Radio Broadcast Tuesday 05/27/2025

Classic Christianity – 08-23-98 – Encouraged by Grace – Part 2 – 5-27-25

Jesus Gives Life to The Dead

~ “As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist.” Romans 4:17

God gives life to The Dead. But what does that mean? And if we don’t know we are dead, then death is whatever man says it is. And to some, all they are looking for is some wonderful type of life, in their dead spirit’s that they are walking around with. And religion teaches the same types of lies, of believing that you can have a wonderful spirit filled life, apart from the Holy Spirit living in you. Keep in mind, satan will give you riches in this world, if you worship him, but they are hollow and meaningless. People say, “but I’m not worshipping satan,” but of course they are. They are glued to their tell-a-vision screens, their Internet and social media platforms, looking for likes, their movies, their news broadcasts, their next election cycle candidates, and all of that is satan filled centers of worship. They love their late night hosts, and entertainers, and singers, and place them on their idol pedestals. Oh, they won’t say they are their idols, but you can tell it by what they talk about at the dinner tables, or on the news shows.

So what is LIFE given to The Dead by God? To answer that requires going back to the original two people God made in the flesh in the garden of Eden in Genesis and understanding of what happened then. When God made Adam and Eve, He placed His Spirit inside of them, they were made ALIVE by God. When they sinned, they died immediately and the Spirit of God left them separated from them. They didn’t die physically however until many years later. And they did not die to the things of the world in their own spirits either. But they no longer had the Spirit of God living inside them. And all of us are born dead in the image of Adam, dead spiritual to God, but not dead to the things of the world. None of us were born in the image of God. So we need to be born again of the Spirit of God, when the Spirit once again takes residence in our own physical temple of God. And when the Spirit of God takes up residence with your spirit, everything changes. He begins to renew your mind. And nothing remains the same. He corrects and disciplines those that are His, and that discipline of God never feels good at the time.

So how does that happen? How is one born again of the Spirit of God? By placing Faith in Jesus for having taken away all your sins on the cross, and when you place Faith in Him, for that, He sends His Spirit to live inside of you. You are made a new creature in Christ Jesus. You are no longer you without the Spirit of God, you are Now a New You, with the Spirit of God living in you for ever and ever.

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

…..

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
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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.”

