In this episode of Classic Christianity Radio, Bob George navigates through thought-provoking discussions with callers eager to understand the intricacies of faith. The episode kicks off with Bob addressing the significance of the New Covenant and its application to both Gentiles and Jews, expanding on the profound changes it brought compared to the old covenant. Through dialogue with callers, Bob elaborates on how this new spiritual agreement transcends legalistic approaches, guiding believers away from the burdens of the Old Testament laws and towards a life driven by grace and faith.
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George. Today we are pleased to present a special radio show featuring call-in listeners from Bob’s original people-to-people daily radio program that was on the air for over 30 years, offering real answers for real-life problems as he addresses common questions as well as the tough issues of today, directing callers to the centrality of Christ in you, your only hope of glory. We want to remind our listeners that Bob George Ministries needs your financial support to continue to have Classic Christianity Radio on the air. Please visit BobGeorge.net to find out how you can help support us financially. Let’s now join Bob as he presents practical biblical insights as he helps people experience a life of faith, hope, and love in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER 02 :
We’re going to go to Tom in Louisville, Kentucky, listening on WFIA. Tom, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Let me ask you about this, if I could please, the Hebrews verse in chapter 8, where it talks about, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel. He said, I’m going to make this covenant with the house of Israel. And of course, we’re not really the Jewish people in the house of Israel. We’re the Gentiles. But I think that Bob led me back to Ephesians 2 or something, 11, about how the two were made one. Somehow that applies to us.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, Tom, you’re talking about a new covenant. There had been nothing wrong with the first covenant. It says no place would have been sought for another, but God found fault with the people. So a time is coming, declares the Lord, I’ll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, and it won’t be like the old one. Now what you have there is you have, when I say it’s like a set of clothes, you have the Jews that had the law all beat up with it, And you had the Gentiles over there that were naked. They weren’t clothed with anything. And so if I’m going to give a new set of clothes to both the Jew and the Gentile, then the Jew has to take off the old in order to put on the new, and the Gentile just needs to get dressed. The covenant, the new covenant, was for both. To the Jew, it was in contrast to the old, and to the Gentile, it was just new in contrast to nothing. And yet the same covenant was for both. Christ didn’t die on the cross just for the Jew. He died for the sins of the whole world. So the covenant was in comparison to the old, to the Jew, but brand new to the Gentile.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. I understand that. I guess that particular verse, when he mentions the house of Israel, that particular verse he’s just addressing to the Jew who…
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, that’s what the book of Hebrews is basically directed to, is to the Jew. So basically, that’s what he said. That’s why it was written in Jeremiah and was fulfilled at the cross. It was fulfilled when Jesus died and ushered in the new covenant, which is explained in Hebrews 9. So the Jews basically, not all, obviously there were thousands of Jews that came to Christ, but the Jews basically turned their back on the new covenant and the person that ushered it in, basically Christ, and the Gentiles grabbed a hold of this new message. Not in the message in comparison to the old, but a brand new message. But then the Judaizers came right along and started saying, well, now, you know, you’ve grabbed a hold of this new covenant, but now you need to bring that Old Testament law back under there. So we just took the old battered-up clothes of Israel and put them on over a brand-new suit and think walking around looking good. So that’s why we are in the condition that we’re in is because we as Gentiles never did have the law. You have so-called Christian denominations today that are as legalistic as the Pharisaical Jews ever thought of being. And they said, where did you get that law? God didn’t give it to you. God didn’t give the law to the Gentiles. And so here we are trying to fulfill the law of Moses when the Jews themselves, who are the most dedicated people on the face of the earth and tenacious, couldn’t do. But yet we Gentiles get up and say, oh, well, watch my smoke. We’ll do it. And you have a lot of people that say, well, that’s what we come to Christ for. Jesus now lives in you, as we say in Texas, to help you obey the law. Well, Christ didn’t come to help you to obey what he said I destroyed. He came to live his life in and through you, to walk in the newness of life, it says, no longer under the letter that kills, but the spirit that gives life.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, that’s great. That helps me. Yeah, just real quick on the repentance thing. I know that that’s a strong term, as I’ve heard you say, regarding really salvation, the time when you turn from your sinful nature to life. I hear a lot of people talking about, you know, who don’t understand that or agree with that or whatever, about David had a repentant heart, created a clean heart and so forth. And we know he was a man after God’s own heart. So I assume he was walking by faith in what he knew to be God. But, but when he fell into sin, he asked the Lord to, to, uh, you know, give him a contrite heart or something. Would that be a repentant attitude or real? I mean, if he, if he was already walking by faith in Christ and then he was asked, well, how could David have been walking by faith in Christ? Well, not in Christ, I’m sorry, in God. Yeah. Uh, and then he was asking, you know, uh, I guess, uh, not asking for forgiveness, but confessing his sin and agreeing, you know, that he needed to continue to walk by faith in God. What kind of scriptures regarding his turning his heart, you know, asking God to cleanse, would that really not be a repentance thing, but just a
