Classic Christianity – Leave in Peace – 9-28-26
~ “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love.” 1 John 4:18
There are folks today that try to use the laws of God to spread fear upon you. They think they themselves are living by the laws of God, but here is the thing, no one can obey ALL the Old testament laws of God. And if anyone could, then there is no need for Jesus to have died on the cross in the first place. So we need to get to get to the point that we understand that Jesus is our Sabbath Rest. And when we enter that Sabbath Rest, we are entering into His perfect Love for us. And so there is nothing to fear about anything. And don’t let anyone throw up a judgment upon you for doing this or not doing that. Because they themselves still have not entered the Sabbath Rest themselves.
“For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.” Hebrews 4:8-11
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
—
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 taught that believers should respond to fearful thoughts, hardship, and depression by recognizing false ideas, replacing them with God’s truth, and relying on Jesus rather than worldly wisdom. He cautioned against depending on secular psychology, emphasized that spiritual maturity is shown in how believers respond to adversity, and urged Christians to avoid judgment and division over disputable religious practices. The discussion presented Christ as the fulfillment of Sabbath Rest, described holiness and sanctification as being set apart by God for His purpose, and called believers to make choices based on love and what is profitable rather than condemnation.
“You have fearful thoughts bombarding into your mind. That is not from God. God didn’t give you a spirit of fear, and we have to recognize instead of analyzing, we just have to recognize. Don’t analyze, recognize where it’s coming from, and if it’s from satan, replace it with truth, and that truth is promised of God. We’ll do something for you. What’s that? Set you free, free from what? The error that satan has put in your mind. Now, there’s not a person in this room that doesn’t struggle with this, is there? If you are, you need to stand up and give me some instruction. There’s not a person that doesn’t struggle with this in this life, and the issue is it’s not unusual. It’s not unusual….
So, he says, don’t let anyone judge you by that, or a new moon celebration, or look at this, folks. What’s that say? A Sabbath day. Don’t let anyone ever judge you by a Sabbath day. Now, is that clear? Do we need the Greek in that? Now, these. What are the these? That’s what you eat and drink, religious festivals, new moon celebrations, Sabbath days. These, all of them, are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality, however, is found where? In Christ. Now, what does that mean? The day, the Sabbath day, the day of rest, God rested from His work, and He said, “Go rest from yours. That was creation. Jesus, when He completed His work, what did He do? He rested and said, “You go rest. So a Sabbath day was a foreshadowing of the reality of Christ. That is every day. What is your Sabbath? What day is your Sabbath? Every day. Who is your Sabbath? Christ. He’s called the Lord of the Sabbath. Was the Sabbath made for you, or were you made for the Sabbath? That’s what Jesus asked. So the day of the week was a foreshadowing of the reality of a continual state of rest that God called us to when He went to the cross and the grave and the resurrection, and he told us therefore to enter into this what? Sabbath rest. There are some of you, it says, who have failed to enter into this rest. However, the offer of this rest still stands, resting from your works, just as he did from his. Now, what does that mean? That we lay around and don’t do anything, or well, if Christ is dead, that would be true, but He’s alive, isn’t He? And so Christ is living in us, and He certainly isn’t sleeping in there. So He desires to do things through our bodies. Now, some people take exception to that, but there’s no exception to it. Christ lives in us. He wants to live His life through us. Now, so the rest that we’re talking about is resting from our works. Now, that is not resting from allowing Christ to work through us. That’s resting from our works to try to add to what God said is what? Finished. Now, that’s what that book is about out there. Faith that pleases God. When you are resting from your works, that means that once we have come by faith to understand what Christ has accomplished for you, quit trying to add to it.” ~ 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
You have fearful thoughts bombarding into your mind. That is not from God. God didn’t give you a spirit of fear, and we have to recognize instead of analyzing, we just have to recognize. Don’t analyze, recognize where it’s coming from, and if it’s from satan, replace it with truth, and that truth is promised of God. We’ll do something for you. What’s that? Set you free, free from what? The error that satan has put in your mind. Now, there’s not a person in this room that doesn’t struggle with this, is there? If you are, you need to stand up and give me some instruction. There’s not a person that doesn’t struggle with this in this life, and the issue is it’s not unusual. It’s not unusual. This have a deficit attention deficit disorder. Who doesn’t? I mean, come on. How many of you sat in class just glued to every word the teacher said? I was thinking about jumping out the window 90% of the time. When I got to college, I did. Sat on the back row, my economics class, and when the professor turned his head, I was gone. Got my name registered and disappeared. Say, for goodness sakes, folks, we live in