Radio Broadcast Tuesday 04/28/2026

Classic Christianity – Stand Firm in The Lord – Part 2 – 4-28-26

~ For you became imitators, brothers, of the churches of God being in Judaea in Christ Jesus, because you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they also did from the Judaeans, who, having killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and having driven us out; and they are not pleasing God and contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles so that they might be saved, so as to fill up their sins always. Now the wrath has come upon them to the end.

But we, brothers, having been bereaved of you for the time of an hour—in face, not in heart—were more abundantly eager with much desire to see your face. Therefore we wanted to come to you⁺—indeed I, Paul, both once and twice—and satan obstructed us. For who is our hope or joy or crown of boasting? Or are not even you⁺, before our Lord Jesus† at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.” 1 Thessalonians 2:14-20

~ We have many lessons to learn from these passages of Scripture. One key point is that satan throws up roadblocks into doing what we would like to do in regards to getting out the message of Truth. But in spite of those roadblocks and walls that are placed before us, God gets the message out in various ways, and lets us know of the work of the ministry that has made a difference in the lives of people. And the number one thing to make a difference in the lives of people is to get the message of salvation in Jesus to them. This is the difference between LIFE and death. There are some who think the message of the ministry of sharing Jesus is second standing in the love department, or not important at all. They never open their mouths up and tell about Jesus ever. They do NOT share the message of Truth in season or out of season, they simply sit there like a bump on a log, and never share TRUTH with a lost sinful world. How much sense does that even make to keep TRUTH to ourselves? “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” Romans 10:14

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. Luke 18:18,19

Jesus is God in flesh: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1

—

Pray to God:

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

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.”

Bob George discusses the importance of standing firm in faith and the challenges of spreading the gospel. He emphasizes that God’s will can be thwarted, citing examples of people opposing the spread of the gospel to Gentiles. Bob highlights the role of Satan and people in hindering God’s plan, using deception and well-meaning but misguided individuals. He stresses the significance of discipling and leading others to Christ, noting that it is the greatest gift one can give. Bob also addresses the persecution faced by believers, urging them to stand firm and encourage one another, and concludes by underscoring the importance of love and kindness in the Christian community.

~ “But brothers, it says when we were torn away from you for a short time, in person, though not in thought, out of our intense longing, we made every effort to see you, for we wanted to come to you. Certainly I Paul did again and again, but Satan stopped us. Now, guys, how does Satan stop you from things? Well, it talks about up here that that these people that killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out, they displease God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. So who does God use, or who does Satan use to thwart the will of God? Who’s he use guys? People, people. Are we right or wrong? He can probably use other things. You know, he can get you sick and keep you from going to work and that type of thing. But basically, he’s going to use people. And how is he going to use us by lying to us, in other words, where he can use people very easily who do not know the Word of God. How does God get the Lost deceived? Because they are deceived. Why? They don’t have a clue as to what the Word of God says? Now you get people who have just a smathering of knowledge of the Word of God. They’re the most dangerous. They just they know enough to be dangerous and kind of, I laugh at Bill ________ that many of you have seen on Fox News, and he’s got some very good sense on most things, but when he starts talking religion, I have to laugh, because he’s just got a smathering of knowledge there that he’s dangerous, and people like that are dangerous. But if you don’t know whether you’re lost or saved what the Word of God says. You’re subject to deception, aren’t you? You can be deceived very, very easily. And so people, well meaning people, thinking they’re giving you good advice are literally going contrary to the Word of God.” ~ Bob George

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Bob George 0:29
And so it said that that they displease, they’re hostile. It says to all men, in other words, you do not have other people’s interest at heart when you’re out promoting sin, do you? You’re not looking out after the benefit of somebody else. You’re looking out after your own benefit. So you’re hostile to men in their efforts to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles. And so God is God’s goal for us. It said it’s God’s will that none should perish and all should come to repentance. That’s his will. But is his will going to be fulfilled? Is it true that all of us are going to come to Christ? No, so in other words, can his will be thwarted? Is it possible to thwart the will of God? Absolutely, if it wasn’t, we’d all be saved, wouldn’t we? Is it God’s will that we all give thanks in all things for this is the will of God. Can that be thwarted? Can that thing come up and say, give thanks? You know, you know what you’re talking about. I’m not going to give thanks for this. I’m hurting. And so God’s Will could be thwarted. And we have to understand the truth of that. And so he said that in regard to these people who are out for one reason only, and that is to keep God’s Will from being done. And in this particular case, God’s will for the Gentiles to be able to hear the good news of the gospel. It says they’re heaping they heap up their sins to the limit, and the wrath of God has come upon them. And actually it means fully have fully come upon them.

