Radio Broadcast Tuesday 05/13/2025

Classic Christianity – Bob George – Standing Strong in the Lord Part 2 (05-13-25)

Standing Strong in the Lord Part 2

~ Get Rid of ALL Religion
~ Trust in Jesus alone for Everything.

Most people who claim to be Christians, use religion as a crutch today in order to show how much they love God by how much they do. They are hypocrites (actors) to themselves and others. They themselves are believing Satan’s lies of going to church (not understanding who the church is), going to worship (not understanding they are the temple of God themselves if they are in Christ Jesus), being baptized by water (not understanding they were baptized by the Holy Spirit if they are in Christ Jesus), giving money to their jailers, asking for ongoing forgiveness from God instead of resting in His completed forgiveness at the cross, learning lies from a pastor that went to seminary and was taught lies himself, instead of learning directly from the Holy Spirit living in them if indeed they are in Christ Jesus, trusting in Man rather than the Word of God. And the flesh loves it when it is stroked. Religion strokes the flesh. Look how much we are doing for God is their attitude. People love the accolades of what they are doing. And they will even point out to others what their church is doing to others as though doing something in the community is better than the teaching of TRUTH. And many times when you point out the truth to people, they will not want to hear it and many will even get mean as a stirred up hornets nest. For they love the lies more than they Love the Truth. Jesus is TRUTH.

Time to wise up in the Holy Spirit and quit promoting the jailers and the false prophets today. Time to wise up and seek wisdom directly from the Holy Spirit. For He and He alone will provide wisdom for the asking, and with GREAT abundance without finding fault. So ask and it shall be given unto you.

Ephesians 6:10-20
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground, and having done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed, and with your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will boldly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it fearlessly, as I should.”

…..

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

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

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

Pray to God:

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

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”

~ “And if he was a Texan, he’d help you, but he is going to help you any way that he can, to get you involved in religion.

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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
The Apostle Paul. What did the Apostle Paul ever do to anyone? He proclaimed Jesus. That’s what he did. Did he hurt anybody? Not not after he was saved. He sure did a number on a bunch of people before he was saved, but not after. So what happened to Paul? Why was he in all of these deals? Why were they accusing him here? Why were they accusing him there? Because of the devil schemes. We’re not fighting against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and the authorities and the powers of this dark world. And folks, it doesn’t make any difference whether you’re talking about the Apostle Paul or whether you’re talking about a person today, anyone who is in the business of proclamation of Jesus is being attacked by. The Devil schemes constantly, that there is a plot constantly. It’s always there, and we had better realize it. And that is the reason for the warning that he gives us. He’s telling us, if you’re involved, I don’t care whether it’s in school, I don’t care whether it’s in college. I don’t care if it’s at home. I don’t care if it’s a ministry, if your heart is I want to teach people about not religion. Satan could care less about your teaching religion. In fact, he’ll help you. And if he was a Texan, he’d help you, but he is going to help you any way that he can, to get you involved in religion.

I was telling Amy today, what is the attraction to this type of thing? Here’s the attraction. It starts with a real simple premise. If I can get you in this to believe what I’m about to say. I got you just one little premise. That’s all I got you. You know what the premise is? God is cruel. God is harsh. God is out to get you if you don’t do what I tell you, that’s all. Just believe that one. That’s all you need to do. Just believe that right there. And I got you, because if I have you believe in that, I’m going to come along and tell you how to keep out of trouble. And if you join my church, and if you do what I want you to do, and you do all the ceremonies, and you go through all of the all of the things I tell you to do, you’re going to keep out of trouble with this mean vindictive God who doesn’t like you, but he will tolerate you. If you do what I tell you to do, and I got you. All you have to do is believe that’s what God’s like, and religion has you. Now do you think Satan likes that people in that boat? Why? Of course, he doesn’t like people down on Skid Row. He likes them in churches. He likes them acting nice and practicing religion. And so Paul comes along, and folks, you’re going to see a total split between HEBREWISM and Christianity on the day that Stephen was stoned. And on the day that Stephen was stoned, and he stood up and he said, This is not of God. Jesus is God. And Paul went out and began teaching the proclamation of the grace of God that is ours through Christ, Jesus and the anger between the religionist fired by who? The rulers and the authorities and the powers that are in this in this world today. And he fires that, and they stir up the anger against someone who’s trying to set people what? Free. That was true then, and that is equally true today. Nothing is new under the sun. And so what you’re seeing here is that Paul is warning the Ephesians.