a world today where they’ve conned us into thinking everything’s unusual, everything’s unusual, everything’s a syndrome. Everything’s this and that. Why? Well, you get some money that way. There ain’t anything new under the sun. Nothing. Any experience you go through today, Job was going through, and before him, there’s nothing new under the sun. There’s no new emotional problems, just old ones, natural ones that come from being what human, from being human. Saw on television the other night where they got doggy psychiatrists. How many of you saw that? Dog was there chasing his tail. So, ooh, that’s unusual. That’s a world we’re in-it’s insane that the thinking of man is is foolishness to God. We’ve gone nuts in this world, and folks, the only place that you have to go to stay away from this insanity of the world is in Jesus. That’s why you’re in the world, but it says, brother, you are not of this world, and you begin dragging the world into your Christian life, you’re in trouble, because you’re going to be called what the Bible calls a double-minded man. It’s unstable in all ways, and just because a person has a degree in psychiatry or psychology doesn’t mean that he has to buy all the garbage that he’s learned. Because I know some Christian psychologists and psychiatrists that know the word of God and never get away from it, and when a person comes in for counseling, they counsel them in the things of Jesus. So, that God says, “Do not seek the counsel of the ungodly. And my friends, Freud was not godly, and neither was Skinner or Lang or any of the rest of the gurus of psychological thought; these men were atheists or, at the best, agnostic. And so, when we’re dealing with wisdom, and that’s what God said, “I came to give you wisdom. It’s interesting. Said the other day in a scripture where it says, “Wisdom replaced knowledge. Which would you rather have, wisdom or knowledge? We’ve settled for knowledge, and the issue is that the wisdom of God says, “Trust me. I gave you life, I gave it to you abundantly, I’ve given you my instruction book, and if we learn to live by this, we’ll solve ourselves a multitude of problems. What this book ultimately does is very just exactly what you are talking about. It changes your mind and it changes your attitude as to how you what respond to the circumstances of life, not initiate, but respond. How are we responding to the hardships of life, to the trials and tribulation of life? That shows where you’re walking, not how you initiate, but how you’re responding. You can go and initiate all your activity in church. You can take the collections, pass the Lord’s Supper plates, teach in Sunday school. You’ve initiated every bit of that, and get in your car on the way home and not. Your kid’s head right off the boat. Just show the love of Jesus oozing out of you. Those are responses. So it’s not how we initiate, but how do we respond to the things of the world and the things of God? Well, let’s turn to chapter 14.
Had enough of that. But I just want to say, this thing of depression is nothing but your way you’re responding and your thinking, and you’ve got an option to turn your eyes upon the things that are pure and good and holy and truthful, or you can keep buying the lie of the world, and those are our choices. And the issue is, which one we going to go? Where are we going to go? If Jesus Christ were here alive, would you go to him or would you go to Freud? I won’t answer hands on that, but that’s the question you have to ask yourself.
Okay, we were talking last week in chapter 13 about obeying your government, and it talks about the fact that we ended up, or we’re talking about in verse six, pay your taxes for the authorities are God’s servants and give their full time to governing. We’re not talking about good government or bad government, you’re talking about that government is an institution that was instituted by God, and without it, we would be living in total chaos. The government of the United States of America is not the best government in the world, but it’s the best that I know of. That has faults to it, it has frailties to it, it has waste to it, it has corruption in it, and all of these things, but that is no excuse for not paying your taxes. We all live in this country. We are all guarded by the same military, and although there is waste galore, there is also things that are there for our benefit. And it says in the scripture that if you want to keep away from being scared to death if an FBI man shows up on your doorstep, or an IRS man calls you, pay your taxes, forget it. Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God, and get along with your life and quit rebelling. And there are people called Christians who are rebelling against their government. They’re not paying taxes and think they’re doing okay. They’re going to end up in a pokey someday, and then which is not the best testimony in the world for a Christian, and the only way that you’re going to alleviate getting involved in that type of thing is to do what the Bible says, and that is honor your government. Not the best in the world; there aren’t any good ones because you got bad people. But the issue is, it’s government. Pay your taxes. These authorities are God’s servants, and if you owe taxes, pay them. If revenue, pay that. If respect, pay that. If honor, then give honor to who deserves honor. It’s not complicated. It just says do it, and you will not have to live in fear. Now, the option of that is you’re going to live in fear, isn’t it? So it says, pay your taxes. Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt of to love one another, for who who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law, and so the whole law is tied up in love.
