Join Bob George in this inspirational episode of Classic Christianity Radio as he addresses real-life issues through the lens of faith. From understanding context in biblical passages to discussions on modern-day challenges such as lawlessness, listeners are invited to explore their own beliefs and the centrality of Christ in their lives. Witness how questions about faith are tackled with biblical wisdom, offering clarity and direction for those seeking spiritual growth.
00:00:01 Introduction to Classic Christianity Radio
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 Lubbock, Texas, listening on KJAK. Randy, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 06 :
How are y’all doing tonight? Pretty good, Randy. Enjoying the show. It’s been really good. Well, thank you. I had a question on 1 Timothy 4, verses 1 and 16. I was wondering if you could explain the context of this scripture and who the audience was he was writing to.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, in Timothy, Paul is writing, of course, to his convert Timothy, who was a younger brother in Christ and basically was preparing for a position of pastoring. But in that passage where it says, the Spirit clearly says that in latter times, some will abandon the faith and follow deceptive spirits, and things taught by demons. You look at that, abandon the faith. What does that mean? Well, abandon whatever faith they had in. You have a lot of people today. Randy, who have a faith, but it’s not in the completed work of Christ Jesus, kind of the same thing we were talking to the other gentleman about. They have a faith that’s geared upon their denominational persuasion or a faith based upon their tradition, but it’s not faith based on truth in Christ Jesus. But they’re close. How many people do you know, and I could name, that walk around and they look all holy and they talk But as far as being born again, they’re not born again. They’re professors but not possessors. And so people such as that are going to abandon their faith because they never had faith in Jesus. They had it in their own denominational persuasion or, like I said, in their own tradition. And so you’re going to see a lot of that take place in end times as we who are in Christ Jesus begin to look at as the troublemakers of uh… at the people who are not going to compromise the people are not going to say that homosexuality is a sin, we’re going to say, you know, people, we’re going to go along with the people and say, no, it’s an alternate lifestyle. And the only, the born-again believers are going to be able to say, no, that is sin. That is sin. Adultery is sin. Stealing is sin. We’re not going to call it alternate lifestyles. We’re going to call it what the Bible calls it. And in so doing, are perceived by the world as a as people who are unreasonable, judgmental, and all of those type of things. And so there will be those who don’t have the conviction that what the Word of God says is true, and that’s what it is, whether it’s politically correct or not is irrelevant. that are going to abandon the clear teaching of the word of God and follow deceptive spirits and things taught by demons. That’s demonic teaching that homosexuality is an example. I don’t mean to camp on that, but it’s such a hot button today, is an alternate lifestyle and that we’re born that way. That’s the teaching of demons. That’s not truth. The Bible says that what truth is, is homosexuality is a perversion. It’s a learned perverted behavior. and I can certainly love the person, but I hate what they’re involved in. The same thing that if you knew a person that was married and committing adultery with someone else, you can love that person and try to get them back to Christ, but you hate what they’re doing. But you’re not going to call it something else. And so there’s a lot of people who are going to abandon the faith because the object of their faith was not in the person of Christ. It was in some other source.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. Well, in my NIV study Bible, it mentioned that they were referring to Gnosticism and that they believed that the material world was evil. And it references 1 John as well. And I was just wondering… You thought that was right, what it was talking about in there?
SPEAKER 02 :
Could be. I think where it says that in the latter times, some will abandon the faith. And that certainly could be if the latter times is talking after Timothy. But Timothy was written pretty well close to the end of Paul’s ministry. And so I would almost look at that as in end times. where it begins to talk about the people abandon their faith and all kinds of things take place more in the end times. But, again, the same thing is very true today, that there are people who have abandoned true faith in Christ Jesus and are really following deceiving spirits. What do you think people are following who are standing up and saying, I’m going to slay you in the spirit, when there isn’t anything in the Bible about slaying people in the spirit? The spirit didn’t come to knock people down. It came to give them life. And all of the deception that you see many times on some of these people on television telling you that if you don’t give money, God’s going to zap you and all that, that isn’t a teaching of God. That’s a teaching of deceiving spirits. That’s what Satan comes to do is deceive you with error. Well, that’s going on today. They’ve abandoned any faith in truth and are holding on to their own teachings or what he says, hypocritical liars, which I believe is exactly what I see on an awful lot of television, exactly what those people are, that their conscience has been seared. They have no regrets about deceiving people and lying to people and acting like they’re talking to the dead and everything else. So that’s going on right now.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. Well, I just know… In 2 John, when it talks about the truth being in us and it will be with us forever.
SPEAKER 02 :
Forever, yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
If that’s the case, then this could not be talking about actual Christians.
