Radio Broadcast Monday 04/07/2025

Classic Christianity – The Mystery of God P1 (04-07-25)

Bob George Presents: The Mystery of God P1

Truth tellers will cause division, just as Jesus did. Today, just as in Ephesus, there is idol worship going on big time. Oh, it might not look like the temple of Artemis or Diana, but nevertheless it is idol worship. People bow down to their idols on Tell-a-Vision for example. If you talk in a negative way about their favorite politician, or their favorite actor they become full of rage. That’s how you know someone has an idol. If you show someone the Truth of what is going on today, they will ignore it and don’t want to cause a commotion in their own mind. Cognitive dissonance kicks in, and they run and hide and want to continue on believing the lies, so as to not upset the apple cart. The apostle Paul was having none of that. He was telling the Truth to those in Ephesus, to the point that the crowd was so upset with rage, they didn’t even know why they were upset. Today the world is in a state of confusion and deception greater than that that was found in Ephesus. And if you don’t think that is the case, the amphitheater is no different than the living rooms of today, where millions (billions) of people are stroked up to a frenzy about everything today while watching the AI generated news casts, where Satan broadcasts to the people of what he wants them to believe. We all fell for the lies and deceptions, and most still do today. Most believe everything they see on the mind control screen. They don’t call it programming for nothing, and they become of one accord.

So let’s take a look at what was happening in Ephesus with the Apostle Paul, appointed by God to be His TRUTH spokesperson. And what a TRUTH spokesperson he was! The TRUTH is Jesus is GOD, and there are no other gods beside him. Don’t worship at the feet of idols today.

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~ “Now at the same time no small disturbance arose concerning the Way. For a certain silversmith named Demetrius, making silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing no little business to the craftsmen, whom having brought together along with the workmen in such things, he said, “Men, you know that from this business is our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but almost all of Asia, this Paul, having persuaded them, has turned away a great many people, saying that they are not gods which have been made by hands. Now not only is this business to us endangered to come into disrepute, but also for the temple of the great goddess Artemis to be reckoned for nothing, and also her majesty to be deposed, whom all Asia and the world worship.”

And having heard, and having become full of rage, they were crying out saying, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.” And the whole city was filled with confusion, and with one accord they rushed to the theatre, having dragged off Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, fellow travelers of Paul. Acts 19:23-27

…..

And a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, having done what, will I inherit eternal life?”
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good, except God alone.

~ “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:12

~ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one believing in Me, even if he should die, he will live. And everyone living and believing in Me shall never die, to the age. Do you believe this?” John 11:25,26
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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.”

“~ So he called them together with the workmen in related trades, and he said, Men, you know, we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow, Paul, has convinced and led astray large number of people here in Ephesus, and in practice and in practicality, the whole province of Asia, he says that man made gods are no Gods at all. So in other words, if these man made gods are no Gods at all, then what do you need a statue of it for? And there’s a danger that, not only our trade, will lose its good name. It’s good day. That’s really a good name in it. I make statues of no gods, so but at any rate, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited, and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty. Doesn’t that sound like a bunch of gobbledygook, but that’s exactly how people talk when they’re trying to justify the fact that I’m gonna lose my business. We get all holy in our talk when that’s not a concern at all. Do you think they cared anything about Artemis, Diana being robbed of her divine majesty? Well, of course not. They had one concern and one concern only. We’re going to lose our business.” ~ Bob George

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

Bob George 0:27
We’re going to be taking a journey together over the next few weeks into the book of Ephesians, to me, one of the most important books in the New Testament. Of course, I say that about all of them, but Ephesians is one of the books that I believe is so important in teaching about the Gentile world as it was in the days of Christ, as well as the Hebrew world, and then seeing how God, in His unique way, has taken those two people and molded them into one, of course, to those who are in Christ, Jesus. So without any further explanation, let’s go ahead and turn to chapter one, and we will begin in the book of Ephesians. Chapter one, verse one.

