to do things for? Now, folks, it says in here, then it’s the same thing in regard to the entirety of the Christian life. The Christian life is Christ Jesus alive living in you, which is your only hope of glory. It is a personal relationship with a living Jesus. Now, that’s why then he says here that God testified about all of these things with signs, wonders, miracles, gifts of the Holy Spirit, look at this distributed how? According to His will. Do we get together and have a little committee meeting on who ought to have the gift of giving? Or do we have a committee meeting and determine who should have the gift of helps? Or do we sit around until everybody everybody ought to have the gift of mercy? And if we don’t have enough mercy in this group, folks, we got to get some more gifted people in here. So let’s have a seminar on how to be merciful. And we’ll see if we can teach some people how to be full of mercy. How smart would that be? Let’s have a group together. And what we need to do is to get a little group over here and we’ll learn how to be givers and will would, that wouldn’t be bad. And we will learn how to develop the gift of giving. I mean, you don’t have that gift, but we’re going to teach you how to have that gift of giving. make any sense? No, it doesn’t make any sense. You don’t sit around and teach someone how to have a gift from God. You don’t sit around and encourage someone how to have a gift from God. Gifts from God are given from God, isn’t that amazing that’s why I call it a gift from God. My keen mind picked up on that it’s I didn’t get to sleep. But I’m smart up here. When it’s a gift of God, God gives it to you. Now it’s distributed all of these things are distributed, according to His will, as he determined to do so. Now, is he going to make everybody a finger? No. Is He going to make everybody knows? No. How about ears? No Mouth, no arms? No. Be a funny looking body, wouldn’t it be somebody. If I stood up here on Sunday morning with this hair up here on top of a great big nose, just total nose there. It’d be a funny looking thing. And that’s what the body of Christ is doing. We’re sitting over here identifying ourselves by our gifts. And all the noses are sitting over this place on Sunday blowing up a storm. All the ears are over here just wiggling all over the place. All the mouths are over here speaking up a storm. All fingers are at another places just wiggling away. And everybody’s dividing the body. According to gifts. Make a sense? No sure doesn’t. Anymore and I’d say to you, I’ll tell you what, we’re gonna have an exciting time today. Everybody cut off their left hand and all this hands are gonna beat over and a backroom in there and we’re gonna have a ball over there together. The Body of Christ is the body of Christ. When you have assembly of people such as you have here within this assembly, according to God, believe me, every single gift of the Spirit that is in existence today is represented by the some of you in this body, everyone has gifts of the Spirit. But no one has all of them. And the gifts of the Spirit are not for everybody. Now, that’s a far cry, from what you see today, where everyone’s going around trying to get everybody to have the same gift. And if you don’t have it, mind, you’re not spiritual. And that gift is a sign of being spirituality. That’s the sign of being spiritual. Kind of dumb isn’t it when you understand what the body of Christ is.

Now, I want to go back and review for a moment. What we talked about very briefly for last week, what I want you to pay attention to what is talked about here is the fact that gifts of the Holy Spirit are distributed according to the will of God. Turned back with me very quickly to the First Corinthians 12. When we’re going to see that again. As we’ve come to the point in the book of Hebrews, where it’s talking about signs and wonders, and various miracles and gifts of the Spirit, why, because of that prevalence today that you’ll see and the abuse of the teaching of that it’s vitally important, we back up and spend some time on it. Now, if you’ll look at First Corinthians 12, you’re going to see something there, where he says about spiritual gifts, brother, I don’t want you to be ignorant. And Paul, very subtly, is kind of reminding those people where they came from before he met him. So he said, I want to remind you that when you are pagan, somehow or other you are influenced and led astray by mute idols, Paul’s, subtle isn’t he? Kind of like a meat cleaver. And what he’s saying to him, when I first met you, you people were so dumb that you were following idols, and you were being led by pagans and mute idols. And I want to remind you, you’re not that smart. And so I want to put you kind of where you need to be because Paul, and the apostles were the authority on the truth of the Word of God. And he said, I want you to listen to what I’m saying about this, because you’re out in left field on it. And there can be some left fielders here. And what he’s saying to you, I want you to understand and quit hanging on to something, one way or the other. for or against, quit hanging on to something. And listen to what the Word of God has to say. Forget your tradition, forget your experience. And I want you to listen to what the Word of God has to say. So he said, Therefore, I tell you that no one who speaks the speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus be cursed, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. So he said, there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord, there are different kinds of workings, but the same God works all of them and all men. Now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. In other words, spiritual gifts are for the body, not for you. A cow doesn’t drink her own milk, she produces it for someone, somebody else. An apple tree doesn’t need its own apples. It’s for the benefit of someone else. gifts within the body, are not for you, therefore the body for the mutual edification of the Body of Christ. So that’s number one, you need to understand about that. To each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good to one part of the body, there is given through the Spirit, the message of wisdom, to another in the body, there is a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, same Spirit that gave wisdom gives knowledge to another, there’s a faith by the same Spirit and other gifts, healing. And by for that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits to another, speaking a different kinds of languages to another, the interpretation of those languages. All of these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and He gives them each one just as As he determines.

