Radio Broadcast Monday 04/27/2026

Classic Christianity – Stand Firm in The Lord – Part 1 – 4-27-26

~ And we continually thank God because, when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is also now at work in you who believe. 1 Thessalonians 2:13

~ Today we are given a choice of who we are going to listen to, the Word of God, or the word of men. There are some folks that don’t even think sharing the gospel is important for today, and that we should all simply be lovey dovey to one another without so much as a mention of Jesus and how dare we call sin sin. And that is the teaching of man and demons today. They don’t want people to know what they are doing is sin, and therfore there is no need for a Savior. That’s why we get so much on Tell-a-Vision that pushes sinning left and right as though it is no big deal. It has brainwashed everyone to think it is simply acceptable behavior. And if sin is no big deal, then what Jesus did on the cross is no big deal to them either. So they don’t want to receive the Word of God, but would much rather listen to the word of men and demons everywhere today.

But Paul knew the Thessalonians had received the Word of God, and could see the work of God in them to ALL who believe. They received The Word of God in Truth and in Spirit. Paul could see the Word of God at work in them.

Today, the Spirit of God is at work in the hearts of believers to share the TRUTH with others. Everyone needs a Savior, and His name is Jesus. Don’t dismiss sharing Truth with people. It’s the single greatest gift you could share with anyone.

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.”

~ “So in verse 13, he says, We also thank God continually, because when you receive the Word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men. If you mark your Bibles, you might want to put quotation marks around the word of men and the word of God, he said, You accepted that it not as the word of men, but actually as it is the word of God, which is at work in all of you who believe. So he’s talking about two sources of information that you and I are exposed to. We’re exposed to the word of men, and we’re exposed to the Word of God. Now, you have all kinds of information that come from the word of men, don’t you? Most of our educational system comes from the word of men. You are taught in one thing when you go to school and you get a higher education, and regardless of the field that you’re in, things are continually changing. And so it may be that what you were taught in school 20 years ago is totally obsolete today and and that’s true in every field of endeavor except the Word of God, because the Word of God never changes. It’s the same yesterday and today and forever, and will remain the same throughout all eternity. So you have the option as to what you’re going to listen to, or, in the final analysis, what’s going to be your final criteria for judging what truth is. Is it going to be the word of man, or is it going to be the Word of God?” ~ Bob George

Bible Study Booklets

Announcer 0:13
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
Well, let’s all turn together to First Thessalonians, and we’re going to start in chapter two, beginning there in verse 13, Paul is in his first couple of chapters here is giving encouragement to the church of Thessalonica, where these people were called Paul had gone in and proclaimed the gospel, which he did, all over that part of the world, and immediately following that, why the Judaizers would come in behind him and again, try to put the people back under the law. And Paul was encouraging them for hanging in there tough and in essence, of being able to to hang on to what truth has been given. And so he said that, you know that as he was dealing with them that he dealt he dealt with them as a father deals with his own children. He encouraged them. He was comforting them, urging them to live lives that are worthy of the calling of the kingdom of God.

So in verse 13, he says, We also thank God continually, because when you receive the Word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men. If you mark your Bibles, you might want to put quotation marks around the word of men and the word of God, he said, You accepted that it not as the word of men, but actually as it is the word of God, which is at work in all of you who believe. So he’s talking about two sources of information that you and I are exposed to. We’re exposed to the word of men, and we’re exposed to the Word of God. Now, you have all kinds of information that come from the word of men, don’t you? Most of our educational system comes from the word of men. You are taught in one thing when you go to school and you get a higher education, and regardless of the field that you’re in, things are continually changing. And so it may be that what you were taught in school 20 years ago is totally obsolete today and and that’s true in every field of endeavor except the Word of God, because the Word of God never changes. It’s the same yesterday and today and forever, and will remain the same throughout all eternity. So you have the option as to what you’re going to listen to, or, in the final analysis, what’s going to be your final criteria for judging what truth is. Is it going to be the word of man, or is it going to be the Word of God?

