Radio Broadcast Wednesday 07/09/2025

Classic Christianity – Observations Book of Ecclesiastes – Part 3 – 7-09-25

More Observations Part 3

~ “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one abiding in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from Me you are able to do nothing.” John 15:5

Do we really believe Jesus, when He says, “Apart from Me you are able to do NOTHING?” Most don’t believe that, even in the so-called Christian world. Most actually think they can do something for God. And therein lies the problem. Believing in self. Believing that we can do something for God ourselves, apart from Him. People believe satan’s lies of “working for God,” or “soul winning for God,” or giving of tithes to a church (regardless of what a false church teaches) for more blessings from God. How much sense does any of that make? Think about it folks, God, the creator of Everything seen and unseen, and people believe they are going to do something for God. Yet that is where people camp today, thinking they are doing good works in the energy of the flesh. All our self efforts are as filthy rags to God. They aren’t worth a cent. And apart from abiding in Him, and allowing Him to direct ALL your paths, Life is meaningless. Truly Meaningless.

When King Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastics, all he could do is write things as he saw them in the world as a natural man. For even King Solomon, as wise as he was, did not have the Spirit of God living in him.

Ecclesiastes Chapter 2

1 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy what is good!”

But it proved to be futile.

2 I said of laughter, “It is folly,” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?”

3 I sought to cheer my body with wine and to embrace folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—until I could see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.

4 I expanded my pursuits. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made gardens and parks for myself, where I planted all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I built reservoirs to water my groves of flourishing trees.

7 I acquired menservants and maidservants, and servants were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me, 8 and I accumulated for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I gathered to myself male and female singers, and the delights of the sons of men—many concubines.

9 So I became great and surpassed all in Jerusalem who had preceded me; and my wisdom remained with me. 10 Anything my eyes desired, I did not deny myself. I refused my heart no pleasure. For my heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.

11 Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

The Wise and the Foolish

12 Then I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what more can the king’s successor do than what has already been accomplished? 13 And I saw that wisdom exceeds folly, just as light exceeds darkness:

14 The wise man has eyes in his head,

but the fool walks in darkness.

Yet I also came to realize that one fate overcomes them both. 15 So I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will also befall me. What then have I gained by being wise?”

And I said to myself that this too is futile.

16 For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool, seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come. Alas, the wise man will die just like the fool! 17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

18 I hated all for which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether that man will be wise or foolish? Yet he will take over all the labor at which I have worked skillfully under the sun. This too is futile.

20 So my heart began to despair over all the labor that I had done under the sun. 21 When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must give his portion to a man who has not worked for it, this too is futile and a great evil. 22 For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun? 23 Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.

24 Nothing is better for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy his work. I have also seen that this is from the hand of God. 25 For apart from Him,a who can eat and who can find enjoyment? 26 To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

…..

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.”

~ “He said, I am the vine. You are a branch. Now, what can a branch do apart from the vine? I mean, don’t don’t need any rocket scientists. Don’t even need to go to school to figure that out. Can you what can a branch do apart from the vine? Nothing. What did Jesus say we could do apart from him? Nothing. You believe that? Well, then why are we out trying to grunt and groan our own righteousness? He said, You’re a branch. I’m the vine. Now, If you abide in Me, the vine, as I the vine, will abide in you. You will bear the fruit of the vine, but you cannot produce the fruit of the vine. That means, apart from Jesus, I can do nothing, but with Jesus, I can experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, long, suffering. Against these things, there is no law. Why? Why can I experience those? Because I’m inviting in the one who produces them. Now, when I’m out trying to grunt and groan those characteristics in the energy of my flesh, all I’m doing is making a monkey of myself. Come on out joy. Come on out fruit. You can’t produce it. You can’t grunt and groan it. You may as well forget it. Try and oh, well, I’m trying. That’s your problem. A branch doesn’t try to produce fruit. A branch understands I can’t produce fruit, but I can bear the fruit of the vine. So get out of the way and let God get an action. If you are indwelt by the Spirit of God, you have everything that you need for life and godliness. Now you have the ability to participate in the divine nature that lives in you, and when you are participating in the divine nature that’s abiding in the vine he will produce in you, and you will bear the fruit of God. Apart from that, life is meaningless, meaningless.” ~ Bob George