But brothers, it says when we were torn away from you for a short time, in person, though not in thought, out of our intense longing, we made every effort to see you, for we wanted to come to you. Certainly I Paul did again and again, but Satan stopped us. Now, guys, how does Satan stop you from things? Well, it talks about up here that that these people that killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out, they displease God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. So who does God use, or who does Satan use to thwart the will of God? Who’s he use guys? People, people. Are we right or wrong? He can probably use other things. You know, he can get you sick and keep you from going to work and that type of thing. But basically, he’s going to use people. And how is he going to use us by lying to us, in other words, where he can use people very easily who do not know the Word of God. How does God get the Lost deceived? Because they are deceived. Why? They don’t have a clue as to what the Word of God says? Now you get people who have just a smathering of knowledge of the Word of God. They’re the most dangerous. They just they know enough to be dangerous and kind of, I laugh at Bill ________ that many of you have seen on Fox News, and he’s got some very good sense on most things, but when he starts talking religion, I have to laugh, because he’s just got a smathering of knowledge there that he’s dangerous, and people like that are dangerous. But if you don’t know whether you’re lost or saved what the Word of God says. You’re subject to deception, aren’t you? You can be deceived very, very easily. And so people, well meaning people, thinking they’re giving you good advice are literally going contrary to the Word of God.

Look at the Apostle Paul. How many times was he told by God, by what he thought God was saying, is to go into different parts of the world. And then his friends were saying, Oh, don’t go in there. You’re going to be killed, Jesus, the same way you’re not going to go into Jerusalem, are you? They’re all looking for you. Well, God was saying, I’m going that’s my destiny. And they were saying, no, no, Lord, we don’t want that to be your destiny. And so those were well meaning people, but they were not speaking truth. And so he says here that Satan had stopped us. So in other words, in some way, in somehow, in some way, Satan had stopped them through people from getting to come to visit the people in Thessalonica.

And so he says, What is, what is our hope and our joy, or the crown for which we glory? In the presence of Jesus Christ, when He comes, is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and our joy, when God looks down on people and again. And I don’t think he’s impressed with the masses like we are, but when he looks down on a group of people, and he sees a group of people that are walking by faith in Christ, Jesus, trusting Christ, Jesus with their life, and he looks down on them and he says to the people who have had anything to do ministering to them, those people are your joy. And that is really true. In this day and age. If you have people that you have discipled your own children, if you have had the privilege of of leading them into the path of righteousness, of being able to teach them about the Lord Jesus Christ, in many instances, leading them to Christ at some point in their life, you have done the greatest, the greatest thing that you could ever do for your child. There’s nothing that you could do for your child or your mate of any greater value than if the opportunity came for you to do so as to lead them to Christ, Jesus, to lead them into a knowledge of Christ, Jesus, you have literally been used of God to bring eternal salvation to your children and to those that you love. There’s no greater gift that you could give them. You could be a multi millionaire give them all the money in the world, but if they don’t have Jesus, they’re going to die dead, rich and dead, rich in money, dead spiritually. And so it’s the greatest gift that you could ever give to the people that you love is to find out where they are spiritually and if they’re not, if they’re not saved, and to know that they’re not saved, and to talk to them individually till you do know whether they’re saved or not, and then to try to lead them into a knowledge of Christ, their ability to accept that is in their hands. It’s not in yours, but it is our responsibility to communicate the truth to these people.

