Classic Christianity – Bad Company Corrupts – Part 1 – 9-14-26
~ 1 Corinthians 15-33,34
Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.
~ Today, this message is for all of us, because it is so easy to fall into the trap of being friends with an unbeliever, knowing they are an unbeliever, yet we pale around with them. We listen to their off color jokes, we get involved in their talks of politics, we get involved in sports with them, we party with them, and think nothing of it. Yet we are brainwashing ourselves by doing that folks. We need to come to our senses, and if we are going to share Christ Jesus with them, then share Him, but don’t simply be friends with someone while never speaking the word of TRUTH to them. How much sense does that even make, to essentially waste our time, when we could actually be listening to the Holy Spirit teach us Truth through His Word? Or asking for wisdom directy from Him to be taught of the things going on in the world. God wants to give us Wisdom for the asking. So ask Him to show you what is going on. Do not assume you know what is going on, because that is pride. That is pride in one’s own self. But come to him in a spirit of humbleness, and allow Him to teach you ALL TRUTH. Turn off the Tell-a-Vison. Don’t let it program you anymore. Stop doing the things that are of the world that mess with the mind. And these things do indeed mess with our minds. Why do you think they call them programs? Or change the station to another program? Because they tell you, they are programming you. And it is so easy to fall into the trap of thinking satan couldn’t fool me, when the reality he has already deceived the whole world, much much more than most people imagine.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Revelation 21:1,2
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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.”
~ In this message, Bob George teaches that the true gospel is entirely about what God has done through the death, burial, and especially the resurrection of Jesus Christ, not about our religious works or efforts. When a person is in Christ, they become a new creation with new thinking, attitudes, and behavior shaped by God’s Word rather than the empty “wisdom” of the world. Because “bad company corrupts good character,” believers—especially young or new ones—must be very careful about close relationships with unbelievers or those living in sin, since these ties often pull them back into old lifestyles. Bob stresses that the Christian life is a matter of personal choice and responsibility: like choosing between eating from a dumpster or a free cafeteria, believers can either follow the world’s attractive but destructive ways or embrace the abundant life God offers. He urges Christians to guard their minds from corrupting influences, remember that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and live distinctly from the world, assuring them that a life devoted to serving the Lord is one they will never regret.
“And so the resurrection is the key to the Christian life. The resurrection is the focus of the Christian life. The apostles got killed not by teaching the cross, but by teaching the resurrection. Everyone could have seen the cross. No one doubted that a man named Jesus died on a cross, but the doubt came, and through his resurrection, and that resurrected life is is what salvation is. You’re not saved by the death of Christ. You’re saved by the life of Christ. The cross is what cleared the deck, taking away eternally the cause of death. Do we get that? What is it that caused death? Sin. The cross is where He eternally took away the cause of death. Sin. He didn’t cover it. He took it away from the eyes of God eternally, back to Adam, forward to eternity. That’s what he had to do to prepare you and me for salvation. But salvation is being saved from the consequence of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is life. I came that you might have what? Life, and so we come to Christ for His life, Him to live in us, and when He comes to live in us, we have become separated from the world, and we become new creatures. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. Now, guys, if you’re new, that means your thinking should become new, your actions should become new, your attitudes should become new. In other words, they’re no longer the attitudes of the world. They’re the attitudes of God that we have the ability to be programmed by the mind of God instead of the nonsense of the world. This world is full of nonsense. There’s no meaning to it. It’s stupid, and the only wisdom that you and I are ever going to come to in our lives is the wisdom that’s found in this book. So don’t ignore it. If you got to sacrifice this for your geography book, sacrifice geography, but don’t sacrifice the Word of God.” ~ Bob George
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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
Let’s turn to the First Corinthians 15. I’ve encouraged you that even though we do put the Bible verses up here, that really want to encourage you to carry your Bibles with you, both young people as well as old, older. It enables you to to have the reference and to be able to look into your own Bible. This is this personal Bible that you and I have. Many of us have had numerous Bibles through our lifetime, but it’s your own personal Bible. It’s your own personal letter from God to you. It’s not just to us, but it’s to you. And so, I really encourage you to learn to carry your Bible with you and to and to pick it out and to read it and to to go back to it as well.