~ “So he’s saying to us here, is there any encouragement from being freed from death to life? Does that mean anything to anybody, or is it just words? You see folks, many times we have words in our heads, but have we ever thought through these things? I think one of the reasons that there is an advantage to seeing a corpse, seeing a loved one dead is to see how dead dead is, because until we’ve seen death, we don’t know how dead dead is and Dead is dead. You can talk to that body. You could get up and tantalize that body, and it isn’t going to respond. It’s dead. And that physical death is a picture of spiritual death. We’re dead, spiritually dead, and in need of life. And what it’s saying is, Do you realize what you’ve been freed from, and the thing that killed you is the law, and we still hang on to that and say we’re still under that, when, if you are, you’re under the death penalty of that, they say, Well, no, I tell you what, Bob, I’ll tell you what, God, I’m going to keep what appears to be good and kind of alleviate this over here. In other words, I want to forget about death, but this, this thing over here that caused it, why I’m going to drag that over and I’m going to be led by that, because under here I can lean on my own understanding. And when I have God communicating to me direct. I can’t lean on my own understanding. I might try, but there’s always that little voice there that says, you’re really out to lunch trying to do this. Guys, we’ve been freed from death. Do we realize that? We have been freed from condemnation, from God? Wherefore, there is now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ, Jesus. And you say, Why? Because I’ve been so good. No, because the law of the Spirit of Life set you free from the law of sin and death. Now, what’s he saying here? If there’s any encouragement from being united with Christ, in other words, you’re now in relationship with the Living God. Is there any comfort from his love? Is there any comfort at all from knowing that God loves you perfectly? You see, I don’t have to sit and lean on my own understanding and try to mess around with the story of the Garden of Eden and try to rationalize all this stuff in order to know the love of God. God sent His Son to teach us the love of God. You. But you see, to the Jewish rabbi, he’s denied the source of love, and just says, I want to wallow in the result of it, but I don’t want to acknowledge the source. Isn’t that something?” ~ 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 0:30
So you see, what you have there is you have someone who is leaning on their own understanding and missing the whole point. The eating of the tree was that was the tree from the knowledge of good and evil. It was the tree that I’m going to eat of that says, God, I do not need you anymore to determine what is right and what is wrong. I’m going to lean on my own understanding. I am going to be God in regard to these things, and therefore, I really do not need you. See, I will determine right from wrong and good from evil. Only God can determine right from wrong and good from evil. But man says, No, you don’t understand, Lord. You just, you know you’re kind of old and old fashioned. You just, you just haven’t been enlightened yet into our generation. And so we lean on our own understanding determining right from wrong, good from evil, and that’s the whole essence. Now with that, sin entered into the world, and when sin entered into the world, man was left to his own it’s as God is saying, if you want to play this game of determining right from wrong, good from evil, I’ll let you do it and I’ll show you the results. You’ll produce your own results. I don’t need to produce them. You’ll produce your own. That’s like saying someone to us, I don’t need to mess your life up. You’ll do it yourself. Is that true or not, guys? I don’t need someone to mess my life up. I’m very capable of doing it myself, aren’t you? And so God says, I’ll let you do that. I’m going to show you the futility of that sin. Because you see to this gentleman, it’s that’s such a minor such a minor thing, a minor thing of a created being saying to his creator, you don’t know what you’re talking about. A minor thing of a created being saying to his creator who needs you. A minor thing for the created being to say to his creator, I’ll boss you around. I’ll tell you what to do and expect you to obey me. A minor. That’s not minor. It’s pretty major. And folks who’s at the very root of all sin, every sin you and I commit is a sin that the root attitude behind that is, I’ll do it my way, one of the most popular songs ever recorded, I’ll do it my way, Lean on our own understanding. Now it says instead acknowledging him and letting him direct our paths.

So he’s saying to us here, is there any encouragement from being freed from death to life? Does that mean anything to anybody, or is it just words? You see folks, many times we have words in our heads, but have we ever thought through these things? I think one of the reasons that there is an advantage to seeing a corpse, seeing a loved one dead is to see how dead dead is, because until we’ve seen death, we don’t know how dead dead is and Dead is dead. You can talk to that body. You could get up and tantalize that body, and it isn’t going to respond. It’s dead. And that physical death is a picture of spiritual death. We’re dead, spiritually dead, and in need of life. And what it’s saying is, Do you realize what you’ve been freed from, and the thing that killed you is the law, and we still hang on to that and say we’re still under that, when, if you are, you’re under the death penalty of that, they say, Well, no, I tell you what, Bob, I’ll tell you what, God, I’m going to keep what appears to be good and kind of alleviate this over here. In other words, I want to forget about death, but this, this thing over here that caused it, why I’m going to drag that over and I’m going to be led by that, because under here I can lean on my own understanding. And when I have God communicating to me direct. I can’t lean on my own understanding. I might try, but there’s always that little voice there that says, you’re really out to lunch trying to do this. Guys, we’ve been freed from death. Do we realize that? We have been freed from condemnation, from God? Wherefore, there is now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ, Jesus. And you say, Why? Because I’ve been so good. No, because the law of the Spirit of Life set you free from the law of sin and death. Now, what’s he saying here? If there’s any encouragement from being united with Christ, in other words, you’re now in relationship with the Living God. Is there any comfort from his love? Is there any comfort at all from knowing that God loves you perfectly? You see, I don’t have to sit and lean on my own understanding and try to mess around with the story of the Garden of Eden and try to rationalize all this stuff in order to know the love of God. God sent His Son to teach us the love of God. You. But you see, to the Jewish rabbi, he’s denied the source of love, and just says, I want to wallow in the result of it, but I don’t want to acknowledge the source. Isn’t that something?