Now turn back with me to the book of Acts, and we’ll go up starting in the 18th Chapter, beginning in verse 23 so if you all turn with me there to the book of Acts, chapter 18, verse 23 we all together? After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatians by Faria, strengthening all of His disciples. Meantime, a HEBREW named Apollos, a native of Alexandria. Now, where’s that? Where’s Alexandria? In Egypt. Came to Ephesus. He was a learned man with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor. He was some orator and taught about Jesus accurately, though. Now catch this and underline this folks. He knew only the baptism of John. That’s all he knew. So beyond the beyond the baptism of John, he knew nothing. Knew nothing about the resurrection, knew nothing about any of those things. He just knew the baptism of John, he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God, more adequately, nice way of putting it. They sat him down and told him the completeness of the gospel. Now, when Apollos wanted to go to Achaeah. Yeah, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those who, by grace, had believed, for he vigorously refuted the JUDEAENS in public debate, proving them from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. Now, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. Now this is that third missionary journey that we’re talking about. And remember that from this point on, Paul’s life was only a few years away before it was gone. There he found some disciples and asked them. Now here’s the question. He asked them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Now these believers were believers in what? Because they had been instructed by who? Well, yeah, John the Baptist, and they were the same as Apollo’s. They knew nothing except the baptism of John. And so they asked the question, did you received the Holy Spirit when you believed? Now, guys in our day and age, that would be like saying to someone, did you come to Christ to get your sins forgiven, or did you come to Christ for life? Be no different. Is all you did. All you ever hear about was Jesus death for you? Did you know that he was raised from the dead? No, I didn’t know that. Heard he had been crucified on a cross by everything about that resurrection. Well, let me tell you about it. I’ll sit down and and I will explain a little bit to you the way of God a little bit more adequately. And you explain that salvation not only included the cross, but that salvation centrality is the resurrection, and without the resurrection, we are to be pitied of all people and are still in our sins. So if the only thing you’ve heard about is the cross, you’ve missed the dynamic of salvation. If the only thing that you’ve heard about is a baptism for repentance of sin, dunked in water, you’ve missed salvation, because there’s something greater than that that is coming.

And so that’s where they ask the question. And again, you don’t have to turn to if you if you don’t want to, but in Mark, when John the Baptist identified this, it says, After me in the first chapter, will come one more powerful than I, who the throngs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie, I baptize you in water, But He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Jesus never baptized anybody. The Holy Spirit is a spiritual baptism. John dunked you in water. Jesus is going to do something far greater than that. I’m going to place you in the body of Christ, which is what it means to be baptized into the body of Christ. So he had only heard of one baptism, and that was a baptism of John, a baptism of repentance, not of salvation. For what? The forgiveness of sins is, that salvation? No, that’s a baptism of repentance for your sins. Now this is the reason that this question was asked. I would ask the same thing to someone who said, Are you saved? Oh, yes, I was baptized. Well, did you receive the Holy Spirit? I’m not talking about getting your sins washed away. I’m talking about, did you understand Jesus is alive? Are you saved? Oh, yes, I go to church. I’m not talking about where you go on Sunday. I’m asking you, do you know Jesus? I don’t care where you go. I don’t care how many times you’ve been dipped. What I’m asking you is, do you know Jesus, the living Jesus, who was raised from the dead, there is the question.

And so he stopped there, and he said, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They answered, No. We haven’t even heard there is a Holy Spirit. Now. How much clear can it get guys, they were baptized, but they weren’t saved. Do you understand that? Believing that Jesus is coming does not save you. So he said, well, then what baptism Did you receive? Well, he said, John’s baptism. Now that’s the same baptism that only Apollos knew about. Paul said John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance, just what we got through saying, I baptize you with water, but one coming after me, whose sandals are not worthy of tying will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. So that was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him. That is in Jesus, who on hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now it’s going to tell you how that occurred and what happened when Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in languages and prophesied. And there are about 12 men in all.