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Bob George 0:30

So what are you empty of? Why is it you feel empty? Why do people come and say, I just feel empty? Well, you know, why? No, because you’re empty. What are you empty of? God. You’re you’ve been grunting and groaning out on your own efforts, you’ve been practicing religion instead of a relationship. God didn’t come to give us a religion. God didn’t come to make Protestants out of us and Catholics out of us and Buddhists and Muslims. He came to make you born again. He didn’t come to this earth for us to walk around all puffed up on the fact that I’m a HEBREW or I’m a Gentile. He said, I came to make you something better than either one of those two. It’s called a child of the living God. So why are you all hung up on your natural birth? It’s meaningless and it’s temporary. It ain’t going to be here long. One of these days, this thing you’re so hung up on is going to be in a grave, going to be worm food. You came to the dust, you’re going to return to the dust. But the real you, that’s the one you can’t see, but you can experience. The real you, the you under the skin. That’s what’s going to live forever. And it’s either going to live in presence of God or the presence of Satan, one of the two. You’ve got a choice. Folks, this is one of the things that people who deal in. Sovereignty of God. This is some of the things that Solomon is dealing here with. Is the wonder of the sovereignty of God. Why is it God? It doesn’t seem right that it should rain on the righteous and the unrighteous at the same time and and that the unrighteous should prosper when the righteous don’t. It seems to me that we ought to be the ones that prosper. Well, you see, if you really believe that there wouldn’t be any rich, lost people.

And I want to tell you the Donald Trumps of this world, I do not believe are born again believers, the wealthy, the real wealthy. Well, why God? Why are they so blessed with all because they’re not blessed. They just think they’re blessed. You’re the one who’s blessed. You can’t afford all the junk that they can. You might just leave your body the way God gave it to you instead of marking it up and piercing it, making yourself look like an idiot. If you didn’t have money, couldn’t do that, so you’re the Blessed One. Now I know that insulted some of you, but that’s all right. The issue is this, and when you’re talking about all of these things that we think again are so important in life, don’t have any meaning to it. And we, I believe, have to come to that understanding before we will ever come to appreciate what you do have, and that’s God and His grace. You see, you’re not and I am not sitting here today as people who have deserved what we get. You know, we say, Well, why do you bless them? They don’t deserve it. Neither do you, neither do I. If I got what I deserved from God, I’d go to hell if I got what I deserved. So aren’t you glad God doesn’t give you what you deserve? And you know, some people say, not me. No, I don’t deserve going to hell. I’m I’m wonderful. You know, God loves me. No wonder I love me too. I’m so good. He said, No, you’re not, no, you’re not, none. There’s none righteous do not want I like one of the things that Solomon says in the Bible. He said, I searched the world, and out of 1000 men, I found one righteous. I didn’t find one woman righteous. You’re not laughing. He found one man out of 1000 that’s pretty good. Woman didn’t find any. Now, I think he might have been a little bit prejudiced there, but I don’t know why I threw that in. I guess it was just a mean spirit, at any rate.

So what does he say in verse 24 a man could do nothing better than to eat and drink. Now does that mean to go out and get drunk? No, it means you got to have liquid to live, just like you have to have food and find satisfaction in his work. You know, from Solomon, you know, in the New Testament says the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Solomon said that the only thing that counts is eat and drink and find some solace in your work. This, too, I see from the hand of God, for without him who can eat or find enjoyment, to the man who pleases Him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness. To the sinner. He gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This, too is meaningless, chasing after the wind. He said folks, in the sovereignty of God. And I was talking about that in the sovereignty of God, people will look and say, Well, God controls everything. God controls everything. God is sovereign. God controls everything. And so he also controls who’s going to be saved and who isn’t going to be saved. And so if James, you’re saved, because God chose you to be saved. And I’m not so sure about your wife. He may not have chosen her, because he controls everything. See. And you say, Well, hold on a minute. Did I have a choice in this? No no, no, just, I just chose. But you see, folks, what you’re doing is taking away the sovereignty of God with that theology. Because the sovereignty of God gave man a will, and he gave you a will to use it. It’d be like a father coming up and saying, I’m going to give you a new bike, and you say, why? Thank you, dad. Good, let me get on it. No, no, you can’t get on it. Well, can I ride it? Hmm, no, no, I’m giving it to you, but you can’t use it. You say, Well, why did you give it to me? To look at and enjoy. Dad, if I can’t use this bike that you’re giving me, why did you give it to me? Because I really don’t want it to sit and look at it. I want it to use. And it’s the same thing. I’m going to give you salvation, I’m going to give you salvation, I’m going to give you a will. But you can’t use it. Can’t use it. Well, then why did you give it to me? Well, to keep me from being a robot. Well, good, then let me use it. No, you can’t use it. Now, does that make sense guys? I mean, do you have to be totally devoid of logic to figure that something like that makes sense? That doesn’t make an ounce of sense. God doesn’t give you something and tell you you can’t use it. So you have to say God didn’t give you a will. Really? So when you ask the question, Why was there the Holocaust? Because God gave a man named Hitler a will, and he chose to go the opposite way from God’s way. Why have you and I done some of the things we’ve done in our lives? Because we have a will.

