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.
SPEAKER 02 :
We’re dealing in this depression series, guys, again, as a matter of review. We deal with the fact that everything that we feel comes from what we’re thinking. And we must get that into our minds and to sink that into our minds that we feel something because we’re thinking something. If we feel happy, it’s because we’re thinking happy thoughts. If we feel depressed, it’s because we’re thinking depressing thoughts. If we’re angry, it’s because we are thinking angry thoughts, isn’t it? You don’t have an anger disease or an anger syndrome. You’re thinking angry thoughts toward somebody, and that’s why you’re feeling the emotion of anger. It is not complicated. God made us that way. And so when you’re dealing with how to deal with this thing called depression, you have to understand first and foremost, it is not unusual to be depressed any more than it’s unusual to have an unrealistic expectation toward life, to have a misplaced dependency. to have self-pity, to have anger, or to have fear. None of those things are unusual. If they were unusual, why would God say, fear not, I’ve overcome the world. Be anxious for nothing, but in all things with prayer and supplication, let your requests be known unto God. All of those things are ingredients that make up this thing called depression. And so none of that’s unusual. We live in a day and age where in order to get business, I guess, and in order to sell drugs, why, we make all of those things unusual. Now, the people that are making the drugs have all of those things, but that’s okay. They don’t tell you about them. And the people that are counseling you have all of those things, but they don’t tell you about it. They just say, you’ve got a problem. And the answer to that is, so do you. But the issue is that it is not an unusual thing for any of us to experience any of those type of emotions. All we have to do is to start thinking them. And so if we’ll get that straight, we’ll see the importance of the renewing of your mind. Don’t be conformed any longer to the world, but be conformed how? By the renewing of your mind. Because as a man thinks, what? So is he. Period. That’s from God. It’s not from Freud. That’s from God. It’s not from Skinner. It’s from God. It’s not from Lange. It’s from God. And so we have to come to a conclusion as to who are we going to listen to in regard to dealing with us. Are we going to listen to God who created us or listen to another created being just like you? And I believe that if you’re going to go to get pure instruction about how I am thinking and how I’m responding in regard to my mind, I’m going to have to go to the one who made me and to the one who created mankind. And there’s been no change in any of us over thousands of years. Adam had the same problems you have. No difference at all. And Adam wasn’t some kind of a lower form of man. He was just like you and me. And so we have to understand the truth of that. So if you’re going to have your mind renewed, you’ve got two options to go to. I can go to the world and see if they have any advice for me. And there’s no question about it that man can have some good advice for people. You can get some advice as to how you can have temporary peace. Go out to the mountain, buy a stream and fish and that kind of advice. But if you want the peace of God that passes all understanding, you’re going to have to go to God to get that advice, guys. And those are our two options. Am I going to go to God for advice or am I going to go to man? Now, in order to get to God’s mind… I have to be plugged in to God. And there’s reasons for that, and we’ll get into that in a little bit, but we’re told that no man knows what another man is thinking except the spirit that lives in him. No one knows what you’re thinking right now. You can sit and look at me and act like you’re listening and be a thousand miles away, can’t you? Or you could be talking to somebody and just kind of staring. You don’t hear a word they’re saying, but you’re looking at them. No one knows what you’re thinking, except the Spirit that lives in you. It says, in identically the same way, no one knows what God is thinking, except the Spirit of God. Now, that would be a dilemma if we didn’t read on. That if no one knows what God is thinking, except God’s Spirit, how in the world am I going to know what God’s thinking? So it says, keep reading. We, who are born-again Christians… have not received the Spirit of the world, but we have received the Spirit of God, so that we can know what God is thinking. So the moment that I have been born again of the Spirit of God, where the Spirit of God comes to indwell us, and guys, this is not a religion. This is not joining church. This is being born again by God. Man cannot make you born again. Your mom and dad can help you to be born the first time. Or your mom and somebody else or any other combination of them. But as far as being born again, there’s only one source of spiritual birth. And that is Christ Jesus through his Holy Spirit. This is not joining church. This isn’t coming to church on Sunday. This is being a spiritual, miraculous experience that occurs in the life of a