And so he’s saying here that that you are our crown, or you are our joy. You’re You’re everything. At the end of your life, you look back and you say, Who is your joy? Who’s your crown? It’s, it’s the people that you’ve touched with the gospel, and those are the people that you love. So he said, when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. In other words, they had been stopped enough to realize we’re not going to get through this barrier right now. And so he said, We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God’s fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials, these different trials and tribulations that, again, have been put on these people in Thessalonica from the opposing body of people trying to stop this gospel. He said, You’ve been through a lot of trials and a lot of tribulation. And so you know quite well that we were disdained before them, that we were destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. In other words, God said, this is something that’s in our destiny, that we’re going to be proclaiming Christ. And when you’re going to be proclaiming Christ, you’re going to run into opposition. That’s your destiny. If you’re going to be out in this world openly and proclaiming Christ, then look for persecution. It’s going to be a part of your life. Sooner or later, it will be a part of your life. How many have found that to be true? Persecuted in your home, possibly. Today, that would still be the case in many instances, with ______ people who come to Christ. And quite frankly, there are 1000s upon 1000s of _______ people who are in Christ, Jesus today. One of their fears is that when that occurs, I’m going to be disowned. And that happens many times. There’s many people who have come to Christ, gone back to their families and said, I became a Christian, and they say you’re dead. As far as I’m concerned, you’re dead. You’re no longer a part of our family. And that’s tough, and that would cause you to think twice, wouldn’t it, before you went out and proclaimed that you’re in Christ, Jesus. But if you’re in Christ, Jesus, he said, You can do nothing less than to proclaim where you are, and so many times that happens, that can happen with being a Catholic or a Protestant. Hey, Mom and Dad, I came to Christ. You mean you’re not a Catholic anymore? You mean you’re not a Protestant anymore, then you’re dead. As far as I’m concerned, there’s still that kind of thinking in people’s hearts that say, if you’re not like me anymore, you’re out of here. And so these kind of attitudes are the things that keep the gospel many times from progressing. But the fact is that Paul says, look for it. It’s a part of your destiny.

It says it turned out that way, as you know, for this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. So he sent Timothy to the Thessalonicas, Thessalonians in order to find out what was going on. He said, I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless. Paul was saying, I was, in essence scared to death that what we said to you was said in vain. But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought us the good news about your faith and love. He’s told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us just as we long to see you. Can you hear the heart of compassion that’s coming out of the apostle Paul for the people that he had the privilege of ministering to? He said, I long to see you, and I thank you that you long to see me. Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution, we were encouraged about you because of your faith.

Now again, what is it that is encouraging to Paul about these people, it’s about their faith, isn’t it? It’s the fact that I hear that you’re walking by faith. Is that encouraging to you when you know somebody is walking by faith? It’s terrifically encouraging to me. We have many, many people in our congregation, and many people across the country that are going through tough times, I think of Doris Calwell out in Northern California, just lost her husband, Dick, after I don’t know how many years of marriage, probably well over 50 of marriage, and Dick has gone to be with the Lord, and now Doris is very, very sick, but she calls Amy back and forth, and Amy calls her, and she still is walking by faith. She’s she’s hurting. She’s hurting emotionally because of the loss of her husband. She’s hurting physically because of the physical elements she’s going through. But in the midst of that, she’s walking by faith, and she’s talking about the Lord and trusting Jesus and looking forward to the day that you’ll be absent from the body and present with the Lord. And you look at that and say, Doris, you’re our hope. You’re the it’s because of people like you that are our hope and our joy and our crown, for which we for which we live. It encourages you to hear that people that you’ve had an opportunity to minister to are walking by faith. Numerous ones of you here have lost your mates and your heart is broken, but you walk by faith and you hang in, and then you’ve got others who’ve lost their husbands who don’t hang in you never see them again.