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, again, Tom, there’s no sense in going into those type of things because that’s not what it’s dealing with at all. A repentant heart, again, you have to look at contextually. In the New Testament, a repentance was repenting from your unbelief, which is the only sin attributable to man, into faith in Christ Jesus. Now, once that repentance has taken place and you are now a believer in Christ Jesus and a new creature in Christ, it says now to walk after the spirit and not after the flesh and not after the law that kills, but the spirit that gives life. And so through your life, you’re going to be changing your mind. It just is not called repentance. You get people all up there, you’ve got to repent, you’ve got to repent. What’s it mean? Well, if you’ve been smoking, you’ve got to repent and cut it out. And if you’ve been doing this, you’ve got to repent. Well, how many, what about worry? So, I mean, who could stand up there and say, I have repented of every sin imaginable? I mean, do you know anyone who could say that? No, I don’t know of anyone either. So we’re not dealing with that deal that you’ve got to cut this out. It’s the issue that Christ is saying. You know, it would be like saying you’ve got to pull your weeds. You’ve got to pull your weeds. You’ve got to pull your weeds. He said, no, I want to grow grass. I’m going to grow healthy grass and let the healthy grass squeeze out the weeds. And it’s a brand new way of living altogether.
SPEAKER 03 :
The Old Prophets, when they were calling Israel to repentance, I guess they were dealing with the nation and not to turn back to faith in God.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 03 :
Instead of an individual relationship with Christ.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. And the same thing would be true today to Israel. It would be repentant and turn to your Messiah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, it sure would be.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you, everybody, and I’ll let you go. Hopefully you can get one more call.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you, brother.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thanks a lot.
SPEAKER 02 :
Bye-bye now. Okay, let’s go to Tehachapi, California, listening on KERI. Jackie, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hello, Bob, Bob and Bob. Peace and love to all of you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thanks, Jackie.
SPEAKER 04 :
I saw you guys recently in the Sacramento conference. I was the one that gave Bob a flag. Do you remember me, Bob?
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, absolutely. Yes. Thank you for doing that.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m sorry. I had to leave a little early, but I had a couple of questions. Bob, can you explain to me what is a carnal Christian, number one, and number two? What does it take for me to be holy? How can I be holier?
SPEAKER 02 :
All about as easy as it would take to improve upon the Mona Lisa. Again, Jackie, I’m very serious on that. You say, if the master’s work was completed, how are you going to improve on it? You couldn’t make yourself any more holy if you wanted to. God made you holy. It is because of that one offering that he made forever perfect in the sight of God, all of you whom he made holy. How can you improve upon how God made you? Holy is not in your action. Holy means that you’ve been set apart for the divine purpose for which God created you. You’re already made holy. You’re already set apart from the world. And the only thing that will set you apart more from the world is your knowledge of God, not your behavior, because you can train a monkey to act, but you can’t train a monkey to know truth. And so what sets you and me apart is understanding the truth of God and His Word, and that will set you apart from the world that doesn’t know anything about His Word.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, but what about the Christians, my brothers and sisters in Christ? Some of them seem to be occupied with my sins, and therefore I feel like I have to live up to a standard which they put upon me, which is unbearable at times.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, well, the best thing to do on that is tell them to get lost. And it’s none of their business. Sin is between you and God. And he’s already dealt with that. Now, Jackie, it ties in a little bit with your first question. There is no such thing as a carnal Christian. There’s only two kinds of people as far as God is concerned, and that’s a person in Christ, saved, called a Christian, and a person outside of Christ, lost, called a sinner. You can have a Christian who behaves carnally, but that does not change your identity any more than your behavior can ever change your identity as a child of God. So the term carnal Christian is a real pitiful term to me because what it’s saying, that’s an identity of yours. You can be natural man, spiritual man, and then carnal Christian. I’m sorry, that’s a lie. You’re either a natural man lost, you’re a spiritual man saved, period. Now again, you can be a lost man and act spiritual, can’t you?
SPEAKER 06 :
Sure.
SPEAKER 02 :
And you can also be a spiritual man and act lost. but it doesn’t change your identity. My acting holy as a lost man did not make me saved, and my acting unholy does not make me lost. So we have to understand that if you’re in Christ, you are a child of the living God, and you can act worldly at times, but it never changes your identity. So there’s no such thing as a carnal Christian, only a Christian that may behave worldly or carnally. Now, in regard to your other situation, Jackie, as far as people worried about your sins, I always feel that one of my favorite verses is to lead a quiet life and tend to your own business. And I wish more Christians would abide by that and quit being a sin checker to brothers and sisters in Christ when, in fact, they’ve got a log in their own eye as they’re trying to take a speck out of yours. That passage of scripture, Jackie, we have to learn to live by. If you’re without sin, cast a stone. If you’re not, you need to shut up and go home. I haven’t met too many people without sin. Have you?