Now, do you see how and again, let’s turn back to first, Corinthians in verse in chapter 14, beginning in verse 20. Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil, be infants, but in your thinking, be adults. It’s written in the law through men of strange tongues and through lips of foreigners. I will speak to these people, but even then, they will not listen to me, says the Lord, tongues, then are a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers. Tongues is a sign to the unbelieving HEBREW, and that’s why he’s telling people quit being babies and acting like a bunch of kids, doing something with a gift that God never intended you to do with it. Now, when this occurred in Acts, was that a sign? This is Paul. He went into an area. He said, Are you a believer? Paul didn’t know where they’re believers, where they weren’t a believer. Said, All we know is baptism of John. Said, Do you want to hear about Jesus? They told him about Jesus. Now they say we believe. They said, well, not sure whether you do or not. They placed their hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues. What was that? That was a sign to Paul that these people are in Christ, and they prophesied. And there were 12 men in all. Now we’re all together on what took place there. That’s the last time you ever hear about tongues being associated with coming to Christ. That’s the last time the scripture you hear that.

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Bob George 14:09
In every other place where that is mentioned. It was always a sign to the unbelieving HEBREW, without exception. That’s why He says there tongues is not for believers, but for unbelievers, it is a sign, he also said, is a known language. It is not a gibberish. It is a known language that, when spoken, can be understood by someone. If Amy got up in his room right now and she started talking to you in Russian, how many of you could say amen to what she’s saying? The issue is what I’d say to her. Why are you talking in Russian? Oh, I got a message from God. Well, then talk in English, because I can’t understand Russian. And if I don’t understand what you’re saying, as Paul says, How am I going to say amen to you? You have no need to speak in Russian because you understand English. Now, if you didn’t understand English and you didn’t know how to speak a word of English, you would have to speak in Russian, because that’s your language, but I still wouldn’t know what you were saying. But if that was true, God would have Dimitri here, who would stand up and interpret what she said. And he says, If that man is not here to interpret what you’re saying, don’t say anything. Talk to God in your spirit, but don’t talk to the group, because we’re not going to know what you’re talking about. And Paul said, I’d rather speak five words in English than I would 1000s in a language that no one understands. And so the whole issue of this thing was for a sign. He told us that it’s a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers. And so when Paul went into this setting, he found these believers. He shared the gospel, and the sign from God was given. Yes, these people are believers. Now again, folks, this was a Gentile community. This was a sign the Gentiles have accepted the Lord. Was that a common knowledge? Not necessarily, not necessarily at all. Was it accepted among the HEBREWS? Not at all. Hated the thought of it. That’s why they crucified Him or killed him, ultimately.

Now let’s go on. Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months arguing persuasively about the Kingdom of God, but some of them became obstinate. They refused to believe and publicly maligned The Way. Now The Way was what they called the followers of Christ. When Jesus said, “I am The Way,” they named themselves the way. So Paul left them. He took his disciples with them and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Taranis. This went on for two years. So it was about two and a half years that he was there in Ephesus, so that all the HEBREWS and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the Word of God. God did extraordinarily miracles through Paul. Now again, why do you suppose God was doing miracles through Paul? So he could get on television? Why do you suppose he was doing them? What did a miracle do? It proved that this man was of God and therefore listened to what he’s saying. There’s only one reason for a miracle, and that was to verify the Word of God. Now I guess this is where they get the hankies, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured, and their evil spirits left them. Some HEBREWS who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus Christ over those who were demon possessed, they would say, in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches. I don’t know who he is, but Paul seems to. I command you to come out. Seven sons of skiva, a Hebrew chief priest were doing this. So this was a Hebrew chief priest, obviously an unbeliever. One day the evil spirit answered them. Here’s what he said, Jesus, I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you? Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them, jumped on this, this priest, and overpowered them all, and he gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. That ought to get your attention. Now, when this became known to the HEBREWS and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held high in honor. Now, many of those who believed now came and openly confess their evil deeds, a number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. Now, when they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to 50,000 drachmas. It’s about $10,000 in our money. And in this way, the word of God spread widely and grew in power.