SPEAKER 02 :
No, not true, absolutely. You can’t abandon the faith if you’re a born-again believer. You can get messed up in doctrine, but to abandon the finished work of Christ and the work that Jesus did on the cross, there’s no way to abandon that if you’re born again.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. Well, I appreciate your help.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’re sure welcome, brother. Hope that helped.
SPEAKER 06 :
God bless you.
SPEAKER 02 :
You too. Bye-bye now. We’re going to go to Eugene, Oregon, listening on KORE. Lon, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, hi, Bob and Bob. I have a question for you concerning 2 Thessalonians, 2nd chapter, and in particular verse 7, for the secret power of lawlessness is already at work. But the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. Who is he?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, let me look at it. I haven’t looked at it in that vein, so I need to look at it. Let’s go back up to verse 5. Don’t remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you of these things. And now it talks about, and now you know what is holding him back. that he may be revealed at the proper time. The secret power of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now holds it back, and I think the it is total lawlessness, will continue to do so until he, the Holy Spirit, is taken out of the way. And I believe that’s your interpretation of that. The it back is total lawlessness will be held back. Total lawlessness will be held back until the Holy Spirit has taken it out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed. So obviously he’s talking about the Antichrist, whom the Lord Jesus Christ will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. And the coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan, displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe a lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but who have delighted in wickedness. So I think that is the interpretation of that verse for what the secret power of lawlessness is already at work. in the one who now holds it back, and that’s total lawlessness, holding total lawlessness back until, and will continue to do so, until the Holy Spirit has taken it out of the way.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, thank you. It’s kind of puzzled on that, not puzzled, but questioning. Some of the commentaries and things, studies I’ve done on it, I could not find any reference that they would reference the Holy Spirit. as the one who was holding the laws went back. So I just was wondering.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I think it’s a good question, and I appreciate your asking it. Maybe that will clear it up for a number of us, okay? Thank you. You’re sure welcome, my brother. Good to talk to you. Bye-bye, Lon. Let’s go to British Columbia, listening on Carrie. And, Dan, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, hi, Bob.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hi, Dan.
SPEAKER 04 :
How you doing?
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m doing fine, thank you.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, I know we haven’t got much time. Anyway, I just wanted to ask you a question. The scripture verse, I don’t know if I’m going to be quoting it right, but it says if anybody comes to us preaching anything other than the gospel, I think it says. Now, you hear a lot of people talking about Christians in the church talking about they’ve seen an angel, and the angel appeared in their room and told them things that may not have pertained to the gospel. I’m just wondering your view on that point.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, Dan, again, it’s out of my realm of experience. I certainly have never seen angels. I’ve never seen anybody that ever saw them. I think you could probably go back to many, many people who I certainly would have great respect for in regard to their spirituality. And the ones that I’ve known that are claiming I have no regard for their spirituality because I don’t think there is any. But for people that I respect dearly, I don’t think there’s anyone that’s ever come into saying that they’ve seen. We have to realize that the Bible talks about that, how the people brag about their mind gets puffed up with idle notions. In Colossians, it deals with that and bragging about what they’ve seen and heard. And so I think that if we’ll just relax and to realize that the communicator into our hearts, he is called the Holy Spirit of God. And the Holy Spirit of God is there to lead us into all truth. And I think if we’ll just rest in that and quit trying to add to what God has said is complete, we’ll be in a lot better shape than trying to come up with angels and seeing Mary on a wall someplace and all the other stuff that people come up with as if that is a greater miracle than the resurrection of Christ. Dan, I think so many times, as Jesus said, you people, you adulterous nation, you are looking for signs and wonders. And he said, I’ll give you a sign, tear down the temple, and I’ll build it up in three days. And, of course, he was talking about his resurrection. If you can’t believe Jesus because of his resurrection, you’re not going to believe it, as he said, even if somebody comes back from the dead. If you cannot believe Christ Jesus and to trust him, knowing that he was buried and was raised again from the dead eternally, you’re not going to do so. If your leg got cut off and miraculously got put back on, you’d just be looking for another sign and wonder. So, no, I don’t believe in those things. Dan, I’m sorry. We’ve got to take a break. Did that answer your question, Dan?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it did. I agree. I agree totally.
SPEAKER 01 :
Be sure to go to BobGeorge.net to find our in-depth and practical Bible study guides. Each Bible study will teach you more about Jesus and will help strengthen your relationship with God. Now back to our classic Christianity radio program.