SPEAKER 04 :
Not at all.
SPEAKER 02 :
So we don’t have any right to be pointing our bony fingers at one another in that regard. That’s between them and God. And if a person needs discipled in that regard or they need help as to how to get out of the syndrome of the things you want to do you don’t do and the things you don’t want to do you do anyway, then you can go to that person with a goal of restoration but never with a goal of condemnation.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. Thank God.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, Bob, well, you’ve answered my questions, and I love to listen to you every day, and you’re a very good teacher, and I thank you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, thank you, Jackie, and tell those people to get off your back.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you know, I will. I want to wake up every day and just thank the good Lord for the day, and, you know, I know I’m not perfect, but I want to try every day to be pleasing to God, and that’s my goal, and… I’m there in my life like everybody else, but I don’t get into their business, and I just kind of wish they’d let me handle it with God on my own.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, Jackie, when, again, and I want to take this in the light of what is said, if you have, whenever you have a goal, for results, you’re going to end up in disappointment. You cannot create results. Now, when you’ve got an idea of pleasing God, then there’s always the question, did I do enough? Was I good enough? Was I holy enough? Instead of realizing that what pleases God is faith, not faith in what you’ve done, but faith in what he has done. Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. And when I’m walking by faith, not in what I’m doing, but faith in what he has accomplished for you and is accomplishing in and through you, that is what’s pleasing to God. So you cannot sit around and determine results or say, my goal is to be pleasing because in order to be pleasing, trust Christ for what he did. That’s what pleases God, is having faith in his actions. And that is, then you’re never going to live in the pressure, that pressure cooker, which is the law. Have you done enough? you’re going to realize it’s not how much I’ve done. My faith is how much he has done. Amen.
SPEAKER 04 :
Can’t improve on that Mona Lisa, though.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely can’t improve on her.
SPEAKER 04 :
Wonderful.
SPEAKER 02 :
Sit back and admire her and enjoy her. And that’s what he wants us to do with his life is to enjoy it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I love you people. Thank you very, very much.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thanks, Jackie.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, God bless you all.
SPEAKER 02 :
God bless you, Brooke. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
Let’s go to Victoria, British Columbia again. Let’s go on Carrie. Rose, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hello, Bob. I just have a question. Somebody told me that when you are resurrected, you are resurrected in a physical body. I always believed that you had a spiritual body only in Heaven.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I think you’re right, Victoria. There’s a lot of conversation that goes on on some talk shows I’ve heard recently where somebody sounds like they’re a total authority on what takes place, but I really don’t think they’re right on that. What I see is in chapter 15, 1 Corinthians, it deals with that subject, and I think that’s where you have to go to find out about resurrection. In Thessalonians, you’re talking about rapture. In Corinthians, you’re talking about resurrection. That’s what happens to you when you die. The other is what happens to you at the rapture. And in verse 35, it says, Someone may ask, Are the dead raised? And with what kind of body will they come? And he says, How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. Remember, Jesus said, Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. What you sow, you do not plant the body. It will be but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined. So you sow a seed, but God gives it the body, you see. And to each kind of seed, he gives his own body. All flesh is not the same. Men have one kind of flesh. Animals have another. Birds another. Fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies. But the splendor of the heavenly body is one kind. The splendor of the earthly body is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another, the stars another. The stars differ from star to star in splendor. Now we get down to where the rubber meets the road. So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown perishable, it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It’s sown in weakness. It’s raised in power. Now, here’s what you’re talking about. It’s sown a natural body, but it’s raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body. There is also a spiritual body. Now, there are people, I think, that are so infatuated with their bodies that they can’t stand the thought that it ain’t coming back. But they haven’t gotten as old as me. Poor me.