Now so he says, Is there any comfort in his love? Is there any fellowship, if there’s any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and in purpose. So there’s two things there that he wants us to deal with. I want to build oneness in spirit and I want a oneness in spirit and loved it in purpose. What is the purpose? What did Jesus say? The purpose of the Holy Spirit coming to live in you and me would be? He said, first of all, when the Holy Spirit comes, He will what? Guide you into all truth. Are you indwelt with the Spirit? Then what should be our heart’s desire? Number one is to be guided into all truth, not leaning on my own understanding, but allowing God to guide me into truth, and then to guide others into truth, taking the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, making them known to me. What do I desire my life to have the Holy Spirit of God make known the things of Jesus. That should be our desire. Should be our attitude. So he’s saying to us to be like minded, having the same love and being one in spirit and in purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition. Well, what is selfish ambition? I’m going to do something in order to get something. Is that not selfish ambition? I’m going to do something and be nice to you, because I want you to do something for me. Do we see that in the world today? Well, of course you do, of course you do all the time. I’ll be nice to you, get what I want, then I’m dump you. Does that ever happen in human experience? Absolutely. So it’s called selfish ambition. It’s called I’ve got an ambition to make me better. He says, don’t do anything with that. Is that leaning on your own understanding? What’s what’s human understanding say? Man, if you don’t look after me, me ain’t gonna get looked after. Isn’t that the world’s philosophy, do unto others before they do unto you. The Golden Rule, He who has the gold rules, that’s the world’s mindset without question, competition. Ah, that’s good. Go get it before they do. Isn’t that the way the world runs? He’s saying, don’t do that with selfish ambition. So again, what should our work habit be? Work as unto the Lord, whether your boss is watching or whether he isn’t, work as unto the Lord. And Paul deals with that, doesn’t he? To work as unto the Lord? Means you work honestly. It will. You work diligently. You don’t just give what you must, but you go beyond the call of duty. It’s an attitude. It’s an attitude of servitude, and you don’t do that so that you’ll get you do that, because that’s what serving is all about. A Christian should be the best worker on the face of the earth. And unfortunately, many times, from what I’ve seen, I don’t mean the ministry, but I mean what I’ve seen in the marketplace is sometimes they’re the worst. And so there’s an attitude that if I’m going to be a Christian in the marketplace, I’m going to be the best worker there is, and I’m going to do my job diligently, and I’m going to fulfill my responsibilities diligently. Why? Well, that’s what the Lord says. I’m not doing that out of selfish ambition. I’m doing it in order to serve.

Now it says, don’t do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. So what does he call conceit? Thinking of yourself more highly than you ought, calls it vanity, doesn’t he? And that’s what it is. It’s vain conceit, and there’s nothing real to it. But he said, in humility, consider others better than yourself. Now this is the whole deal. Now, guys, how are you going to do that when your attitude is that all bosses are bad, all owners are rotten, and. So the attitude that you have going on in the world today that that they don’t deserve to have a thing. So let’s us get it. That’s a mindset, isn’t it? That’s a mindset that that we have. And what he’s saying here is that’s not a mindset of a child of God, the in humility, when you’re considering others better than yourself that didn’t have a poor self image, it’s to say to have an attitude of servitude. Well, you mentioned that today as an example in marriage, wives serve your husband. I tell all you get is, you know, look like you just ate a skunk. God forbid, I’d have to serve somebody in love. Why that’s that’s for the unenlightened. It’s leaning on your own understanding. Be like a man. You should support your wife. Let her go, make her own way. Those are not attitudes of servitude. They’re attitudes of vain conceit. That with me, if you think I’m going to serve him or her, why you just watch. I’m not a servant. I’m God. Just haven’t recognized it yet. Folks, these attitudes he’s talking about. He’s saying, Is there any comfort at all in being over here? You certainly didn’t get over here because he had that attitude. If Jesus would have had our attitude. We’d all be still lost. Can you imagine being God and seeing someone, some little pee ant down here spitting in your face? Would have been me. I’d have tramped on him, wouldn’t you? I’ve said many times, it’s a good thing I’m not God. There wouldn’t be anybody saved.