And we have that choice, don’t we, which one I’m going to hang on to in the religious realm that I think Paul was referring to, here, you have tradition of man, and then you have the word of God. Now again, as far as tradition was concerned, you had these hundreds of years of HEBREW tradition, and they had their tradition, and it was perceived many times is absolute truth. In other words, tradition took the place of truth took the place of the Word of God. You find the same thing is true today in Christianity, so to speak, you have the traditions of men that have superseded the Word of God. You have things that are taught today in churches and denominations that are totally contrary to the Word of God. In other words, tradition has has taken over the place of truth, and so you’re listening to the word of men instead of the Word of God. In my early days, I remember especially that, and again, where I came from, being a Catholic or a Protestant was not a big deal to anybody that just that’s just where you went to church on Sunday. And thank God there wasn’t the animosity in our little small town, at least there wasn’t animosity it seemed like toward anybody. We just kind of grew up and everybody blended together, and nobody thought anything about anything. But I remember our very closest friend, and to this day, a lady, her name was Mary Reno, her son was a professor, ultimately, of George Washington. You. University. Her other son, Jimmy is a world renowned sculptor. She was a little Irish lady, tiny little lady, and just as Catholic as you could get. And Mary was a lady that worked with our family. And every Christmas, every Thanksgiving, why Mary and Jimmy and Ray were at our home for for Christmas dinner. The closest of friends when I was in Germany, mom and dad didn’t get over to visit me, but Mary did and came over and spent time with with Amy and I while we were in Germany. That’s how close we were. Mary would have me to come to the Catholic church with her. And as most of you know, I was a lot in music, and I cannot tell you the number of times that I sat in the back where they sit in the in the back of the church with a choir and soloed Ava Maria. And it was just, that’s just the way things were. I couldn’t understand what that holy water was. I tried to wash my hands in it one day, if that didn’t work. But, you know, and then the ups and downs and ups and downs, and I’d think, here, Mary, you know, do you ever sit still here? And I thought those kind of things. But beyond that, we never thought anything of that.

But I always remember they their custom of not eating meat on Friday. How many of you came out of a Catholic background and you’re look at you? Remember those days when you couldn’t eat meat on Friday? And I used to wonder where that came from, but that was the tradition of man, wasn’t it? Is there anything in the Bible about doubt of eating meat on Friday? Nothing about it at all. But it was the tradition of man that, quite frankly, they hung on to tenaciously, and that was one of those laws that you just didn’t, didn’t break, unless you were out of town. But about when I see things like that, and you know, then you’ve got the Baptist and for years and years and years you couldn’t dance. You know, that was really bad. And then all of a sudden, why they decided there at Baylor you could dance. So took all the fun out of dancing, and I told a guy the other day, that’s why I joined the Baptist Church, so I wouldn’t have to dance. Then they even messed that up on me. But you’ve got these traditions that people come up with that just make no sense at all, but they’re it’s called the word of men, and if we don’t know what the Bible says, why then you have no idea whether I’m really listening to the word of men or whether I’m listening to the Word of God. You just don’t have any way of knowing, because you have no plumb line to make that determination, do you?

And so he’s talking about here that you accepted what we as the apostles, said to you, you accepted that message as if it was the Word of God, not the word of men, but as the Word of God. And it says, Then you brothers, You became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ, Jesus. And it said, the way you did that was you suffered from your own countrymen in the same things, in the same things that the churches suffered from the JUDAENS who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. Now it’s interesting to me that the apostle Paul made such a bold statement as that we in today in the interest of being politically correct and not saying things that would offend anybody. We say we talk about those that don’t want J___ persecuted for because for years, a lot of the Gentile world would go up to J___ and say, You’re Christ killers. How many of you ever remember hearing that in some place in school or whatever, you’re a Christ killer? Well, that’s very offensive, not only offensive, but it’s a horrible thing to say to somebody because you had nothing to do with the killing of Christ in this generation. And so in order to probably sound more correct, but it is truth that we all killed Jesus. I killed Jesus. My sins are what called Jesus to go to a cross. And you had the incentive, you had the Judaean people. And when you say the Judaean people, you’re not talking about the mass of Judaean people, you’re talking about the leadership you had, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the governing body that controlled every thought and essence of the Judaean people. They were the ones who told the Judaean people what to think and how to think, and therefore they thought it is that unusual for us to understand basically when? And I’m not picking on Catholics, but when you’re a Catholic, basically, they told you what to think and how to think it, didn’t they. And that’s kind of, am I right on that? And let’s just kind of, what do I think? Well, tell me what to think, and I’ll think it. I’ll thunk it. And so. Well, the issue is that they what I’m going to think about religion. I’m going to find out from my leaders. And so those leaders were the ones who plotted the plot to go to the Roman Empire and to convince the Romans to kill Jesus. They were the instigator and the Gentile world pulled it off. So in other words, we were all involved, weren’t we?