Let’s pick up in one Corinthians 15 where we left off last week. Now you know that we’ve been talking about the gospel that saves, and that you cannot add to the gospel, nor can you subtract from the gospel. And the very moment you you do that, why Paul says you perverted the gospel. So the gospel that saves is the death and the burial and the resurrection of Christ Jesus. The gospel is everything that God did, and nothing that we do. And whenever we add us to the equation, then we have perverted what God did. We are not worthy for salvation. We’re not worthy to produce salvation for sure, and we’re really not even worthy to receive it. It’s by grace, isn’t it? So, whenever we try to add what we do, such as baptism, or tongues, or church membership, or belonging to this denomination or that denomination or whatever it is, we have now placed us into the equation, and that equation doesn’t compute, according to the Apostle Paul. It’s Jesus period. His death for us, his life in us, and that is what saves us. Period. Nothing added, nothing subtracted. And so, what we want to realize that there are people, obviously, that Paul was dealing with here, who may have started off with that belief system, but then began to doubt it, and so he deals in this 15th chapter with the fact that this resurrection, if Christ was not raised from the dead, then we haven’t been raised as well, and our faith is futile, and we are still, he said, in our sins, knowing full well that a cross had occurred where He took away the sins of the world, but also realizing that it’s only in His resurrection that that was provided for us is received.
And so the resurrection is the key to the Christian life. The resurrection is the focus of the Christian life. The apostles got killed not by teaching the cross, but by teaching the resurrection. Everyone could have seen the cross. No one doubted that a man named Jesus died on a cross, but the doubt came, and through his resurrection, and that resurrected life is is what salvation is. You’re not saved by the death of Christ. You’re saved by the life of Christ. The cross is what cleared the deck, taking away eternally the cause of death. Do we get that? What is it that caused death? Sin. The cross is where He eternally took away the cause of death. Sin. He didn’t cover it. He took it away from the eyes of God eternally, back to Adam, forward to eternity. That’s what he had to do to prepare you and me for salvation. But salvation is being saved from the consequence of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is life. I came that you might have what? Life, and so we come to Christ for His life, Him to live in us, and when He comes to live in us, we have become separated from the world, and we become new creatures. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. Now, guys, if you’re new, that means your thinking should become new, your actions should become new, your attitudes should become new. In other words, they’re no longer the attitudes of the world. They’re the attitudes of God that we have the ability to be programmed by the mind of God instead of the nonsense of the world. This world is full of nonsense. There’s no meaning to it. It’s stupid, and the only wisdom that you and I are ever going to come to in our lives is the wisdom that’s found in this book. So don’t ignore it. If you got to sacrifice this for your geography book, sacrifice geography, but don’t sacrifice the Word of God.
And so he said, “Don’t be misled, and guys, I want us to listen. Bad company corrupts good character. When you come to Christ, you have the ability to have good character. If any man’s in Christ, is a new creation. What corrupts good character? Bad company. Young people, listen to me. Look at me. Stay away from lost kids. Stay away from drug kids. Stay away from kids who do not know the Lord, we’re going to study. Do not be unequally yoked. That means stay away from the lost, unless you want to get sucked in by the lost. If you want to die in your sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, just keep going out with the lost.