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Bob George 13:36
And so you have to just take a look and say, Well, I can’t control that I don’t know where a person’s heart is. I don’t know where you are any more than you know where I am. I don’t know how you would respond if you lost your mate, and I wouldn’t know until you lost him. Then I’ll find out where you’re walking, and you’ll find out where you’re walking, whether you’re going to keep hanging in there and keep trusting Jesus and keep thanking Jesus. It’s not that you don’t hurt, but it’s the fact that you’ve got Christ on your side and that you can trust him with it. So basically, your circumstances of life don’t cause your nature. Your circumstances of life reveal your nature. In other words, I can’t cause you to be angry. I can reveal the anger in you, but I can’t cause you to be anger and to be angry. The circumstances of life don’t cause your nature. They just reveal your where you’re walking. You say, you make me mad. Say, No, I didn’t make you mad. I just revealed the mad that was in you. I’m a stick. I stir you up. It’s like George Reaver said, I got the most perfect wife that God could ever given me. Been married 50 some years, said George, what a sweet statement to make. Why do you say that? Because he said, because everything God wants me to see about myself, she reveals it. And that’s really true. And so we realize that circumstances don’t cause your nature. They just reveal it. You can’t stir up beans in a pot unless there’s beans in the pot, and if there weren’t beans in a pot, you couldn’t stir it up. And so when you get angry, don’t say you made me that way. You just revealed my nature. Are we together on that? Now that’s tough to deal with, especially when it’s your nature that gets revealed, but again, it shows you something that you’re not the one making me mad, you’re not the one doing this. You’re just stirring up and causing me to see what’s really going on inside now, many times when we have adverse circumstances, what is our initial response? Is it normally spiritual or natural? Natural. Very much so. Somebody pulls in front of you on the freeway, you don’t just sit back and say, Oh, praise Jesus. You may use biblical sounding language, but it won’t be that kind of language. And then God gets a hold of you, and the Spirit begins dealing with you, and if the Spirit doesn’t, your wife will so either one of those take place. So you’re never without hope.

So we have to realize that in this life, that you’re going to have circumstances to come, and what a pleasing thing it is to see your people walking by faith with the hope of Christ, Jesus in their hearts. So it says you brought this good news to us, therefore brothers in all our distress and persecution, we were encouraged about you because of your faith. For now we really live since you’re standing firm in the Lord, there’s the key. Are you standing firm in the Lord? What does it mean to stand firm in the Lord? Regardless of what circumstances come your way? Are you walking by faith? Are you standing walking by faith? What do you mean walking by faith? Well, you’re walking by faith and truth. What is truth? Regardless of what you’re going through, nothing can separate you from the love of God. How many of you believe that to be true? It said trials can’t How many of you had trials? Did that separate you from the love of God? Might have separated you from your bank account, might have separated you from separated you from your job, maybe separated you from your mate. But how many were separated from the love of God in the midst of trials and tribulation? So regardless of what happens, what you’re saying is nothing can separate me from the love of God. Might have separated me from these things I was holding on to, but it never separated me from the love of God.

Knowing all these things he says, we’re more than conquerors. God loves you more than you could ever dream or imagine. He’s got a love for you that is totally out of our realm of experience. It’s called agape love. It’s called unconditional love. I love you not if I don’t love you because I just plain love you, that’s God, and you can rest in that truth. You can rest in the fact that nothing can separate me from the love of God. Is death going to separate you from the love of God? No, it’s going to enable its fullness the love of God. So in essence, death, for the Christian, is a time in our lives when we’re going to get to know experientially the unconditional love of God, totally without any interference. So that’s a promotion for us, and we must look at death in that in that fashion, that death is not something we can miss a person down here, but death for the person who is in Christ, Jesus, that is absent from the body, present with the Lord. That’s the greatest day of his life, when he leaves here and goes into the presence of Christ, Jesus, we have to look at death in a different way than what the heathen world does, don’t we, guys? And so when you hear that you’ve got an illness, or you hear that you’ve got something that could cause death, your approach to that have to be, if that happens, why Praise God, because I’m going to be absent from the body, present with the Lord. For me to live, is Christ? For me to die is gain. Do you believe that? You believe that to die is gain? For us, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. So how can I fear facing gain? And so when we’re prepared for death, we’re prepared for life, and until we’re prepared for death, we are not prepared for life. And so that’s all a part of standing firm. It’s all a part of bringing the good news about your faith and love. And that’s all this life is down here, guys that he says, The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through what? Love. What is God looking for from you and me love. Love does not criticize one another. Love is kind to each other. Love is encouraging to one another. That’s what he says up here in verse 12 that I came to you encouraging and comforting and urging you to live a good life. See, not urging you to get involved in all the garbage of the world, telling everybody how much fun that would be, but to encourage people to know if you want to be blessed, you’re going to be blessed by living a good life.