It starts out Paul, an apostle of Christ, Jesus, by the will of God. Paul had said in another place that he was not named an apostle by men, that he was named an apostle by direct revelation from God Himself, and so called himself an apostle, and that apostleship was confirmed later on by the rest of the apostles. Now he addresses this to the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Jesus Christ, Grace and peace to you from God, our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, before we get into the beginning of the teaching of the book of Ephesians, it’s important for us to understand something about the city itself and the condition of that particular part of the world at the time that Paul is, is right, is, has entered into that city and then wrote back to that city. The Ephesus that Paul knew was a glittering city of wealth and fame and power and incredible superstition and just flagrant sin. I would say that Ephesus was to Turkey what Corinth would have been to to Greece, a terrifically sinful part of the world. It was the largest Asian city in the Roman Empire. We’re told that it was indwelt by around 250,000 people. It was a shipping port, and therefore ships from every nation crowned its, crowded its ports. But regardless of how great the commercial attributes might have been, the greatest hold of fame was attached to its temple of art, to Artemis, also known as the Temple of Diana. And so there’s no question about it that this massive structure with its rows of marble columns, and we are told that there were about 100 of those marble columns, and they reached 55 feet in structure. It was seven times, we’re told, seven times the size of the Parthenon in, in in Athens that, of course, sits on the Acropolis there. And so you’re talking about a huge structure. As a matter of fact, that massive structure with all of its rows of marble columns was one of the seven wonders of the world. And of course, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it would be absolutely impossible to avoid going there. One of the first things that you would see going into the port would be that Temple of Artemis. We have to realize that a temple such as this, it was unbelievable, and it ties in to the to the superstition that those people lived under in the Gentile world. We think of Gentiles today as kind of nice going church people. But when you’re talking about Gentiles back in those days, you’re talking about people who are absolutely enmeshed in nothingness. They were, they were totally worshipers of false gods. It was a it was an extremely heathenistic group of people. Now this statue, as an example of Diana, was in the middle of this of this huge temple to Artemis. It was prominently displayed in the temple. It was that of a multi breasted woman considered a fertility goddess. And also that she was an image which fell down from Jupiter. And so we see all of this superstition that they lived in back in those days. And quite frankly, the only testimony of all, at all to a true God would have been given by the Hebrews that were there, who were naming the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

We take a look at at this place. And it was a place where Mark Anthony, which was certainly we have heard of, occupied Ephesus in about 41 BC, was joined there by Cleopatra and and of course this temple was there, and even though the temple was built for the purpose of the worship of Diana or Artemis, it didn’t stop the official Ephesians from worshiping their emperors as well. And so Artemis was considered to be merely a God of many gods, but temple worship, or as well as temple worship and emperor worship was just as prevalent as worshiping Artemis.

Now, when Paul entered the city to stay and establish the church, it was about 53 AD, and he had many, many human reasons to be discouraged, besides this emperor worship and the worship of Artemis and a strong Hebrew element, the city was drenched in immorality and was exceedingly superstitious, as we talked about. Now, what I’d like for us to do is to pick up over in the book of Acts, and will pick up in the 19th chapter, where it gives the account of Paul’s entrance into that part of the world and some of the historical things that happened while he was there.

Acts 19, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus, and there he found some disciples, and asked them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They answered, No, we have not even heard there is a Holy Spirit. So Paul asked then, what baptism Did you receive? And they said, John’s baptism. They replied. And Paul replied, John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him. That is Jesus. But you see the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that is where we are placed into the person of Christ. Obviously comes from Jesus, John’s baptism, knew nothing about the resurrection of Christ. It was merely a baptism of repentance. Now many people have misinterpreted that passage of scripture in order to stretch that into the importance of speaking in tongues, but it has nothing to do with that at all. What it’s talking about is the fact that these people were not spiritually regenerated. Were not saved as we are saved today. They just merely believed in the one coming, but had never came into a relationship with the one who has come. And that’s Christ Jesus.

And so he said, On hearing this, they were baptized into, or in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were baptized into identified with Jesus Christ. And of course, when Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. And there were about 12 men in all Now here again, when you’re talking about speaking in tongues, tongues is a language. We’re not going to get into a detail on that, but what it was, was an ability for people to see that true, sure enough, salvation had occurred to these people, and in the early days, the confirmation of that truth was accompanied by a sign. In some instances, these were men on the day of Pentecost, it was men on whom the Holy Spirit came, and it was men who spoke in tongues. And it was a verification of the fact at that particular juncture that they had truly received the fullness of the gospel.

Now it says Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the Kingdom of God, but some of them became obstinate. They refused to believe and publicly maligned the way. Now, the name of Christians were called the way, and so that’s how you identify. These are people of the way. They would say. So Paul left them. He took his disciples with him, and had discussed discussions daily in the lecture halls of Turanis. And this went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. Now, folks, at that time, you’re talking around a quarter of a million people. That is a lot of people to hear the gospel, especially in two years, and especially without the use of mass media, as we know today, that was a lot of public speaking and a lot of sharing going on.