It reminds me of the guy that was eaten out of the dumpster. The guy that had no money, had no nothing, just in order to survive, ate out of the dumpster. Somebody came along to him and said, “Sir, get out of that dumpster. Here’s a lifelong membership to the cafeteria that you can go in and eat anything that you want, any time of the day in the cafeteria, free of charge. Guy says, “You’re kidding? No, I’m not kidding. Not kidding at all. Here’s your free pass. I own the cafeteria. I’m giving you a free meal anytime you want it. Guy says that is that is just phenomenal. I can eat anything that I want to eat. Anything you want to eat, no charge, no charge. Great. Can I also eat out of the dumpster? He’d say, “If you lost your mind, why in the world would you want to eat out of the dumpster when you got a free ticket to the cafeteria, unless you’re dumb? We think we’re smart in this world. We think we’re smart. We’re idiots. Hate to be so blunt, but it’s truthful. When you don’t know the Lord, you don’t know anything. You just think you do. Oh, you may know how to build buildings, you may know how to sell, you may know how to do all that kind of stuff. You don’t have to be saved do that. But to have proper thinking, to have wisdom, you got to have the Lord. So the issue is, what do you want out of this world? He says, good company. He says, don’t be deceived, don’t be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. You want to ruin your life? Run around with bad company. Period. That’s why your friends are the most important thing you’ll ever develop. As young people, your parents can only do so much, but who you choose to run around with as friends is going to determine whether you are corrupted or whether you’ll walk in the newness of life. You know what the Bible says about that? Come back to your senses. Come back to your senses.
Now, guys, as a child of God, you’re born again. The Spirit of God lives in you, no matter what age that is. You have everything that you need for life and godliness. As a child of God, can you still choose to go the wrong direction? How many of you have done it? See your hand. Now the rest, you liars, don’t hold up your hands. But how many of you have chosen in your lifetime to walk in a way different than the Lord? I got both of mine up. Now some of you are sitting there. You either you’re numb in the head, or something’s wrong with you, because I’ll guarantee you, there’s not a person that I know of that hasn’t chosen at some time in their life to walk in a different way. You know what the Bible says? Come to your senses. Get a life. Come to your senses, and come back to where you need to be, and stop sinning. Come to your senses and stop sinning. Anybody can do that. Anybody can choose that. It’s just whether you’re going to choose it or not. You got an option in this world. We got options, don’t we? I can choose to go God’s way. I can choose to go the way of the world. The way of the world’s going to kill me, or I can choose to go God’s way and have life abundant. Either way, it’s your choice. You choose the other way, and you’re miserable. Don’t blame me. It’s your own personal responsibility, is it not? Choices that we make. We can make choices that are blended in with the world, or we can make choices that God says.
And I want to tell you, the way the world’s attractive, they make it that way. It’s like a lure. You know, a lure looks good to eat. It’s all fuzzy and all that stuff. The fish looks at that and says, “Hey, that’s something good to eat. There’s only one problem with that lure. There’s a hook in it. The world looks good. World did a lot of good things out there. A lot of things that seem right. There’s a hook in it. You give in to it. I’m going to hook you.
And so, it’s saying to us, don’t be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. Guys, hang your hat on that. Please, if you got your Bible, star it, underline it, do whatever you need to do. But remember it: bad company corrupts good character. Good character doesn’t save bad company. I can remember in my early days as a Christian back in 1969, I came to Christ excited about the things of the Lord, and we used to go down on Sunset Strip. We lived in California at that time, and you’ve all heard of Sunset Strip, and that was the days of the hippies and the drugs and all that kind of stuff. It was rampant, and there were many young people that I personally had the privilege of leading to Christ. I remember the first one. I was walking down the street, and this girl, two girls or something, walking, you know, with the long hair and all the baggy clothes, everything, and she looked at me and she said, “I hate you. Now she didn’t know me from Adam, but evidently just the way I looked or something, because I’d shaved that day or something. I don’t know what it was, but I hate you, and I responded to her by saying, “That’s okay. I love you. I love you, and it stopped her. And I led her to Christ. There was a place down there, a little place there on Sunset Strip, where you could go in. The Christians were there and find new friends. And I watch kids grow in Christ, and then almost inevitably, I watch kids saying, “Man, I got to reach my old friends. I got to go back to my buddies and my friends that were on drugs and save them. I’d say, “No, no, stay here and grow. No, I got to go save my buddies. And off they went to save their buddies. And within two weeks, they were back in the drugs again. Bad company corrupts good character, even Christians. We have to learn that lesson.