Amy and I were talking about that the other day, that by the grace of God, and I have to say, by the grace of God, that that Amy grew up in to survive. Her life was a life of survival, even up to the point when I met her when she was 20 years old. They lived to survive. They didn’t live for luxuries. They didn’t have any they didn’t have money for anything. She never had roller skates. She never had a bicycle. She never had anything except clothes on her back that were given to her by Good Will or something. And so the issue is that she didn’t have time for foolishness in her head. She was living to survive. Now me, well, we don’t need to talk about that. You could just take the very opposite you’ve got me. I didn’t live to survive. We lived for pleasure. We lived for fun and games and whatever else was was around. And so the issue is that she lived a life that was pretty sheltered because of the circumstances that were there. Well, going through those circumstances, probably in her heart, she’d be saying, this is kind of tough, although they kind of accepted it. This is just the way it is. I think her mom’s expression, it has to be so. And so that’s how she grew up and met me when, when she was 20 years of age, I guess God wanted her to get some experience and and to learn to walk by faith, or whatever it was, but, but she, but she’s lived a pretty, what you would and I would call her a decent life. It hadn’t been a big sinful life. She hadn’t been a drinker or smoker or running around with men or anything else in her life, and she was talking the other day that, you know, maybe, maybe I should have had more experience. Maybe I should have had this. And honey, you out of your mind. Praise God for the fact of the kind of life he gave you. I got to praise him for the life he gave me or let me have. And I’ll guarantee, if I’m capable doing that, you sure are. Because in the final analysis, when God looks at all of us, even though, morally, her life was certainly up here where mine was down here, from God’s standpoint, we’re all here same level, and all of us were the same, and therefore we do not have the ability to look upon people and say, Oh, thank God I’m like a sinner like they are. You know, that’s that’s what makes God sick. And one of the problems many times that you run into if you’ve led somewhat of a decent life, is there’s a tendency for judgmental spirit, and that’s where God begins to convict you on those kind of things. But what he’s going to do is neutralize all of us down to the same level of saying, there for the grace of God go I, there for the grace of God go I. See a guy out on a street there for the grace of God go I. See a person who’s an alcoholic, there for the grace of God go I. Drug addict there, for the grace of God go I. That’s when you understand guys that in God’s economy, none of us are pure in heart, none of us, and that’s why we’re able, hopefully able, to recognize the truth of that and to reach out with compassion to people, rather than in judgmental spirit to them.

When you I think of how easy it is to say things sometimes to people that you don’t mean. How many of you ever said done that said something to somebody that you didn’t mean it at all, but it was taken the wrong way? How many of you, oh, okay, all of us said That’s good. That happened to me the other day. Uh, in a conversation we had with Richard, and I said something, and I was trying to make a point, but it’s kind of a stupid point, I guess, but I didn’t know it, but I really hurt his feelings. And so he called the next day and and said he wanted to talk, and he sounded serious and and so I said, Well, I wouldn’t plan on coming over, but I’ll come over. And so we came over, and he just opened up his mouth and told me how that hurt, and I just collapsed like a little pussy cat. I felt I felt bad all weekend because I’d said something to hurt somebody didn’t attend it at all, but it’s but it hurt him, and it really made me feel bad to think that you said something you didn’t mean it, but you said something to hurt somebody. Now, if he had been mad, I’d have been mad. I mean, if he would approach me in anger on something, why then I’m going to respond to him in anger. But when he when, you’re sitting there and saying, Hey, that hurt. Gee, if you hurt somebody, you want to put your arms around them and say, I’m sorry. Isn’t that truthful? So we can, we can say things. We’ve had people in the assembly that somebody said something to somebody, and they got their nose out of joint, and off they go. Well, I don’t know where they’re going to land, but wherever they land, somebody’s going to be in trouble where they land, because that attitude’s going to go with them. You can’t escape. You can’t escape yourself by leaving here. You got to go. And so the issue is that we need to look at these kind of things and to stand strong in our faith and to stand strong with the idea that we’re not here to criticize people. We’re not here to put people down, but to encourage one another. Families that encourage one another become very, very strong families where ridicule is prevalent, it weakens you. And so if you want to help somebody and to be looked upon as a helper and encourager, then encourage one another, and God. God looks at those things and says, Well done, good and faithful servant.

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.