Do you think that God chose some of the things that you’ve done and I’ve done in my life? If so, we got a pretty sick God. He gave man a choice. There is none of this garbage that’s out there and this theology that God chooses who he’s going to save and who he isn’t. What kind of a god is that? And if that’s the case, then he is the one who told Hitler to kill the Jews and Stalin to kill the Ukrainians, and us to bomb the Japanese and the Germans, and for you and me to go get drunk and to go chase women and to go take drugs. He just said, That’s my will for you. You don’t have a will, but that’s what I want you to do. What kind of a God do we have with that kind of a theology? My friends in the sovereignty of God, the sovereignty of God, said, I do not want to make robots out of my creation, and so I’m going to give them a choice. I’m going to give them a will. There’s a gamble with that. When you give man a will that he will not choose to go your way, but you’re going to have a choice between good and evil, light and darkness, righteousness and unrighteousness. That’s a choice, and that’s the sovereignty of God he gave you. That’s his sovereignty. He gave you that ability.

Man, in our lost condition, we have the total propensity to go chase after the wind, chase after things that are of no importance at all. Till the best we can say in our obituary is they were a good golfer. They attended the Kiwanis Club. They went to the First Baptist Church, or People to People, and that’s just about as good as it going to get. Have you ever noticed obituaries? You ever see anybody this person knew the Lord Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior? He reached out to people every time he could. I know some people that’s going to be in their obituary, I hope instead of they were a deacon here and on the board here and belonged to this club, did this and did this. I would hope that there will be sense enough with some people that I know that in their obituary, they’ll be talking about how many people they used to share Christ with. Taught the Bible study to people, and that’s one of the things the scripture says to us in the Book of Hebrews, he says, By now, you people need to be teaching. You need to be growing up. He said, You’re still babes on milk, instead of learning so that you can pass on because, again, we’re not the Dead Sea. We’re not to just learn to learn to learn so that I can sit there impressing myself with how knowledgeable I am. Well, why does God give you the ability to understand the meaning of the word of God? So that you’ll pass it on to others. Because people are if you don’t think people are hungry for truth, listen to our broadcast every day. Why do people why have people been calling in every day for over 25 years, every single day lines filled with questions from people if they weren’t hungry to know the answers? And how many would need to be doing that if we were out teaching people what we have already learned, not just us, but the whole Christian world? Aays we need to grow up. Need to reach out to people with love.

Now, he says, There’s a time for everything, and there’s a season for every activity under heaven. There’s a time to be born, there’s a time to die, there’s a time to plant, a time to uproot, time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build. There’s a time to weep and there’s a time to laugh. There’s a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them. There’s a time to embrace and a time to refrain. There’s a time to search and a time to give up. There’s a time to throw away and there’s a time to keep. Many of us have our closets full of what we have kept, and it’s time to throw them away, a time to tear down and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak. There’s a time to love, a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

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Bob George 14:47
What does a worker gain from his toil? I’ve seen the burden God has laid on men. He’s made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men. In and yet they can’t fathom what God has done from beginning to end, my friends, when it says that he has set eternity in the hearts of man, I believe that with all my heart, there is a sense in which inside, have you ever noticed this? You don’t get any older inside, it’s only when I have trouble getting up in the morning and my body doesn’t move that I realize that I may be a little older than what I’m told. But you know, inside, it’s kind of eternal life. We just kind of have eternal life. We just don’t age inside, do we just outside? And that’s what gets frustrating, is I got the same eyeballs, same nose, same mouth, same ears, same body that I had when I was 20. The difference is it won’t do what it used to do at 20, your head tells you it will, but the body says won’t do it. Same body haven’t gained haven’t grown anything new, haven’t lost anything, but it just plain will not do what it used to be able to do. Now, some people’s bodies are different than that. Some people they get older, and they’re just as active as they were when they were young. I’m looking at one of them, but that ain’t mine. It probably should be, but it isn’t me. That thing doesn’t do what I want it to do. I want it to jump over a curb. It doesn’t want to jump over a curb. It doesn’t do what it used to do, but it’s still my body. But there’s one thing I know about this body of mine. I mean, I know that inside, there’s something in there where I’m just the same age I’ve always been just eternal. I know there’s something inside of me that tells me that I have eternal life. Do you experience the same thing? There’s something there and said, I know I got it. There’s something that God gives you, he tells you, He gives you eternal life. He sent eternity in the hearts of men. There’s something we know about it, and yet we refuse it. But again, I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy, to do good while they live, that everyone may eat and drink and find satisfaction in his toil. This, he says, is a gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever, and nothing could be added to it, and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him. Whatever he already whatever he has already been, and what will be has been before. In other words, you said you’re nothing new under the sun, and God will call the past into account. And I saw something else under the sun. You see, it’s all this observation in the place of judgment, wickedness was there. In the place of judgment, justice, wickedness was there. I thought in my heart, God will bring judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed.