SPEAKER 02 :
Let’s go to Indianapolis, Indiana, WBRI. Hugh, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Quick question. Listening to you talk about in your lives and
SPEAKER 02 :
repentance and all of that what about things in your life that you pray to god and you fast and asking the things in your life that you think of sin that just will not go away well hugh it’s interesting we talked about that uh in our bible study yesterday of that passage in titus where it says it is the grace of god that teaches us to say no to unrighteousness now you’re talking about a sin that won’t go away you’re talking to unrighteous behavior And so the Bible tells us that it’s the grace of God that is going to teach you. That doesn’t mean it’s going to get zapped. It’s going to teach you. Now, you do not plug into the grace of God by you talking, nor do you plug into the grace of God by you fasting or by you tithing or by you going to church. The grace of God has to be revealed to you from God. That’s something God has to do in your life. You’re not going to correct ongoing sins by self-effort. You’re going to correct ongoing sins by recognizing you have no power at all to correct sin, but he does. And that comes back to a yielding cue, which is allowing the Spirit of God to not only reveal your sin to you, but to reveal to you that you have no ability to correct it, but I do. Part of that passage in Titus is that we have self-control. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. It has to come from God. It isn’t something we go out and pull ourselves up by our bootstraps or try harder. If you have a besetting sin, and we all do, Hugh, you’re not alone. sitting in that room yesterday with people who know the Bible, who love the Lord, who are servants of the Lord, a combination of full-time staff members and laymen who are there because they want to learn and grow. In grace. So there isn’t anybody there that’s phony. They’re sincere. But not a person in that room could say that they were without sin. None of us. We all have things that are besetting sins that we’ve tried and tried, but it doesn’t seem to go away. In some cases, the minute you’re saved, there are sins that have gone away. I have to say, God did that. But then there’s other things, other compartments of your life that you haven’t let go of, in my opinion. I think your life is kind of made up of different compartments. And in some areas, we allow God to take control of those, and others, we’re hanging on to them ourselves. And we have to come down to a point of saying, Lord Jesus, I want to be your guy. I want… desperately and if i don’t want that then change my wonder because you may be to the point where you really don’t want to be god’s guy you you want to kind of be your own guy and god’s guy and you got to deal with that it’s kind of like god i want to be married but also want to be single you have to die to singleness to come alive to marriage and so that’s a process that you and i are going to have to go through i think as long as we’re christians You know, let’s get down to a real sin. And let’s just take the Ten Commandments that we’re no longer under, but they’re in a thing in the grace of God that’s contrary to the Ten Commandments, of love your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. And Jesus then confirmed that. This is what, everything hinges upon these two. Love your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. Now, Hugh, I have to look back, and in my own emotional experience, I have to look back and say, am I every day loving God with all my heart, mind, and soul? And the thing is, I don’t even think I’d know it if it was. And it’s one of those things that, in my humble opinion, I think that the plugging into God is so complex and such a miraculous thing that I don’t think we are totally adequate of explaining it in human terms. But the issue is, is that a besetting sin? I think so. To say that every day of your life, that everything that you do, if I loved God with all of my heart and mind and soul, then every moment of the day I would be making decisions predicated on what would God say about this and what would love doing this. In other words, if God says the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love, then I would be looking at love and saying these decisions that I’m about to make, Is it patient? Is it kind? Do I keep records of my wife’s wrongs or my kids’ wrongs or other people’s wrongs? Am I good? Am I patient with people? Am I kind to people and all this? If every decision was predicated on that, then I’d be walking in the spirit. I’d be walking in truth. But how many times do we even run our decisions by these things? So If we’re looking for perfection out of this hunk of flesh that we have, then we’re engaged in the most unrealistic expectation possible. that I can think of you. My flesh is wicked and deceitful above all things, and who can know it? Paul identified his flesh, he wasn’t too bad of a Christian, as wretched man that I am. Now, he wasn’t saying, well, that’s what I used to be. He’s saying wretched man that I am. He didn’t say wretched man that I was, but wretched man that I am. Why is he saying that about himself? Because in his flesh, he said, is no good thing. And that’s why I say there is nothing good that is going to come out of my flesh. And so, therefore, if I have sinned, and I do, I don’t have to look for it. I don’t have to analyze and say, gee, Bob, I wonder if I have sinned. I mean, I could sit down and probably name a bunch of them for you. But if I recognize that’s my flesh, then what I have to recognize is how do I get out of that realm of my flesh and get into the spirit? That is secured. That is sealed. That has no sin in it. I have the mind of Christ living in me. I think one of the statements that Richard made in our study yesterday is the fact that we forget that Jesus lives in here. And I have the ability to participate in that divine nature that lives in me. But I’ve got to have a wanter, Hugh. I’ve got to have a wanter that says, Lord Jesus, I want your will more than anything in the world. And if you don’t have that, to ask God to give it to you. I want to change my wanter, Lord. I’m not that way in my flesh, but I want to be that way. I want to be a guy that is following God. the goodness of God, to live doing good things for people instead of things that harm people. And let God change your heart because he alone, Hugh, can do it. He will do it. But are you and I going to even know when he does it? I think we’re probably going to look back and say, it seems to me the Lord’s been doing something in my life. But I don’t think you’re going to pray and see a quick fix on anything that God is involved in.
