In this enlightening episode, we uncover the true meaning of worship and the role of the church as an organism, not just an organization. Bob challenges conventional perspectives, urging believers to see worship as a continuous, daily act of offering themselves to God rather than a mere weekly ritual. Through personal revelations, listeners are encouraged to deepen their understanding of God’s Word beyond human teachings. This episode is an invitation to experience the fullness of the mystery revealed through the Gospel and the incredible privilege of being part of God’s household.
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.
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What did Jesus say that he came to do here, guys? He said, I came to do away with that. I came to destroy that, and I came to do away with it, and I came to void it out. So that there is no separation. That the Jew and the Gentile alike are one new person. A child of the living God. You say, well, why don’t people go along with that? Well, I don’t know why, but we still like to be Messianic Jews. And I say to that, big deal, I’m a Messianic Gentile. Why do you want to identify yourself down here? Why don’t you just call yourself a child of the living God? What does it matter whether you’re Messianic or not? Messianic believes you believe in the Messiah. We wouldn’t even be talking here if we all didn’t believe in the Messiah. So why are we making these delineations? Why do we say, well, now all of us Jews are going to worship over here and we Gentiles are going to worship over here. Is that what God came to do? Is that what making people one is? Guys, is it or isn’t it? No, it isn’t. He said, I want you to be together. I want you to see yourselves as one new creation, a born again believer. Not a Jew or a Gentile, but a child of God. You see how easy it is, guys, for us to get off. It’s just like this building of the house of God. That’s off. You’re off. And you’re off whenever you put your delineation that, yeah, I’m a born again Christian, but I’m still a Jew, a born again Christian, but I’m still a Gentile. And I don’t like those Jews and those Jews don’t like the Gentiles. It’s ridiculous. He said, I called the two of you to become one. One new man out of the two. And by making peace and in this one body. Now, this is not the natural body. This is the spiritual body. In this one spiritual body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross. Through the cross. That what is going to bring the two of you together is the cross. I will be your peace. That’s when you’re going to have peace, when both of you are worshiping the same Jesus. In the same way. Not separating yourself. Oneness. Oneness. Guys, do you see the importance of oneness? Do you see the dynamic of sitting in a room like this? with people of all colors and creeds and backgrounds, and yet seeing each other as one? Is that a neat deal or is it? It is to me. I just marvel. I just think it’s phenomenal. People of all different denominations, people of all different backgrounds, people of all different color and creed, and yet in Christ we’re one. What brought us together? Christ. Christ. Christ. Not church. Not a building. We’re all here together because we like the building. No, we’re all here together because we’re all part of one body. Christ is a head and we’re the body. We’re the church. People. We should get that in our heads. I wish our pastors would cut this stuff out. And I hear it on radio. Just cut out this welcome to the house of God. Welcome to Grandma’s house. Hope you have a good time for an hour so you can leave. Pardon me for getting so upset. It says he’s going to reconcile both of them to the cross by which he put to death their hostility. Now, how did he put to death their hostility? By destroying and abolishing in his place the law with his commandments and regulations. The Gentiles had no law and rules and regulations. So the law separated them. God said, it’s over. We’re all now going to be saved in the same way. And it’s not going to be by the orthodoxy that you’ve been seeing in the Jewish world or the non-orthodoxy or the non-religion in the Gentile world. We’ve got something brand new coming. And so he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who are far away. Who was that? The Gentiles. And peace to those of you who are near. Who was that? Now, how do we know that? Because the gospel went first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. It was approximately 18 years before Cornelius, as far as I can figure, was saved. The first Gentile that we know about in the Bible that was saved. So it was first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. Through him, now we both, Jew and Gentile alike, have access to the Father by one spirit. Not by your ancestry, but by one spirit. Consequently, now he’s talking to the Gentile world, to you and me, basically, in his room. You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household. built on a foundation of the apostles and the prophets, which Christ himself as the chief cornerstone. So who is the center of all this? God, Christ Jesus. And who are we? Well, it says that we’re members of the household. We’re members of the body of Christ. Now it goes ahead to say in verse 21, in him, in Christ Jesus, The whole building is joined together. So who is the building? Is it this walls here or you and me? Who is it, guys? You and me. So we’re the building. This whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. So where is the temple? Where is the temple? Is it this place, the building, or is it you and me? You see, if it’s the building, then I’m going to start ultimately worshiping the building. Guys, I am not anti-church. We are a church. This is the church. You are the church. But what we have done in Christianity is organize God right out of the church, right out of the body of Christ. And very subtly, Satan… has deceived us by getting our emphasis off of us being the body and putting it on leadership. Just like we do in government. You’re not important. We are. Is that true? Are we unimportant? Or is it just the congressmen and the senators and the presidents that are important? Who are they up there for? For you and me. So let’s not discount or allow someone to con us into thinking that we are not the important ones. And they are. It’s the very opposite. And that’s God’s way of doing things in the body of Christ. He said