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Bob George 14:14
If you want to minister to people, figure about 15 years. Get grounded. Get grounded in your faith, then you’re going to be in a position of reaching your buddies, if they’re still alive in 10 years. It’s not 10 years; it’s just a figure, not a law. Come back to your senses and stop sinning, for there are some who are ignorant of God, and I say this to your shame. What’s he saying here? I’m saying this to your shame because you know God, and there’s around people that don’t know God, and you’re not telling them about Him. You preoccupy yourself with communicating God to people. I want to tell you it’s hard to do that while you’re living a sinful life, I had a friend of mine, Chuck Wardvan. He was in California, a businessman. He came to Christ, and he said after about a year of just continuing going the same old lifestyle, I’d go to Las Vegas and do all these things. And he said he was sitting there across from his buddy, with a martini in one hand, a cigarette in the other, telling him about Jesus, he said he he looked down at this cigarette and this martini and said something is inconsistent here. This doesn’t fly. And he realized this does not have any place in my life anymore, and he put it aside that day. Put it aside. That’s it. It doesn’t belong. It’s inconsistent with who I am. That’s a whole deal. You’re a new creature. Lost people do that stuff. You don’t need to do it. That’s for lost people. But you and I have been separate. If any man be in Christ, he’s what again? He’s a new creation. New creation thinks differently. A new creation. If you are a new creation, you ought to think different. You ought to act different. You ought to have different friends.
I lost all my friends and I became a Christian. I didn’t get rid of them. They got rid of me because they wanted to go do what we used to do, go out and drink. I didn’t want to go, and so they they dropped me like a hot cake. So what did I have in common with them? Booze in a bar. That’s what I had in common with my friends. That’s how much my friends. That’s how deep our friendship was, just as deep as going to the bar. Isn’t that now you say that’s pretty stupid, isn’t it? So I got new friends. Now I got a lot of you. Thank God every day for that. Guys it’s telling us to be careful who you hang around with. They’ll either build you or tear you down. And bad character or bad people corrupt good people; satan’s there for that purpose. He’s there for one reason: corrupt you. We have, in my opinion, the worst atrocity that this world’s ever had. That’s a computer meant for good, satan perverts it. If you wanted to go look at porno years ago. Had to drive down to some scuzzy point in town. Had to be old enough to drive, go down to some scuzzy part of town, and go into some place and look at porno. Today you go to your bedroom or your office, and all of it’s just totally available, and some are availing themselves of it. Christians as well. Say, how’d you get into that? You’re a Christian. You knew better than that. The same way you eat an elephant, a bite at a time. First time you look at it, it’s disgusting to you. Next time you look at it, it’s not quite as disgusting. Next time you look at it, doesn’t bother you at all. Reminds me of the guy that said he went into the pizza parlor one day, and when he went in, it was so dark you couldn’t even see to get couldn’t even see tables in there. Said finally somebody took him and led him to the table, and he said, “After a while, why he could see the checkered tablecloth, and after a while, he could read the menu. Nobody turned up the lights. He just got used to the darkness, and you and I can get used to the darkness. Stay away. It corrupts good character. If that kind of stuff made you happy, how come you’re so miserable when you do it? And the whole issue is, if something makes you miserable, quit doing it, unless you’re having come to your senses.