Now let’s go down to verse 14, chapter 14. Except him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. Now, guys. There again, we look at strong faith and weak faith, and you got people who talk about, boy, you got strong faith, but you know that that’s not really the issue here. The issue is that there are people that have not yet come to understand the truth that what has been revealed in the Scripture. You have people which we’ll be reading about that believe still in the Old Testament dietary laws, and they believe that it is you shouldn’t eat meat, and you shouldn’t eat shrimp, and you shouldn’t eat many of the things that were talked about in the Old Testament, and some of those same people believe that you should worship God on Saturday instead of Sunday. That after all, God never changed the Sabbath, so why should you? And you get into all of these type of things, don’t you, in in this so-called Christian world, and so and people dispute over those things, and they don’t like each other over these things. You go to church on Sunday. God said that to keep the Sabbath, and the Sabbath is Saturday.
And then the ones who go on Sunday say, “You people are nuts. You know, we changed the Sabbath a long time ago. And so they get back with disputes. He says shouldn’t be, shouldn’t be. In other words, forget about that kind of stuff. And he says that accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. Those are matters that are disputable, and we shouldn’t be arguing over disputable things. Things that are non-essential. One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man’s faith, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. Now that doesn’t mean that all vegetarians have weak faith, but there are people who, for religious reasons, will only eat vegetables, and to that group he would say, if you’re doing that for religious reasons, your faith is weak. If you’re doing it for dietary reasons, you’re probably your brain is smart. But he’s saying, don’t get in disputes over those things. It is irrelevant whether you’re eating vegetables or not.
Richard Piper that played for us last week and is probably going to come on staff with us. His wife-they came out of Seventh Day Adventist background. They came out of that background, but his wife and the children still are vegetarians, not for religious reasons, not at all, because they just think it’s healthier for them not to eat meat. Anything wrong with that? No. Oh, Richard, man, he he just woofed down a piece of chicken like it was going out of style at lunch the other day. They ate vegetables, he ate chicken. What’s the big deal? Are they disputing over each other? Are they no? It’s no big deal, and so we have to understand these are minor issues that we shouldn’t be dealing with. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands and falls, and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Now turn with me over to Colossians, Colossians two, beginning in verse 16. You all have it. Now look again what the apostle Paul says in regard to these issues, and look at the different issues that he’s talking about. Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival. There are people, and normally they’re all in the same group. They don’t eat meat. They worship on Saturday, and they don’t celebrate Christmas, don’t celebrate Easter, don’t celebrate any of these holidays. Now again, if that’s the way you want to do, is that okay? Sure, that’s okay. Save you a lot of money at Christmas. So if that’s what you want to do? That’s fine, but don’t look down on those who celebrate, and don’t start a project to try to knock down all people who are in this heathenistic practice of celebrating Easter and Christmas. If that’s what you want to do, fine, no problem, do it. Just be quiet about it, and vice versa. I don’t need to try to get people who don’t celebrate to, and the ones who don’t celebrate certainly don’t need to try to get me not to. It’s a disputable matter. It’s not important. That’s what he’s saying. But have these things been made important? Well, they’re primary. They’re primary among some people, and denominations are named by them. Seventh Day Adventist. Not saying that to discredit. I’m just saying that obviously is their priority as to what day they go to church, not worship because we don’t know where they worship or not, but go to church.
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.