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Bob George 13:52
Isn’t that right? That’s where we are. Boy, I don’t deserve to be treated that way. Not old king here. That’s where we are in it. I don’t deserve that. I don’t deserve. Well, if you got what you deserve, you’d go to hell if you got what you deserve from God. So we have funny attitudes that have to be renewed, do they not? And that’s what he’s talking about here. Do nothing out of these vain, conceited humility consider others better than yourself. In other words, don’t think that it’s lowly to be serving someone in love. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same of that as Christ, Jesus, who being in the very nature God, he did not consider equality with God, something to be grasped and something to be held on to. He said he made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. You notice he refers to that as making himself nothing. Isn’t that strange how we think we’re something.

Now being found an appearance as a man. He humbled himself, and he became obedient to death, even death on the cross. And because of this, it says God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father, therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but how much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. What does that mean? It means in humility. When Paul used those identical words of fear and trembling, when he said, When I came to you, I did not come to you with brilliant words and lofty ideas, but I came to you with fear and trembling, in other words, with total humility, because I wanted your faith to stand not in some man’s brilliant ideas, but in the Lord Jesus Christ. So when it’s talking about, work out your salvation. What’s he talking about there? Work out what’s been worked in, and do that in humility, for it’s God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. So God is working in you, and when you’re serving one another, that’s God working in you. God served you serve one another, and that’s God working in you. That’s working out what has been worked into you. If we don’t have love for others. It’s because God has never been able to work in His love towards you. Why? You haven’t let him. If I’m still trying to earn God’s love, how in the world is he going to get his love into me? Because I can never earn it. And unless you’re totally deceived, how in the world could you ever think that you really have earned God’s acceptance? But folks, I want to tell you that’s what the self righteous world is. The self righteous world you talk about being deceived. Think about that for a moment. Think about it, just for a moment. Look up at the sky. Yesterday, I was looking up at the mass universe, the sky, the clouds, at the immensity of this. Your mind goes back to pictures taken back from space of this little ball dangling out in space. You think, at least, God have a string hanging out on or something to secure it. There isn’t anything to secure. It’s just dangling out here, isn’t it? And the God who made that, the God who made that think of the immensity of that God. And yet he’s a God that we say, well, he doesn’t know for sure what he’s doing. I know more than he does. We have to realize, folks, that God is at work in you and me to act according to His good pleasure. He has wisdom. He’s given us wisdom, and he gives it to us so that we can share it with others.

Now, well, here’s one that’s easy for us do everything without complaining and arguing. That shouldn’t be a problem, should it? How you doing with all this? I’m ready to say amen and go home personally. Now, how come we should do everything without complaining and arguing? So that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault, in what kind of a world? A crooked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars in the universe, as you hold out the word of life, in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run and labor for nothing. Well, what’s he saying to us? Complaining and arguing in the workplace, complaining and arguing at home, complaining and arguing all the time. What is that? Well, he says, You’re not going to be looked as without fault in this crooked and depraved generation which you and I live, if we’re acting just exactly like the depraved generation in which we live. So if there’s any group of people that should not be griping and complaining all the time, guess who it should be. Why? Yeah, you and me Christians. Boy, that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s a hard one, isn’t it? My husband doesn’t understand me. That’s slob. Well, there’s a lot of complaining going on marriage isn’t there? We just complain all the time. Think about that for a moment, that you got an idea that a man is going to be like a woman, or to think like one, or a woman’s going to think like a man. Now you want to talk about being deceived. You just try to bring those to together, impossible a woman, I tell Amy, sometimes it’s, are we looking at the same moon? I mean, it’s like one’s looking at it from the front and the other’s looking at it from the back, and you’re supposed to be looking the same moon, but you’re not looking the same moon. We see things totally different from each other. But you know, you know what time does? Sometimes you learn to kind of get a kick out of that and appreciate it, and learn to love it. That’s, that’s woman. I look at that and say, that’s, that’s way women think. Isn’t that cute?mAnd she says that’s the way men think. Isn’t that dumb? She had the audacity the other day to tell me she thought she was going to write a book entitled men say the dumbest thing. She’s going to use me as an example.