person where at a point in time in history, just like you were born physically at a point in time in history, you are born again at a point in time in history. Birth is birth, and it doesn’t happen through osmosis. It happens at a point in time in history when you come to the end of yourself and are able to say, Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. I thank you that you took away my sins at the cross 2,000 years ago, never to see them again. Do you realize that your sins will never and have never been seen by God? You were reconciled to God when you were born. Your sins were taken away from the eyes of God. Why? Because Jesus took them away. Jesus became sin for you. And the only sin attributable to man is the sin of the rejection of the Son of God who came to do that for you and for me. In other words, we’re saying, I don’t need you. But when you come to a point of admitting… That you have taken away my sins, Jesus. All of them. Never to see them again. And that you were raised from the dead because I had a condition called spiritual death. There’s a consequence to sin called death. And I was born dead. And if I’m dead, I need life. And the only life available to me is the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. The Pope cannot make you alive. Luther can’t make you alive. Calvin can’t make you alive. Buddha can’t make you alive. Muhammad can’t make you alive. There is only one source of life available to you and me, and that is the resurrected life of Christ Jesus, the only one who ever died and was raised again from the dead, Christ Jesus. And that resurrected life is what is given to you and me to enable you and me to come alive spiritually. Now that’s what I need if I’m going to plug into the mind of God. I have to be born again of the Spirit in order to know what the Spirit is saying to me. And so that’s why the Holy Spirit came. He came to give you life. That’s the whole issue of salvation. I am the way and the truth and the life. I am the resurrection and the life. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. The whole issue of salvation is coming alive from the dead. Dead spiritually and him offering his resurrected life to you and me so that I can know God. And know what God is thinking. So that I can have my mind renewed on truth. And allow that truth to set me free. So why did the Holy Spirit came to give us life? Because of his great love for us. God who is rich in mercy. Made us alive with Christ. Even when we were dead in our transgressions. And it is by grace that you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. He came to give us life. How did that take place? He told Nicodemus that unless you’re born again, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Nicodemus’ response to that would probably have been like any of us who are wise guys. What do you mean? I was born once. You expect me to climb back and womb my mother and be born again? And no, you’re talking about natural birth. I’m talking about spiritual birth. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he’s born of water. That means natural birth and the spirit. That means spiritual birth. Flesh gives birth to spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh and the spirit gives birth to spirit. Let’s move on. You’ve been born again, not of a perishable seed, but an imperishable seed through the living and enduring word of God. Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he’s a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come. What else did he come to do? And we’re just going to go over these very quickly. He came to show the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment. And as we talked about last week about sin, why? Because they do not believe in me. That’s the world’s sin. The only sin that God will ever ask you about is the sin that is unpardonable. I cannot pardon the sin of unbelief. The only sin attributable to man is, what did you do with my son? If you ignored him, you rejected him, you’re going to remain dead. If you accepted him, you come alive. The only question that God will ever ask you is, what did you do with my son? Why didn’t he ask you about all the sins you’ve committed? Because they’re behind his back, never to see him again. God took away your sins from the eyes of God. And when you and I are born again, we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. So that when God looks at you, he sees the righteousness of Jesus. He said, I have much more to say to you now, but you’re not ready for it. But when the spirit of truth comes, he’s going to guide you into all truth. Now, what does Jesus say truth does for you? What’s it do? Set you free. Free from what? All the ignorance of the world. He’ll set you free to be able to think with God’s thoughts instead of man’s thoughts. And so I’m going to guide you unto all truth. And he said, when the Holy Spirit comes, he’s not going to just speak on his own. He’s going to speak only what he hears from God, the Father. And he’ll tell you what is yet to come. He’s going to bring glory to me. Another work of the Holy Spirit of God is to bring glory to Jesus by taking from what is mine, Jesus, and making it known unto you.