Bob George 14:18
So, he says, don’t let anyone judge you by that, or a new moon celebration, or look at this, folks. What’s that say? A Sabbath day. Don’t let anyone ever judge you by a Sabbath day. Now, is that clear? Do we need the Greek in that? Now, these. What are the these? That’s what you eat and drink, religious festivals, new moon celebrations, Sabbath days. These, all of them, are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality, however, is found where? In Christ. Now, what does that mean? The day, the Sabbath day, the day of rest, God rested from His work, and He said, “Go rest from yours. That was creation. Jesus, when He completed His work, what did He do? He rested and said, “You go rest. So a Sabbath day was a foreshadowing of the reality of Christ. That is every day. What is your Sabbath? What day is your Sabbath? Every day. Who is your Sabbath? Christ. He’s called the Lord of the Sabbath. Was the Sabbath made for you, or were you made for the Sabbath? That’s what Jesus asked. So the day of the week was a foreshadowing of the reality of a continual state of rest that God called us to when He went to the cross and the grave and the resurrection, and he told us therefore to enter into this what? Sabbath rest. There are some of you, it says, who have failed to enter into this rest. However, the offer of this rest still stands, resting from your works, just as he did from his. Now, what does that mean? That we lay around and don’t do anything, or well, if Christ is dead, that would be true, but He’s alive, isn’t He? And so Christ is living in us, and He certainly isn’t sleeping in there. So He desires to do things through our bodies. Now, some people take exception to that, but there’s no exception to it. Christ lives in us. He wants to live His life through us. Now, so the rest that we’re talking about is resting from our works. Now, that is not resting from allowing Christ to work through us. That’s resting from our works to try to add to what God said is what? Finished. Now, that’s what that book is about out there. Faith that pleases God. When you are resting from your works, that means that once we have come by faith to understand what Christ has accomplished for you, quit trying to add to it.
Has God made you holy? Now, what does it mean to be holy? To wear your hair a certain way, wear a certain kind of clothing, tilt your head to one side and kind of look sick at your stomach. What does it mean to be holy? It means to be set apart. Now, when you came to Christ, were you made holy? Were you set apart from who? The world, the unbelieving world. Who did that? Christ. It isn’t trying to get sweeter. I mean, just how sweet do you have to get before you’re really holy? It means you’ve been set apart. It’s it’s it’s a it’s the most practical term in the Scripture. Holy and sanctified are the same root word. You’ve been set apart for the divine purpose that God created you for. All of you, thankfully, have shoes on. You’re sanctifying your shoes. Your shoes have been made holy. You had in the Old Testament holy dishes. Did they have a quiet time every day, or how’d they get holy? Did they have all their sins confessed? Those dishes? How’d they get holy? They were set apart for a divine purpose to be used for just a divine purpose. Some of you have guest towels. They’re holy. Don’t wipe your hands on them. They’re there to look at. They’ve been set apart to stare at. Don’t use them. Now that’s what it means to be holy. You’re set apart. If you have glasses on, you’re using your glasses for the intent that they were made to see through. Stir your coffee with them, yeah, but they’re not using them for their purpose. Spoons are made for that. So we see that this word “holy, set apart, sanctified, is not some big religious-sounding word. It’s a practical word. It means to be set apart for the design purpose that God created you for.