Now, after all of this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaea. After I’ve been there, he said, I must visit Rome also. He sent two of his helpers, and he talks about Timothy and Erasmus to Macedonia while he stayed in the providence of Asia a little longer. Now, he didn’t get away quick enough, and it goes ahead to say about that time there arose a great disturbance about the way a silversmith made Demetrius. Now that’s not our Demetrius comes here who made silver shrines of Artemis brought in no little business for the craftsmen. He called them together, along with the workmen in related trades, and said, Men, you know, we receive a good income from this business. What an amazing how important income is. And you see and hear how this fellow, Paul, has convinced to lead astray large numbers of the people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia, he says that man made gods are no gods at all. And there’s a danger, not only that our trade will lose its good name. We have a good name selling these statues of Artemis, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited, God forbid, and the goddess herself. Now they goddess themselves. They believed in this goddess, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty. So they got this idol, this woman, idol, prayed she’s going to be robbed of her divine majesty, these little statues of her. And they come along and say, if we let this man continue, we’re gonna have to quit making our statues. We’ll lose our money. Now, when they heard this, they were furious, and they began shouting great Artemis of the Ephesians. Soon, the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gauss and Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia and rushed as one man into the theater. Now, folks, that is a amphitheater, and that part in Ephesus that seats over 24,000 people. Huge amphitheater. Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. Even some of the official, officials of the Providence, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into that theater. The assembly was in confusion. Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there. Isn’t that the way it is. What are you doing here? I don’t know, but I’m shouting the Judaeans pushed Alexander to the front, and some of the crowd shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make defense, defense before the people. But when they realized he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. The city clerk quieted the crowd and said, Men of Ephesus, doesn’t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven. Here’s this 30 foot statue that fell from heaven, didn’t break, did nothing. Therefore, since these facts, listen to this are undeniable. Can you believe that these facts are undeniable? Folks, that thing dropped right from the clouds. You ought to be quiet and not do anything rash. You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed the temples nor blasphemed or got us, if then Demetrius and his fellow craftsmans have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open, and there are pro councils smart man, and they can press charges if there’s anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of today’s events. In that case, we would not be able to account for the commotion, since there’s no reason for it. And after he had said this, he dismissed the assembly. Now folks, it was after that occurrence that Paul then went into back to Jerusalem, into his arrest.

Now we set the stage on all of this to see that, as Paul, therefore in Rome, writes back to the church of Ephesus, you can see why his warnings were there, can’t you? And so the one thing that Paul wants us to understand there’s among many, but the one thing that he wants you to understand is that we need to stand strong in the Lord. That is true today, in the midst of persecution, in the midst of anything that the schemes take place, we have to learn to stand strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. And therefore, as we talked about last week, there’s an armor that he said that we need to put on. Now here again, is the reason for the armor is because our enemy is not flesh and blood. It’s the devil’s schemes that speak to your flesh. Your flesh indwelling sin in our flesh is nothing but a receptor to the information coming in from Satan. Our Spirit is God living in you, putting information into our heads and God, or excuse me, Satan, through our flesh, is putting information into our head. So we got two things going into this head of ours. And there’s the conflict. The conflict is right here, folks, the conflict of everything is right here.

Bob Davis gave me an article about this famous psychiatrist that has finally come to the conclusion that everything’s in our thinking, and how that for people that have, you know, all of these things that we put on them, and these names we put on them, that therapy or talking to somebody is the most effective way to get through these problems, but that takes time, and it’s expensive, so what we’ve done is substitute pills, but in a final analysis, as he said, that the problem with man is in his thinking. And you say, my goodness, how unusual to come up with that. These guys would read the Bible. They could have saved themselves a lot of research, because it says, As a man thinks so is he so our battlefield, folks, is right up here, right up here. It’s right between the ears. That’s the Armageddon. Now, there’s an Armageddon over in Israel, but my Armageddon is right here, and so is yours. And so we’re standing up against the devil’s schemes. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but there are rulers and there are authorities and powers in this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evils in the heavenly realms. Now, folks, not a one of us know precisely what that is, do we? About the best that we can do with that is say there is demonic influence in this world and this world that Jesus came, He said, I’ve got a kingdom different than this kingdom. This is the kingdom of the world that is totally inputted by Satan and these and all of this right here, this kingdom that you and I live in, in the physical realm. This is who is the influence of it. My kingdom is totally different than this, and my kingdom is totally influenced by God. And you’ve got a choice as to whether to listen to Him or whether to listen to the kingdom that you live in, the world that you’re in, but not of, and you’ve got a choice which one you’re going to listen to, because the voices are coming from both ends.

Announcer 27:11
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