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SPEAKER 02 :
The next thing he came to do is to lead the believer again into truth. And when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he’s going to guide you into all truth. And again, guys, we said you could either follow Jesus out there or to realize that Jesus now lives in here and therefore be guided by him instead of trying to imitate him. And he says when that occurs, you’re going to know the truth and the truth will do what? Set you free. It’s exactly what it’s there to do. And he said, therefore, when the son has set you free, you shall be what? Free indeed. Now it said he also came to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. He’ll bring glory to me, to Jesus. The Spirit of God didn’t come to bring glory to himself. We’re not there to be talking about the Holy Spirit. He said he’s there to bring glory to Jesus by taking from what is mine, Jesus, and making it known unto you. He said he came to give the believer the ability to understand the things that God has freely given us. That’s what we talked about a moment ago. Who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the Spirit within him? And in the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. And we who are in Christ Jesus have not received the Spirit of the world. We’ve received the Spirit who is from God. How come? So that we may what? Understand what God has freely given us. Do we understand how important it is to understand? You see, guys, so many times in our Christian teaching, we come up with this thing, God said it, I believe it, that settles it. How many of you ever heard that? Well, I say to people, if God said it, that settles it, whether you believe it or not. So the issue is, he said it, I believe it. So in other words, you believe what he said and don’t have a clue what he means. You may as well be reading Reader’s Digest. If you don’t know what the Bible means… What in the world do you need to know what it says? So you just repeat verses of scriptures. You don’t know what they mean. God said, I have given you my spirit to teach you what it means. You can read a computer. You’re reading a computer screen right now knows what it says. My computer knows what the Bible says. It’s in there. I can’t get it out. I got to ask Richard, but we can get it out. We’re into podcasting. I want all of you to give me a big hand of applause. I got us into that. Now, if you believe that. No, we have to grant understanding. We have to grasp what does something mean. Remember in the love of God, and we’ll talk about that in later times where it says that That God, that he wants us to know the height and depth and breadth and width and depth and height and everything else of the love of God and to know this love that surpasses knowledge so that you might be filled to the measure of the fullness of God. He wants us to know these things, to know the meaning of the love of God. To be able to state like Paul, I’m convinced of something. Nothing can separate me from the love of God. He knows it. He doesn’t know what it says. He knows what it means. So he came to give us the ability to know the meaning of the word of God. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. It has to be revealed by the spirit. Now to get back to what we were talking about just a minute ago, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope for which he’s called you. the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power for us who believe that power is like the working of his mighty strength. What is the power of the Holy Spirit? We talk about the Holy Spirit and it’s all over the place. You go to television, you’re going to see people talking about the Holy Spirit and You can hear the discussion all over the place. The issue is, what does it mean? If you came out of one background, it means to roll around on the floor with your eyes rolled up in the back of your head and say, praise Jesus. To another group, it means to be standing there reaching up for God. And guys, I’ve said before, I don’t care what your body language is as long as it is commensurate with what you believe to be true. If my God is up there, then that’s how I’m going to pray. I’m going to try to get him. I’m trying to reach him. That’s how the Jews prayed before Jesus. Why? Reaching up to God. Why? That’s where their God is. And if you’re reaching up to God, that’s where your God is. But God reached down to you, did he not? Why? I don’t reach up to God. He reached down to me. And again, I don’t care if you stand there with your arms up or in your lap or stick them in your ears. It doesn’t make any difference how important that would be if you didn’t have arms. That’s not the issue. It’s the issue that your body language is commensurate with what you know to be true. And what you know to be true is that Jesus has reached down to you. You and I could never have reached him. Do we understand that, guys? Never, ever could we have ever reached God. God had to come and reach down to me. And God has reached down to me. And where does he live? He lives in my heart. I don’t have any objection to how people pray. I’m just saying the reason I don’t pray like this is because he isn’t up there. He’s living here. He’s living in my