So the very moment that you stepped out of Adam into Christ, and Christ stepped out of heaven into you, and you became a brand new creature in Christ, He set you apart from the rest of the world. Now, are you going to improve on that? And when you’re trying to make yourself more holy, when it says God made you holy. What are you saying to God? You didn’t do too well. You watch my smoke. Am I right or wrong? How are you going to improve when God said I made you something? You say, Yeah, yeah, that’s nice, Lord. But you, you watch what I can make myself into a little better without trying to make ourselves more holy. You got people trying to make themselves more sanctified. Same word, call it progressive sanctification. Where do you see that in the Bible? The only place you see the word sanctified is in the past tense. You were sanctified. That means I set you apart. Not going to set you any more apart. You are set apart. Now, can you be set apart and act like you’re not? Sure, but what is that? That’s a person who’s been set apart that’s acting like he isn’t, because he’s thinking like he isn’t, and that’s where God has to pull us back to say, “Hold on a minute, who are you? I’m a child of God. Well, then what are you doing over there crawling with the worms for? And we begin to see that if I have been set apart to be an instrument of Christ, then what am I doing over here? And that’s the way we have to make our decisions. We have to make our decisions predicated on the fact that all things are permissible, but not all things are profitable. If they, if all things were not permissible. That would be a law. Are you under the law? Then all things are permissible. Now, what does that mean? It means that there is no condemnation for the violation of them. Oh, Bob, you tell people that they’re going to go live like the devil. They’re living like the devil, whether you tell them that or not, the issue is that’s what truth is. That if you’re in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus. Period. So it isn’t the case that if you do something contrary to what Christ said, that He’s going to zap you because He isn’t. He’s already zapped His Son for that. It isn’t that you’re going to be punished because the punishment for your sins went upon Jesus. It means that you are living inconsistent with who you are. Now, if you’re playing games and you’re not really born again, you’re just playing church, or or you’ve learned the Christian vernacular, so you’re just playing Christian. That’s never going to work, because you’re really in the world, but you’re trying to act like you’re a Christian, and that’s as frustrating as being a Christian trying to act like you’re still in the world. And again, that’s what that double-mindedness is that makes you unstable in all ways, and so what he’s saying to us is, it’s permissible, but it is not profitable for you. And there are many habits that people have among the Christian community that are totally inconsistent with being a child of God. Is it permissible for me to go out and get drunk tonight? How about this afternoon? Is it permissible? Is it profitable? No. Is God going to zap me? No. The alcohol will. My wife would. It’s not profitable. Doesn’t make any sense. What do I need to go alter my mind when I can renew my mind? Doesn’t make any sense, does it? Is it permissible for me to go out and steal, go to the shopping center today, and help myself to some things? Is that permissible from God’s standpoint, not from the law standpoint. Is it profitable? No, because if a law catches you, you’re going to go to jail. And besides that, you’ve taken something that doesn’t belong to you. Is that consistent with being a child of God? No, not consistent at all. So the decision-making process is: What does love say? Is that a loving thing to do, no. And if it’s not love, don’t do it. Don’t do it. There’s your decision making.
Now, when you say you can’t do it, what does that make you want to do? Do it. Yeah, because the power of sin is where? In the law, and it says that you’re not mastered by sin because you’re no longer under the law, means that when you are under the law, you’re mastered by sin. Do we make our own laws? Sure, we make our own laws. Does that put you under the power of sin when we make our own little laws? Sure, it does. So what we have to do is to establish in our hearts the fact that it is permissible, but it is not profitable. There are people that I have visited in jail that just walked around and answered all their calls and counseled and did all kinds of things that had schemes where they robbed Christian brothers and sisters of 1000s of dollars in in schemes, business schemes. You ever heard of that? You ever been caught in one? Happens. One one what took place not too long ago, where pastors, well-known pastors, a lot of people, got hung up in those things. I had a guy approach me when I was in Israel. How to deal? You ought to make 24 percent, I think, or 50 percent on your money, guaranteed. There is no big deal. You can only con someone who’s conable, and fast money deals are not there. So I told him to go on his own way, and I’m sure he conned some other people. So we have to realize, folks, how do you call yourself a born-again believer and out intentionally stealing from people like that? So I have to look at a person like that. It’s not me to judge, but I do have to look at a person like that and say, well, the Bible says they went out from among me because they never were a part of me, and I just have to assume that’s a person who was never a part of Christ, because that is not the heart of Jesus, who’s out trying to con people. You have the scripture we’ve read that people want to cheat on their income tax. Bible says pay it. What are you doing when you’re cheating on it? Saying to God, I don’t care what you say. I want to gouge IRS. Do I like paying taxes? No. Do I think the government wastes? Oh, guy, unbelievable amounts. I mean, I don’t even want to know about it. Just let me out of it. But I’m a citizen of this country as long as I’m here, and as long as those rules and regulations are there, in order to keep from being at odds with the government, I’m going to pay my taxes. Do I like it? No. Wish I could pay less. Don’t you? But the issue is that’s the way it is. So that’s the way you live in peace, you live in peace by following what the Lord says and walking in love. And so we’ll pick up next week as we talk about some more of these areas where He tells us to form an attitude of not looking down on people, but recognizing that there are disputable areas in the Christian life that we are free to do what we think is best for us, but don’t start pushing it on someone else.
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.