Now, God did extraordinarily, extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that not even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured, and the evil spirits left them. Some Hebrews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon possessed. They would say, in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out. And the seven sons of Skeva, a Hebrew chief priests, were doing this. On one day the evil spirit answered them, Jesus. I know and I know about Paul, but who are you? And then the man who had done the evil had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them, and he gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. Sometimes think it’s too bad that’s not going on today with what I see on television.

But at any rate, when this became known to the Hebrews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their deeds, a number of them who had practiced sorcery, brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. And when they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to 50,000 drachmas. That’s about $10,000 and in this way, the word of the Lord spread widely, and it grew in power. Now, folks, these people, had come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. They came into a new life, and they realized that all of these books and scrolls that they had carefully defining the heresies that they were involved in, were a detriment to their growth in Christ, and they took them and burned them.

Now, after all of this had happened, Paul says decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia and of course, he didn’t go yet. But he said, after I’ve been there, he said, I must visit Rome also. He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia while he stayed in the providence of Asia a little longer. In other words, stayed there in Ephesus.

Now, about that time, there arose a great disturbance about the Way a silver smith named Demetrius, who had made silver shrines to Artemis, brought in no little business for the craftsmen. So in other words, folks, when you talking about this kind of idol worship, you always have people making little statues, and those little statues are sold, and it’s a great business. So if all of a sudden, Artemis is nothing, but just a is something that is, that is nothing, which certainly that was the case. There is no Diana that fell from heaven, no Artemis. So if this is a fraud, so to speak, why then he’s going to lose all of his business. Because who’s going to buy a statue of someone who didn’t exist.

So he called them together with the workmen in related trades, and he said, Men, you know, we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow, Paul, has convinced and led astray large number of people here in Ephesus, and in practice and in practicality, the whole province of Asia, he says that man made gods are no Gods at all. So in other words, if these man made gods are no Gods at all, then what do you need a statue of it for? And there’s a danger that, not only our trade, will lose its good name. It’s good day. That’s really a good name in it. I make statues of no gods, so but at any rate, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited, and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty. Doesn’t that sound like a bunch of gobbledygook, but that’s exactly how people talk when they’re trying to justify the fact that I’m gonna lose my business. We get all holy in our talk when that’s not a concern at all. Do you think they cared anything about Artemis, Diana being robbed of her divine majesty? Well, of course not. They had one concern and one concern only. We’re going to lose our business.

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Bob George 15:22
When they heard this, they were furious, and began shouting great as Artemis of the Ephesians. And soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristicus Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia and rushed as one man into the theater. Now, this theater that they raced them into was a great amphitheater, a stadium like affair that seated 25,000 people, so a huge stadium for that day and age, or, quite frankly, for any day and age. Now, Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him, and even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into that theater. The assembly was in confusion. Some of them were shouting one thing, some another, and most of the people did not even know why they were there. Isn’t that the way people are. We’re just following along. What are you here for? I don’t know, but we’re making a lot of noise in the process, and that’s exactly how many times crowd psychology takes place, is we follow the crowd. Don’t even know where the crowd’s going. The Hebrew pushed Alexander to the front, and some of the crowd shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make a defense before the people. But when they realized he was a Hebrew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours, great as Artemis of the Ephesians. You see, folks, the Hebrew was the only voice that would have been in Ephesus, teaching the one true God. And also I would have to assume, because of their dedication, that thou shall have no other gods before me and worship no graven images, that they would not have been worshipers of Diana or the goddess Artemis. And so the mere presence of being a Hebrew would have been an enemy of those who were trying to drive this crowd into a frenzy because of the loss of their business. And so the more they saw this person, the more they were shouting their chant of greatest Artemis, of Ephesians.

Now the city clerk cried, it quieted the crowd and said, Men of Ephesus, doesn’t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell down from heaven? Therefore, since these facts, in that amazing facts, even in as much as these facts are undeniable, you ought to be quiet and not to do anything rash. You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess, if them, Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody. The courts are open, and there are pro councils, they can press charges. Now, if there’s anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. And as it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of today’s events. In that case, we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it. And after he said this, he dismissed the assembly.