But I think here Paul understanding what was behind that, because there would have been no way in the world that the Romans would have killed Jesus on their own without somebody being behind it. There’s no way in the world that would have taken place. So he understands understood the fact that it was the vileness of this Judaean leadership. Could have been Gentile leadership, but it happened to be Judaean leadership that was behind the death of Christ, to the point where he is able to say here that that the Judaeans who killed the Lord Jesus, Christ and the prophets, and also drove us out. And so he included the fact that they were behind the scheme to kill Jesus, the Judaean leadership, and they were also behind the scheme of killing many of the prophets. And Jesus said that, did he not, you’ve killed the prophets, the people who come and proclaim the good news to you, you’ve killed them. You’ve wiped them out, and they also, he said, drove us out so that we could have no voice.

They displease God and are hostile to all men in their efforts to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles, so that they, the Gentiles, might be saved. So in other words, when you have people, or it talks about in the scripture that not only did they do evil, but they encouraged others to do evil. And you find that very true, and you see that in what is called peer pressure, there’s an add on right now, I just noticed on television the other day where this girl, the mother, is telling the little girl to get in the car. And watched when she crosses the street and she’s given this little girl all kinds of great instruction. She gets in the back seat, and then someone’s offering her smoke of marijuana. And what it’s saying is her mom hadn’t prepared her for how to handle that. Hadn’t talked to her about it. But what the example of that is, is the fact of how when you’re doing evil, there’s that tendency to encourage others to do evil as well, because you want company. If you’re practicing homosexuality. That’s why this? This movement, this huge movement, this agenda that is in the world today, whereby you’ve got, you know, the great cowboys out practicing homosexual and you’ve got, if John Wayne was here, you’d have him in that camp, and where you want to get everybody accepting homosexuality. Well, accepting the practice of homosexuality is like accepting the practice of adultery, fornication, stealing, it’s sin, and the Bible calls it sin. They don’t call it alternate lifestyle. They call it what it is. It’s sin. But it’s amazing that if you’re involved in this entrapped in this sin, that what you want to do is get more people involved in it so that you don’t feel so lonely. And of course, with the sin like adultery, you don’t have to, because everybody’s doing it anyway. But the issue is that you’re that’s what, that’s what sin likes company. Misery loves company. And so it’s that, it’s that propensity that you have when you’re involved in sinful activity is to try to get other people involved in it as well. And and that’s why the promotion of these type of things, that’s why a person taking drugs on his own wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but they’re going to be sure that you are tempted with the drugs and on the school scene. This is especially true. I’m going to try to get as many kids involved in drugs as I can. Sometimes it’s a financial motive, other times it’s just the fact. I just want to get more people involved in this thing so that I don’t feel alone and don’t feel like a freak.

Click to Donate to Bob George Ministries

Check out our website, Shop.BobGeorge.net. Let’s join Bob. Now as he continues the radio program.

Announcer
Classic Christianity Radio thanks you for your support of our online and radio ministry. Make sure to visit BobGeorge.net to order a copy of the closer look Bible study series. A Closer Look Bible studies features eight in depth study guides that detail hundreds of Bible verses to help you deepen your understanding of the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ a closer look. Bible Study Guides are an excellent tool for both individuals and larger Bible study groups. Please visit bobgeorge.net to order your copy of a Closer Look Bible studies, as well as many other wonderful books, CDs and study guides. With your support, we can continue to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Let’s continue now with our Classic Christianity Radio program.

Bob George 14:58
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.

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.