Now guys, think about this because, again, you’re up against terrific amount of teaching that is contrary to the Word of God. Do you see what he’s talking about here? All gifts are given by God to who he chooses to give a gift to. Now, if you’ve received that, then again, is it your role to go around telling everybody they ought to have your gift? I mean, can you see the abuse of those type of things and the falsity in that presentation? If a gift is given to you praise God for it and shut up. It is not my job to be walking around telling everybody you ought to have the gift of teaching and if you don’t, you’re not spiritual. If you don’t have this gift, there’s something wrong with you. Well, I’ll just be a bragging obnoxious oph, designed to do nothing except to put you on some kind of a guilt trip. When God gives you a gift, use it and be quiet about it. If that’s your gift, whatever it might be, that’s great. Use it for who benefited the body. It’s no big deal. I mean, I thank God for my toes. And if one was missing I’d sure if you’re missing it. But my toe in down there sitting about what a big toe I am. And if you don’t wiggle like I do. Something’s wrong with you. Is not and I’m not trying to discredit I want us to be thinking soberly. As the Bible says God did not give us a spirit. A gave us a spirit of a sound mind and of love, and have a sound mind.

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Bob George 13:47
Now, you’ve gotten Hebrews the gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to God’s will. In the book of Corinthians, all of these things are given as God determines. So are we together on that it’s God’s business. Okay. Now, turn back with me once again to the Gospel of Luke chapter seven. And picking up where we talked about last week, but maybe we’re only going to review again. But picking up I want to see this emphasized once again. What Jesus said about this man as an example, John the Baptist. In chapter seven, beginning in verse 28, I want you to see what Jesus now who is the giver of all things. He’s the giver of life. He’s the giver of gifts. He’s the originator of the body. He’s the head of the body. He’s everything. I want to hear you hear what Jesus now opinion of John the Baptist was. In fact, I can’t think of any place in the Bible where Jesus ever gave this kind of a The acknowledgement to another man. I may be wrong on that, but I’m just thinking this morning. I don’t recall that. And so here is the Lord’s appraisal of John the Baptist. I tell you, among those born of woman, there is no one greater than John. Yet the one who has the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. He’s saying to us, about all the men that were ever born, there is no equal to John the Baptist. None.

Well, let’s turn back. And to John, chapter 10. Verse 40. It said Jesus went back across the Jordan to a place where John had been baptizing in his early days. And he stayed and many people came to him. They said, though John never performed a miracle, a miraculous sign. All that John said about this man, Jesus was true. And in that place, many believed in his name. Here is this man, that Jesus said, No man has ever lived, like John the Baptist, of all the men ever born. There’s been none like him. And the Bible says he never performed a miraculous sign. Isn’t that’s something? Well, who do we make heroes out of and Christianity today? Why people who claim to do miraculous signs, and the more miraculous that you can get, and the wilder you can get, why the better. And those become the heroes of the Christian faith. The ones who perform miraculous signs are the ones who are endowed with gifts. The greatest man that ever walked on the face of this earth, according to Jesus, never performed a miracle. He just dedicated his life to tell him people about Jesus. That’s all he did. He told people about Jesus.

Now let’s take a look at Jesus Himself. And turn with me to the second chapter of John. Second Chapter of John beginning in verse 11. This has said, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee, and he revealed his glory and His disciples put their faith in Him. So John Baptist never did a miraculous sign. Jesus did his first miraculous sign at the wedding feast of Cana. What do you do? Well, you turn water into wine. Not grape juice. He could have done that with concentrated Welsh. So hard to turn to ferment something in an instant. Doesn’t that just kill you. Can you hear people up there? Talk about that. Our Lord’s lips could never have touched wine. Oh, okay.

Be not drunk with grape juice. We’re in his excess but be filled with the Spirit.