SPEAKER 03 :
Did you ever just get frustrated sometimes?
SPEAKER 02 :
Not over three or four times a day. That’s right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, when you talk about it, it’s like if you were, let’s put yourself in a position of being a slave and you’re living in the complex, the slave complex, and all of a sudden you’ve got freedom and you’ve been saved from that, but you still stay in the complex. Well, if you still stay in the complex, you’re going to be tempted by everything going on in the complex. That’s right. And so the issue is you sit there and pray and say, Lord, how do I get away from these habits? He said, leave the complex. So we’re hanging around in the complex and wondering why we’re still tempted, even though it says we’ve been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his son. So we’ve been transferred, but we we don’t leave. We stay where we were as a born again believer and then wonder. Why we’re getting eaten to death. I ask people sometimes, how many of you have ever been within, say, 10 feet of a real live lion? And you see most of the people hold their hands up and say, well, how come you’re still here? Well, the lion was in a cage. Oh, okay. Now, how much sense would it have been for you to get in the cage with a lion? How many of you think would still be here? And what’s happening to us is we as Christians, we’re climbing in the cage with the lions and then sitting around in all our little groups, our little accountability groups, talking about how we got mauled last week. get out of the cage. There has to become a desire to get out of the cage or out of the complex. And, you know, sometimes we say, yeah, but in a complex are my kids, in a complex are my friends. And so it’s kind of fun here in a complex. Well, fine. If that’s where you want to live, you’re going to live miserable. But if you want to get away, you’re going to have to leave the complex and hope that your friends and everybody you’re so anxious to stay with will ultimately come with you. But you’ve got to separate yourself from the things that are tempting you. You’ve got to separate yourself. And sometimes you just plain don’t want to. Let me give you an example. I keep camping on this. I don’t know why I keep camping on it because it’s not the biggest sin in the world, but smoking because it’s easy for me because I used to do it and now I don’t. But the whole issue is why do you keep doing it knowing full well that it is sin and knowing full well that it is harmful to your health, it’s expensive, it’s obnoxious, it’s dirty, and everything about it. Why do you keep on doing it? Because you want to. I used to say when I was smoking, well, I ought to quit. Yeah, I ought to quit. Well, why don’t you? Well, I don’t want to. You know, when I proved to myself I wanted to, when I pitched those things in a wastebasket and said, that is the end of it. I don’t want to do this anymore. I want to have a healthy body. You know what I did? I joined the health club immediately. You know what else I did? Everything that associated with smoking a cigarette, I quit. I quit drinking. I quit drinking coffee. Anything that was associated with smoking a cigarette, I didn’t do for months. And you know what? In a matter of days, the very thought of putting a cigarette in my lungs was intolerable to me. Why? I made a decision. I do not want to live with that stuff in my lungs anymore. Until that decision is made, nothing is going to happen in regard to the breaking of a habit.
SPEAKER 03 :
So basically, praying and asking and then just waiting. I would really like not to do the things I do sometimes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, take the things that you don’t want to do. Take the things that you don’t want to do. Say, I have no ability at all in my flesh to stop this, but, Lord, you do. And I’m asking you, first of all, you don’t have a desire to quit or you would have quit. So obviously I don’t want to. You say you do, but if you really did, you would get rid of it. of whatever the problem is. You’d get it out of your house if it’s in your house. You’d get it away from you, and you would stop it. And you would count on the Lord to keep you away from the thing that is plaguing you. Again, it isn’t going to happen by sitting there praying that God’s going to do something. It’s your will. To stop and to start being the guy that God wants you to be. That is absolutely important. I don’t want to be this person anymore. I want to be God’s guy. I want to run my decisions by love. 1 Corinthians 13, love. It’s not easy. You’re going to fall on your face sometimes. All of us struggle with this. Don’t look like you’re the Lone Ranger, Hugh. But the whole issue is love. that we all struggle with these things, and it’s a struggle between the flesh and the spirit. And it says, walk in the spirit, and you won’t be fulfilling the desires of the flesh. All you and I are talking about now are desires of the flesh, and the only solution to that in the Bible is walk in truth and in love and in grace.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, my brother. Thanks for your call, Hugh, and don’t feel like the Lone Ranger out there, okay?
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, sir.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you. Okay, bye-bye.
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.
SPEAKER 05 :
Put Jesus first in your life and turn your life around.