that you’re the body. This whole building has now become a holy temple. And in him, you two are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. Where does God live, guys? In this building or in you in this building? Which is it? How many of you heard, oh, I walked into that building and the spirit was thick. You could have cut it with a knife. Have you heard that? How many of you heard that kind of stuff? Yeah. Guys, if the spirit was thick, it was because you were controlled and filled with it. It wasn’t because of anything in this building. Quite frankly, I’ve never had to cut through anything in this building, so there may be something wrong with us, but I don’t think that the spirit is so thick you got to cut it with a knife. That’s the kind of talk that we get used to, though, guys. You see how easy it is? It sounds good. And it sounds holy and it sounds really spiritual. And so we use it. It doesn’t have any meaning to it. In fact, it’s nonsense. And as a matter of fact, it is false teaching. And yet we say, praise Jesus. No, my friends, you and I are the spirit of God, are indwelt by the spirit of God. And where two or more are together, there I am in the midst of you. Now, can you imagine church without Jesus? So if two of you are gathered, where’s the church? If you’re the church, where’s the church? It isn’t here on Sunday. It’s everywhere. Wouldn’t you hate to think, guys, that’s where I’m going to go worship. That’s really sad to think that the only time you worship is an hour on Sunday or Saturday or whatever day you want to glory in. If you’re in Christ Jesus, the Bible then explains that having Jesus living in you is your act of worship. What is worship in the New Testament? Making your body available to the living Christ to live his life in and through you. That’s your reasonable act of what? Worship. What have we reduced that to? Come here on Sunday and worship. You only worship an hour, half hour a week. No, no, no. If you look at worship as God looks at worship, and if worship is making your body available to the living Christ to live his life in and through you, how many hours a day are you supposed to be doing that? Every hour, every moment of the day is supposed to be available. God, here’s my body. I’m available to you to do in and through me what you want to do. You want eyes to see through? Here they are. You want a mouth to speak through? Here it is. You want ears to listen? Here it is. I’m available to you. That’s worship. Wouldn’t you hate to think the only time you did that was an hour on Sunday? But that’s what happens when you put your emphasis on a building and an organization instead of you being the organization or the organism. which is better than an organization. Now, for this reason, now in chapter 3, for this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for the sake of you Gentiles, surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you. Paul is saying that he was called by God to be the administrator of of the grace of God. This mystery, we’re told later, was revealed to the apostle Paul and to the other apostles and prophets. But he said, Paul is to be the administrator of it. What’s that mean? He’s going to tell you how to put this thing into action. That’s how you organize it. The administrator, they’re the decision maker. And so Paul is in that situation that if you’ve got a question in regard to this grace of God and in regard to this body of Christ, this is who you go to. He is my called administrator. And so he says, for this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ, for the sake of you Gentiles, have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you. By this, he’s going to explain it now, this mystery made known to me by revelation.
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SPEAKER 02 :
Now again, remember what it’s told in the Scripture that no eye has seen. nor ear has heard, nor mind has conceived of those things that God has prepared for those who love him, but it must be what? Revealed by the Spirit. Now that means that if you have been taught by God, and God has revealed to you the truth of the word of God, that that information has been made known to you by revelation from God. You see, guys, when we settle again for this group mentality, that I’m going to go and learn what the Bible says from Bob. And whatever Bob says, then that’s what I’ll believe. Or whatever Dr. Jeffers says or Dr. Criswell says or this or that or this man says, that’s what I’ll believe. And so you go to a charismatic church, and what do you come out? Believe in what the charismatics believe. You go to a Methodist church, what do you do? You come out believing nothing. Excuse me, what the Methodists believe. You go to a Presbyterian church, what do you do? You come out believing what the Presbyterians have been taught. Go to the Baptist church, come here, go out and believe what I say. I’d say the difference here is I tell you don’t believe me. And I’ve been telling you that for 20 years or 30. I do not believe what I say to you because I could be lying to you. And the way you’re going to know whether I’m teaching you truth or not is if you go into the Bible and by revelation from God, let God teach you the word of God. Now, if I’ve been depending on God to teach me the meaning of the word of God and so have you, we’re going to be in harmony with each other and just love the daylights out of each other and to think both of us are brilliant. but we must be taught by god if you’re going to know what god means then you’re going to be taught by god and that means that god can use teachers which he does and pastor teachers talks about that he gave them as gifts to the body of christ evangelist as a gift it’s not a gift of evangelism the evangelist is the gift to the body of christ that he’ll use those people to communicate and to open up the word of God to people and to reveal to them, hopefully, what the Spirit has revealed to them. The problem is that most of the time, the Spirit of God hadn’t revealed anything. They’re teaching what they learn in seminary. And so don’t confuse me with facts when mine’s made up. But I want to ask you the question, how could the Baptists be right and the Methodists be right and the Presbyterians right and the Catholics right and the Lutherans right? How could all of those be right when they’re all in contradiction to one another? How can they all be right? Have you ever thought