Now let’s go over to Second Corinthians chapter six. You know, I wonder sometimes, guys. We see today everyone is so involved in the pollution problem, and and and all the the the pollution of the air, and I said, why don’t you get concerned about the pollution of the mind? Why don’t you get concerned with that instead of what’s out in the air? Think about what you’re putting in your head. I remember my dad one day. Amy came into the living room, and Dad had gone down to like a secondhand bookstore. Some bought a bunch of books. Dad loved to read, and he was sitting our home in California. He picked up this book and opened it, and closed it, and put it aside. And Amy’s standing there, and she said, “Dad, why’d you why’d you put that book away? He said, “Because it’s got garbage in it, and I don’t want my head full of garbage. Didn’t want to didn’t want to read it. Some people sit down and gobble it up just like cat after milk. Guys, learn to be a protector. You only got one you, and we only got one mind, but we got two sources programming it, two. God and satan. Two sources, one mind. Said, “Don’t be conformed to the world, but be transformed how? By the renewing of your mind. You only got one of these. My dad used to teach us: the mind is something nobody can take away from you. Don’t ignore your education. Nobody can take away from you what’s in your mind. This mind controls everything we do. Everything we do starts right up here, and then goes from there. This body is just a responder to what the mind says to do. Who you listening to? Because you got to be listening to somebody. We’re either listening to the one who corrupts, or to the one who saves. That’s our option. Before I knew the Lord, where would I go? I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t know the Lord from a spook. Didn’t know Him, so I couldn’t go for wisdom. I didn’t know what wisdom was. But today we do. Are we privileged or are we? Are we not, guys? Beyond comprehension, privileged that I have God’s wisdom in this book, and I can go to any time and read it and get wisdom from it. So we’re so worried about the pollution. I wish we’d get more worried about what the pollution of our heads and what’s out there and what we’re allowing to be programmed into people’s minds instead of worrying about how much smog’s in the air. So __ ____, change your mind if you’ve got one.
What happens in our heads? Now, I tell you another thing. It says, chapter six, verse 16 of Second Corinthians: Don’t be yoked together with unbelievers. Now we use this for marriage, but it really isn’t the context of marriage. It’s certainly applicable to marriage, but it’s not the context of marriage. It’s a context of not being yoked with unbelievers. And he said, and it gives you the reason why not to be yoked with unbelievers. In other words, close fellowship, relationship with unbelievers. You can be nice to people, but I’m not going to be with you. It’s like being in the world but not being of the world. I’m in it, but I don’t want to be of it. What does righteousness and wickedness have in common? You tell me what righteousness and wickedness have in common with each other. It doesn’t have anything in common with each other. So you say, “I want to live a righteous life, then stay away from wicked people, because if you don’t, you’re going to end up doing wicked things. It’s very simple, isn’t it? What fellowship can light have with darkness? What commonality is there between light and darkness, guys? There isn’t any. One total opposite. What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? None. What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? Nothing. You have nothing in common. And by and guys, if you’re going to hang around with an unbeliever and you want any conversation, you’re going to have to talk his language because he doesn’t know yours. Your language sounds foolish to him. So, if you’re going to have communion, you’re going to have learned to talk, not to learn. You don’t have to learn. It’s really just go back to where you were. What are you going to talk about? He isn’t going to talk your language. He doesn’t know it. He doesn’t know what you mean. You say praise the Lord. Thinks you’re silly.
What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? Do you know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit of God? Do you realize that, guys? Your body and my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit of God. This building isn’t the church. You’re the church. You and I are called the body of Christ, are we not? Now, who’s our head? Jesus. If we don’t listen to our head, we’re like a chicken with his head cut off, flapping around, making all kinds of noise, spreading blood all over the place, but not accomplishing anything that God wants to accomplish. It’s a warning to us. This isn’t a message to put people on a guilt trip. It’s a message of warning. And if you’re in that situation, come to your senses and get out of it. You say, “Well, I’m in a relationship I don’t know how to get out of. Well, you’re certainly different because I tell you, a lot of people figured how to get out of it because that’s why you got 50 some percent divorce rate. Somebody said I’m through. Well, it’s not been that big of a deal. Used to be this way. That’s what I wanted to do. Now I don’t want to do that. I mean, I want to serve the Lord. I will tell you, and you know that as well as I do, as children of God, you will never regret your life of serving the Lord. Never a day in your life will you regret if you devote your life to serving Him. You go out and serve the Lord, you’ll live in serve the the flesh, the world. You’ll live in regret. You live in it. It kills you. You weren’t meant for that. You were meant to live a new life.
Announcer
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’ll 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.