My friends in closing, what God wants us to do is to step back and observe and call a spade a spade. Call things as they are, not like what you would like them to be, but to look at life realistically. There are people that never see things realistically. They don’t want to see things realistically. We live in a dream world where everything’s I don’t want to hear bad news. Well, I’m sorry if you don’t hear bad news, you better get out of the world, because the world is full of bad news. I don’t want to think about death, well, then you better die if you don’t want to think about death, because that’s the only time you’re going to not be able to think about it or see the reality of it. But there is people that will not look at things realistically, not look at things realistically.

We’ve seen that in in judgments. We’ve seen that in trials, where a man is as guilty as sin, has his blood all over the person that was killed, and people say, not guilty. We have a guy that was sentenced to a year for molesting an eight year old kid a year somebody isn’t looking at life very realistically. You see, folks, if you look at life is that all of us are basically good people. How many of you ever heard that we’re basically good people? Isn’t that strange? God says here, it ain’t by good except God. So he said, if you would, Jesus said, If you want to call me good, then call me God, because only God’s good, with meaning we’re not, as a matter of fact, doesn’t the scripture say that there is none righteous, no, not one, none. Why do we walk around thinking everyone is good? You’d like to certainly have a more positive outlook on life. But I don’t think God called us to be positive. I think he called us to be realistic or negative, but realistic. Look at life exactly as it is. We all have the capability of doing evil, do we not? But we also have the capability of doing good. But there’s only one way that that latter is going to occur.

He said, I am the vine. You are a branch. Now, what can a branch do apart from the vine? I mean, don’t don’t need any rocket scientists. Don’t even need to go to school to figure that out. Can you what can a branch do apart from the vine? Nothing. What did Jesus say we could do apart from him? Nothing. You believe that? Well, then why are we out trying to grunt and groan our own righteousness? He said, You’re a branch. I’m the vine. Now, If you abide in Me, the vine, as I the vine, will abide in you. You will bear the fruit of the vine, but you cannot produce the fruit of the vine. That means, apart from Jesus, I can do nothing, but with Jesus, I can experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, long, suffering. Against these things, there is no law. Why? Why can I experience those? Because I’m inviting in the one who produces them. Now, when I’m out trying to grunt and groan those characteristics in the energy of my flesh, all I’m doing is making a monkey of myself. Come on out joy. Come on out fruit. You can’t produce it. You can’t grunt and groan it. You may as well forget it. Try and oh, well, I’m trying. That’s your problem. A branch doesn’t try to produce fruit. A branch understands I can’t produce fruit, but I can bear the fruit of the vine. So get out of the way and let God get an action. If you are indwelt by the Spirit of God, you have everything that you need for life and godliness. Now you have the ability to participate in the divine nature that lives in you, and when you are participating in the divine nature that’s abiding in the vine he will produce in you, and you will bear the fruit of God. Apart from that, life is meaningless, meaningless.

Well, let’s pray together. God, Father. We want to face life realistically. We cannot sit around looking at people with an attitude, well, they ought to be doing this, and we ought to be doing this, and we ought to be doing this. What we ought to be doing is abiding in the vine of Christ, Jesus, because, apart from that, we can do nothing that you’re interested in. Now, we can make money apart from Jesus, and drive cars, swim in our swimming pools, but to bear the fruit of love toward others and have joy in your heart, to experience the peace of God that passes all understanding that comes from you alone. We cannot buy that. We cannot work for it. We cannot inherit it. It’s a moment by moment, experience with the living Christ. I cannot be joyful yesterday, it’s gone. Cannot be joyful tomorrow, it’s not here. I can only experience. Joy right now, and the only way that that can occur is when I’m abiding in the God of joy and allowing him to produce in me what I cannot produce in my own humanity. Everything we do down here on this earth is temporary. Everything we accumulate, we’re going to leave. All of the intellect that we have accumulated into our mind is going to go with us into the grave to see it no more. Everything here is temporary. Precisely why he said, Don’t be in love with this world. It’s temporary. Be in love with what is eternal. And that’s God, get your priorities straight.

If there are those here in this room or within the sound of my voice today that has never taken that step of realizing that this is all temporary, and would like to accept Jesus Christ into their hearts as their Lord and Savior. Will you just bow your hearts with me today? You’re not saved by a prayer, you’re saved by faith in what you’ve heard, and just thank God for His forgiveness for you, thank him that he took away every sin that you ever have committed or ever will commit from the eyes of God, never to see them again. It’s finished. It’s paid in full, and to thank him that you have the privilege of spending the rest of your life thanking him for that forgiveness. And then to realize that there’s a consequence to sin called death, and the only solution to death is life, and the only life available to us is the resurrected life of Jesus. And so I want you to come and to give me your life, to come into my heart and to give me a new one. Thank you, Father for your faithfulness to us in the midst of our unfaithfulness to you, in Jesus. Holy name, we pray amen you. Amen. Amen.

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.