about that? How are they going to be right? And how are you going to know which one is right? Or how are you going to know if any of them are right? Because all might be wrong. And that my friends is why. And you and I have the unbelievable privilege of God. Not only of walking boldly into the throne of grace. Calling him daddy father. But being taught by daddy father. It’s a promise. That if you’ll open up this book. I’ll teach you what this book means. You say, who, who? God. How’s he going to do that? Through revelation. Through revelation. Now, who would you rather be taught by? God or me? I hope God. And folks, I just cannot encourage you enough. To number one, to take advantage of this unbelievable privilege that God has given us. This is a love letter. This information is a love letter from God trying to assure you, doing everything in his power to assure you that, Richard, I love you with all my heart and soul. To convince you of that. Convince you of that. I love you. I died for you. I demonstrated my love for you that while you were yet a sinner, I came to die for you. Nothing can separate you from my love. Nothing. No person can. No trial, no tribulation. In all these things, you’re more than conquerors. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. That’s a love letter from God. I can tell you that. But folks, you’re not taught that until God tells you that. And so we have to realize that this mystery has been made known by revelation as I’ve already written briefly. And in reading this, then you’ll be able to understand what Paul says, his insight into the mystery of Christ. I want you to understand my insight and then let God reveal it to you. which was not made known to men in other generations. This was not something that is revealed in the Old Testament or in the Old Covenant. Not revealed. You’re not going to find it there. And people try to commingle. I’m sorry, there’s no commingling to be done. This is a new deal. This is a new covenant. This is new information. This is information that can be understood because I’ll explain it to you. It says, as it has now already been revealed, the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. So that eliminates the fact that this revelation was only to the apostle Paul, because Paul says, no, it was revealed to the apostles and the prophets as well, but on the administrator. This mystery is that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body. So no, it’s no longer just Israel, but it’s a Jew and a Gentile alike. members together now of one new body, sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus. And I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. Paul says, although I am less than the least of all God’s people. It’s a real cocky attitude, isn’t it? Humility. Here’s the apostle Paul, one of the Most unbelievable men probably that the world has ever known. He said, I’m the least of them. I came and I was given the grace to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And to make plain to everyone the administration, how this thing works, of the mystery. Now again, who’s the church? Is it an organization or an organism? Is it a building or is it people? The church, people, you. You. Through you, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realms. Is that good news, guys? Are you excited about this good news? You know, I went to the doctor last week, and they did an EKG, and my heart was stabilized, and man… I thought my doctor was going to shout and do a dance. He was so excited. He’s just a wonderful guy. Excited for me. He was more excited for me than me was for me. And I thought to myself, it’s kind of like this. A lot of times we ought to get excited about these things. This is good news. This is wonderful news to know. When you look at the world around us today, and especially right now, is there anything you can think of in the world that you can put your confidence in right now? Can you put it in the government? Can you put it in a banking system? How about the stock market? Now, guys, these were three things that a year or so ago you had really confidence in, didn’t you? Do you have it today? then what can you have confidence in? Do you understand that all these things are being ripped away? All of these false confidences are being ripped away? And I say, praise God for it. Why? Because it’s going to leave us with only one option. And that’s where you can put your confidence and never, ever be disappointed. And that’s in Christ Jesus. So guys, as we study together, I appreciate the fact that you come to listen. And that’s important. The Bible tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. The Bible tells us that we need this kind of fellowship. The Bible gives us teachers. But in the final analysis… What God wants you to do is to get into this word on your own and ask the Spirit of God to reveal to you the meaning of it and let God be your revealer. Can you do that? Let’s pray together. In him we’re told and through faith in him. that we have the ability to approach God with freedom and with confidence. And God encourages us not to be discouraged because of the sufferings around us, but to pray and to thank God for the fact that he lives in us and that by faith that we could be controlled by the love of God that has been shed abroad in our hearts. So I thank you, Father, for the truth of this word. I pray that next week that we will have a wonderful time of celebration over what you accomplished. This is not a time to bring glory to us. We haven’t done anything to bring glory to. But this is a time to bring glory to you who worked in the hearts of people that in the midst of financial trials and tribulation, generously opened up their hearts and their income to do quite frankly a miraculous thing in this financial time in our history pay off this building so we’re going to come and celebrate that truth not just the payoff of the building but to celebrate the god that enabled that to happen And to celebrate it together with our loved ones, our friends from here and far away. Celebrate it with Dave in June. Celebrate it with the people that will come to share their lives with us. And so, Father, we want to thank you for today. And we pray that you’ll take these things and embed them into our hearts. For we pray it in Christ’s name and for his sake.
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Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