Well, he’s saying to us, quit complaining about those things. You’re not going to change it. Complaining doesn’t change anything. So quit complaining about it, and be a person who learns to accept things the way they are you can’t the things you can’t change, you accept the way they are and and learn to realize that God can teach you something in those circumstances, but we don’t want to learn. See, I want to lean on my own to understanding and say, Lord, I don’t want I don’t want to learn in there. I don’t want to work out my salvation here with fear and trembling and humility. I want to get my own way. You don’t understand how important it is for me to have my own way. And so we many times, we lose relationships, we lose security and jobs, we lose all kinds of things because of our own impatience that we’re not going to wait for God to do something. I’m going to lean on my own understanding and take things into my own hands and and then we end up blowing it don’t we?

Well, let’s turn back to Ephesians. Ephesians four, verse 17, I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. So he’s saying to us that there are many of us who have futile thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to the hardening of their hearts, having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge every kind of impurity, and with a continual lust for more. Have you noticed how your flesh is insatiable? Someone once said it’s like a goat. It will eat anything you give it. Your flesh is insatiable, guys, people will come in and say, Oh, well, a little marijuana isn’t going to hurt you. Well, if it was just a little marijuana, maybe it wouldn’t hurt you. The only problem is that a little marijuana wants more marijuana, and as you keep wanting more and more and more. After a while, the effects become cumulative. And after a while, in order to get the same kick, you got to use more. And after a while, marijuana, how much you use, it doesn’t matter. I got to go to another one. And before long, I’m into crack, and I’m into all kinds of drugs that destroy your mind and your life. And the subtlety of that is Satan said at the beginning, one little puff won’t hurt you. Maybe you can smoke it like the president and just not inhale.

Now, folks, we have to understand that that little thing, one isn’t going to hurt you, is where it all begins, isn’t it? One little drink isn’t going to hurt you. Tell that to an alcoholic. How did he start with one drink? You young people in here will be tempted all over the place in your life, just try one little thing. And folks, I want to tell you, you try it once, you you’re subject to trying it twice. If you can try it twice, you can try it three times and four times and five times, and pretty soon, that little thing has got you hooked, and you’re in the process of destroying your lifes. So don’t leave. Listen to it. See, that’s one of the beauties of being a Christian. I don’t have to fit into the crowd. It doesn’t make any difference what the crowd wants to do. I know I’m not going to lean on my own understanding. I got God’s wisdom available to me, and God’s wisdom says, why would you want to get your mind all messed up on that when you can have your mind renewed on me. They say that alcohol eats up brain cells. I have none to spare. I’m having enough trouble with the ones I got. Now, folks, I’m not saying this to get down. You know, don’t you drink. I’m not talking about that type of thing. I’m talking about how the subtlety is that it won’t hurt you. The answer that is that’s not necessarily true. It might. I don’t know what’s going to do. It might destroy my life. That’s why I’m not going to take the chance. And the greatest thing that you can deal with with your youth is don’t take the chance of something that can destroy your life. Why take the chance.

Now let’s go on. I insist on the Lord you must no longer lives the Gentiles we talked about that verse 20 you, however, did not know come to know Christ that way, surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is, where? In Christ, Jesus, you were taught in regard to your former way of life. Now, all of us had a former way of life, didn’t we? Could you as a Christian, have a former way of life as a Christian? Yeah, you could. Could you, in other words, could you be a child of God and yet live like you didn’t have a brain in your head? Can we, any of you ever done that? So there’s a former and what it’s saying is there’s a new life available to you. It’s not just new life in Christ, but as a child of God, there’s a new life available to you. In other words, you can be a child of God still leaning on your own understanding. Can you not?

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.