heart. And God wants us to know that, that Christ may dwell where? In your heart, through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, that’s what he wants us established in, is the love of God may have power. Now, see, there’s power thing. And then you get another group, power. Oh, I got power. And you hear that all the time, power, power. And we name our football teams after powerful things. Indians, cowboys, lions, tigers. We don’t call our football team the Los Angeles Lambs, the Seattle Sheepies. You call them by big, powerful names because that’s how we equate power. Big, strong. But the most powerful man that ever walked on the face of the earth was Jesus, who was identified as who? The Lamb of God. That takes away the sins of the world. This power he’s talking about isn’t power for you and me to go do something. It’s the power that we need from God for us to understand something. We don’t get our minds renewed by doing. You get it by knowing. He wants us to know something. He wants us to understand something. So grab a hold of these things, guys. That I’m praying that Christ may dwell, be at home in your heart through faith. And I pray that you, being established, that means I’m established in something. Being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints to do what? Grasp something. It takes the power of God for you and me to grasp this, guys. Why do we have the church in a condition at its end? Because we haven’t grasped something. Why? Because I want to tell you, apart from very few selected denominations in this country, the Holy Spirit is something that isn’t even taught. Isn’t even taught. I never heard of the Holy Spirit for 36 years of my life. And I was in church every day. Never heard of it. Or you hear the Holy Ghost. So you can imagine Casper or something out there. You don’t know what that is. But to know that that’s Jesus living inside of you. Someone else beside you in control of things. Unheard of. He praying that you’ll be established to have the power from God to understand these things, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge. It’s beyond just understanding. It’s something that you just know what you know what you know. How come? So that you could be filled to the measure with all of the fullness of God. You want to be filled with the Spirit? It doesn’t mean to be rolling around on the floor. It doesn’t mean to be babbling in tongues. It doesn’t even mean to be out witnessing. It means to be controlled by the love of God. Now when you’re controlled by the love of God, then every decision that you make is going to flow from the love of God. And how many times do we ignore this? How many things do we do and say to people that have nothing to do with the love of God? We insult people. We accuse people. Never thinking that’s sin. Never enters your mind that that’s sin. We talk bad to people. Never realize that’s sin. That isn’t love. There’s nothing even close to love in doing those things to people. And yet we do it and never think a thing, never think we’re holy. He said, I’m praying that you will be controlled, that you will quit leaning on your own understanding, but trust Jesus to grasp in your feeble mind how high and long and wide and deep is the love of God and to know that love that surpasses knowledge so that you can be controlled to the measure with all the fullness of God. You want to be filled with the Spirit? It means to be filled with love, to have love in your heart toward other people. What is love? What’s it talking about there? 1 Corinthians 13 tells us what love is. Love is patient. Are you patient with people? Love is kind. Are you always kind to people? Guys, do you realize what he says? Our tongue is the worst thing we got in our body. He said it can start forest fires. It’s what we say to people is what causes problems. It’s politicians getting with politicians and saying things that causes wars. Wars are caused by what you said to each other. Love is kind. Love does not envy. All of these things are God’s love towards you and me. God is never self-seeking. Neither is love self-seeking. It’s never easily angered. Are you easily angered? You know, you talk about road rage. I got news for you. You’re in a rage before you ever get on the road. We become mean, vindictive, angry people. Sometimes it’s been put upon us. I’m not arguing with that point. But the fact of the matter is, whether it’s been put upon you or whether you’ve been inherited or what, you need to get rid of it, don’t we? We need to quit being easily angered people. I get angered easily. Do you? At least it seems easy to me. But it’s never right. And I’m not going to sit here and say it never happens to me. Because if it did, I’d just be a big hypocrite. Because it can happen. But it’s never right. I’m not going to sit there and say, oh, that was okay. No, it wasn’t okay. I acted like an idiot. Or even just thought like one. Because a lot of times, your anger, you never say it out loud, do you? You just fume inside. Well, I got news for you.
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God sees you’re fuming. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
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Put Jesus first in your life and turn your life around.