Now when the uproar ended, Paul sent for his disciples, and after encouraging them, he said goodbye and set out for Macedonia, and he traveled through the area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, where he stayed three months. Well, we will stop there, because it gives you a little bit of a background, does it not? In regard to this city of Ephesus, what the thinking was in Ephesus. And what is interesting is, even though they were these believers of all of this error, and they were, they were terrifically in great ingrained in this incredible superstition. And in the midst of that, they had legal representation, and they obviously had some law and order, or this commotion could not have been settled as quickly as it was. So you can have all of these things that appear to be so great, terrific law, terrific order, terrific court systems, everybody acting smart and intelligent, and in the midst of that, worshiping someone who fell from the heavens called Diana.

Now, what we should do now is, let’s turn back to the book of Ephesians and pick up in verse, pick up there in chapter one.Verse three. Praise be to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, for he chose us in him. He chose us where? In him, before the creation of the world to be something. What were we chosen to be? Holy and blameless, in whose sight? His sight. In other words, he is the one who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in this man, Christ, Jesus. All right now, are you in him? Have you stepped out of Adam into Christ so that Christ could step out of heaven into you? Have you been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins? Now was that because God just decided that he liked you? Didn’t like him over here, but he likes you. Do you realize folks, that some people teach that? And in the world of so called Reformed theology they teach predestination and election, that I choose you, but didn’t choose you, and it, to me, is the most ridiculous theology that is taught among probably what the people think of as the most intellectual people theologians in Christendom, many times thought of in that light, the only thing I can say to that is the Bible, once again, is proven true that knowledge puffs up because predestination has nothing to do with I select you, but I don’t select you. Predestination has to do with that Man who comes to Christ, that all who are in Him have been predestined by God to be what? Declared holy and acceptable in his sight. So to all who come to Christ, Jesus by faith. And it’s the only way that you can come to Christ, Jesus for salvation is by faith.

Now there are many people can say, I believe in Christ, Jesus. I believed in Christ, Jesus for 36 years, but it wasn’t saved. Belief leads to faith. It can or it can just remain belief. Because I can say, I believe something, but I’m not going to put faith in it. I can say, Max, I believe that chair will hold me, so why don’t you sit in it? And that’s saying, Why don’t you sit in it? Well, because I’d rather you sit in it, because I believe so strongly that that chair will hold me, that you sit in it. And Max says, Bob, if you really believe that chair would hold you, you would sit in. There’s a difference between belief and faith. How do you come to Christ by belief? No, you come to Christ by belief that ends up in faith. Because if faith does not enter in, there is no credibility of belief. You’re just giving lip service to an intellectual belief of something. But I have never put my faith in that in something.

And so when we come to Christ, He chose us in Him before the creation of the world. See, the in him is the key. Everyone who is in him has been chosen by God before the creation of the world to be made holy and blameless in his sight. Is that good news? That here’s my plan for the world. Anyone who comes to my Son, I will see them as holy and blameless in my sight from that day forth. In love, He predestined us and adopted us as His sons through Christ, Jesus, in accordance with the pleasure of His will to the praise of the glorious grace which he’s freely given us in the one he loves. In Him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Well, folks, is this good news?

Now look what he’s saying here, and he has made known to us the mystery of his will according to His good pleasure. Well, let me step back here just for a moment. In Him, we have redemption through what? Through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, and is said in accordance with the riches of what, is it God’s grace or your confession? Of His grace. And this grace was lavished upon us with all wisdom and understanding. Now, folks, do you think that God had wisdom and understanding when in his plan of things, he said that, unless I want to be dealing in little sins and big sins, and a bunch of sins and no sins and confession and sincere confession, and real, sincere confession, and then really, really, real, sincere confession accompanied by tears? Now unless I want to be dealing with that garbage, I’m going to have to do something for Man once and for all, and that is to take away the sins of the world one time and for all and for everybody. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is none righteous. No, not one. So let’s just neutralize the entire world, forgive everyone of their sins through one act of My Son, Christ, Jesus. And now, having done that, I can deal with this sin issue. It’s been dealt, it’s been judged, and now I can get about the business of life. Do you think that’s wisdom? Man, I’ll tell you, is that wisdom. Now, man doesn’t like that wisdom. See, man likes to keep dealing with sins and then bad sins and good sins and little sins and big sins. And then, of course, when you got sin, said you got, as we go on today, confession. And then, was that confession sincere? Wasn’t it sincere? And did I see a tear that it was sincere? And you couldn’t go on and on and on, can you not? And that’s what Man is doing. Jesus said I took that away 2000 years ago. I don’t know why you people are so preoccupied with what I’m through with. That issue has been handled. It’s been dealt with. Now why don’t you finish it?

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.