Well, that’s another story. Now he performed miraculous signs in order to confirm his identity. Now let’s take a look down at verse 23, which is something we’ve talked about for a long time. While he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed on his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them. For he knew all men, and he did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man. Now, folks, here it is saying that Jesus performed these signs, so to confirm his message to confirm his identity who he is God and people saw these miracles from God Himself. They were pretty good ones when God performs one. And it says they believed in him, but it said Jesus didn’t entrust himself to him because he knew the heart of man. Now, is it possible then today that you have people who are seeing a so called whether real or not so called miraculous signs being done by people claiming to be in the ministry? And people are saying, I believe, and Jesus is saying, I don’t trust myself to you. Because I know you. And the only reason that you are coming to me is because you think I’m a miracle worker. And the only thing that attracts you, to me is the fact that you think I can give you some kind of special stuff that will make you some kind of a hero among men. You’re not coming to me, for me, you’re coming to me for miracles. You’re not coming to me, because you want to come to me for salvation, you’re coming to me because you want your body healed. You’re not coming to me because you want God in your life. You’re coming to me for bread, because you saw me feed the 5000. And so you’re following me over to Compirum to get some more bread. Did he not say that to people? Well, of course. You’re not coming to me, for me, you’re coming to me, because you think your left leg shorter than the other. You want someone to lengthen it. You’re coming to me for miracles, for signs for wonders. You’re looking for another magician. And I’m not a magician. I’m God. I did not come for the purpose of healing people’s exterior bodies. I came to save their souls. When Jesus was with Peter, and they were at his home, and it said he was performing miracles and healed many people, the next day, Jesus is out and Peter came to him said, Lord, you got to come back to the house. You know, there’s people waiting there to be healed. And Jesus said, Peter, I must go to other lands to preach the gospel. For that is why I came. I didn’t come to be a miracle healer. I came to save people’s souls. Now when I’m in a process of saving souls, and if God tells me to heal somebody’s body, I certainly do that. But the reason that I came to this earth was not the heal, a body that is heading for the grave, and sagging and bag and in the meantime. And that’s where Paul can say, my body is weak, but my spirit is strong. And one of these days, I’m going to be absent from this body and present with the Lord. You can do whatever you want to to this body. And you can get it as healthy as you want to. But if your soul, and your spirit is not strengthened, you don’t have anything.

And so we need to understand that Jesus didn’t come to be a miracle worker. He performed miracles, to solidify his message, knowing full well that many people were going to be attracted to him because of the miracles. But he was not going to entrust himself to them that came for that reason. You come to Christ for who he is not a magician, not a miracle worker. You come to Christ, because He’s God. We come to Christ in order to fill what is empty. And we are born into this world, dead spiritually empty devoid of the Spirit of God. As we’ve talked about so many times when Adam died, the Spirit of God left him he did not die physically or soullessly, he died spiritually. Death being the absence of life, the Spirit of God departed from Adam and Adam was left spiritually dead. It says in the fifth chapter of Genesis when God created man, He created them in the image of God. But when Adam and Eve had Seth, Seth was born in the image of Adam and Eve. Men are not born into this world in the image of God, Adam was created in the image of God we’re born in the image of Adam, dead as a hammer And the only man that was ever born alive spiritually on the face of this earth was the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why the virgin birth is not up for grabs. That’s why I had to be born of a virgin called the last Adam, Adam, the first Adam, the only man created alive spiritually Jesus, the last Adam, the only man born alive spiritually. And so we are born into this world without the Spirit of God living in us that is that emptiness That’s the God shaped vacuum talked about by Pascal it’s a God shaped vacuum talked about by St. Augustine, now it’s made us for thyself. So God at our hearts are restless, until they find the rest in thee, it’s that emptiness, it’s that stirring inside of us it is that a fact that we can go out and get everything the world has to offer, we can get money, we can get a claim, and we’re still empty as a pork barrel inside. And the reason we feel empty is because we are we’re devoid of life. And God looking down on man did not see was not sitting there concerned about the fact that whether his leg was hurt, or whether it wasn’t although, indeed of God says I said to heal it, he would do that. But he saw him empty. He saw him two thirds whole. And so God’s plan from the very beginning when man fell was to restore in us what we had lost in Adam, that being the Spirit of God, living in us bringing life to the lifeless, and enabling us to be born again, of the Spirit of God, bringing life to a dead spirit. And just as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, he said, that Spirit that raised me from the dead, I will come and raise you from the dead. That’s what salvation is all about. In every one of these cases, Jesus always use physical things to show a spiritual point because we’re too dumb to pick up on these things otherwise, he said, I’m going you need to be raised from the dead. So what did he do? He raised Lazarus, Lazarus come forth. And Lazarus was raised from the dead physically, and he announced I am the resurrection and the life. And whosoever believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in me, will never die.

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