SPEAKER 05 :
I was thinking more with, like, what if you don’t like your body very much and you don’t want it back?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I would think most people would be that way, but there’s some Suigatistical. They think it looks good, but we’ll let that go. We’ll let that be as it may. But let’s go on with what the Scripture has to say. There’s a natural body and a spiritual body. Now, we are told in verse 50, and we’ll go back to this. I declare to you, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Now, some people think… that there’s going to come a time at the rapture where God’s going to bring his heavenly vacuum cleaner and suck everybody up and to take this flesh into the presence of God in the midst of the fact that God says flesh and blood will never inherit the kingdom of God. Now, what that says to me, Rose, is there is nothing that I got from mom and dad that is going to go into the presence of God. This body of mine is a house, and it’s bagging and sagging, and it’s headed to the grave, and it’s going to go into the grave, and it’s going to become worm food for somebody. If you got burnt up in an airplane crash, it’s ashes. If you got drowned in the ocean, why, some whales got it. And so we have to understand that this body came from the dust, and it’s returning to the dust. Now, some people absolutely will not… will not grab a hold of that. They still want to think that this physical thing is going to be raised. Well, a seed isn’t raised. You plant the seed. It isn’t raised. The seed dies. God gives it a new body. We call that resurrection. Doesn’t mean the seed was resurrected. It means the life that was in the seed is resurrected. God has to do that, not man. So there’s a natural body and a spiritual body. So as it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam, that’s Jesus, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural. After that, the spiritual. What that is telling you and me is, very simply, no one is ever born of the spirit, nor is there a spirit until you are born physically. Okay, Rose, let’s go on here because it isn’t going to do any good to just play hopscotch through this. We have to do the whole context if we really want to know the answer to these things. So it’s talking about that the first man was of the dust. That’s Adam, isn’t it? The second from heaven, that’s Jesus. And as was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth. So as Adam was, we are. We came from the earth. We didn’t come from heaven. And as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are from heaven. And just as we have been born in the likeness of Adam, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven, so we bear the likeness of Christ. I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. So he said, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. Now, again, it said, when is this talking about? Well, what is it talking about? It’s talking about death. It talks about what happens to you when you die. It’s not talking about what happens at the rapture. It’s talking about what happens to you when you die. So he says, we’ll not all sleep, but we all will be changed in a flash. In the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. Now, again, people start looking at that trumpet as the trumpet talks about in Thessalonians in regard to end times. Why do you think there’s only one trumpet? Why would we not think that this is what takes place at our death? He’s talking about death. He’s not talking about rapture.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, so in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. Changed from what? From our natural body into a spiritual body. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality. And when the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying… that was written will come true death has been swallowed up in victory so we’re talking about death oh death where is your victory oh death where is your sting the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to god he gives us victory through our lord jesus christ therefore my dear brother stand firm let nothing move you and always give yourself fully to the work of the lord because you know that your labor in the lord is not in vain Well, how could he be talking about the rapture when everybody’s going to be gone? I mean, how could he be saying, let nothing move you, keep going? He’s talking about what do you do prior to your physical death? And at that physical death, that physical body goes into the grave, and God gives you a spiritual body. If we would just look at a seed, a seed goes into the ground and dies. That’s our body. But God gives it a new body. And so to me, I believe with all my heart. And I know there’s great controversy in this. But I believe with all my heart that the very moment that we are absent from the body, we’re pleasant with the Lord, and we receive our glorified body at this time. I heard a guy talking last night on the air about this. He said, well, see, our soul’s going to heaven, but we’re not complete yet. And I thought to myself, here we are complete here on earth, but when we die, we’re not complete. Here we have a home here on earth, but when we die, we’re homeless. Yeah. Um, that, that absolutely is nonsensical to me to, to make a statement that when we die, we’re not complete. We’ve got to wait for our bodies. Um, and that absolutely does not make an ounce of sense to me at all. I think that when we die, that God gives us our glorified body at that time. Uh, it talks about at the end time, he’s going to call us from all points of heaven and earth. And I think we will be in our glorified body. I think we’ll return to this earth and our glorified body. So, again, I think if people don’t want to believe that, that’s fine. They can float around up there in some element that I don’t know of. But I believe that I will receive a glorified body at the time that I’m absent from the body and present with the Lord.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s good.
SPEAKER 02 :
That makes sense to you?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, it does, yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
The other makes no sense at all to me. And when they talk about that deal in Thessalonians, that the dead in Christ will be the first to rise, and put that on an instantaneous deal that’s going to take place at the time of a rapture, why in the world, when something happens in a split, split, split second, would you say the dead in Christ are the first to go? And then we who remain and are left behind. who would know they’re left behind if something happens a split second yeah it doesn’t make any sense so the dead in christ that’s us who will die before the rapture occurs we’re the first to rise we’re already there then those of us who remain and are still here at that time we will go meet us and the lord in the air it says that how why would you be saying that if it was a split second action So I think we’ve gotten a lot to me. And again, I’m just saying to me, as I read this, I think we’ve gotten very confused in that regard. But they would say I was confused too. So again, you just have to trust the Lord and ask him to reveal it to you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you very much.
SPEAKER 02 :
Is that help, Rose? Okay. Good to talk to you, Rose. Yep. Bye-bye now.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord. Find more information online at bobgeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.
