Dive deep into the heart of faith in this insightful episode of Classic Christianity Radio. Bob George delivers a compelling discussion on how our faith should not be dictated by our physical senses, but rather by a deep spiritual connection with God. Exploring teachings from the book of Hebrews, we uncover the significance of trusting God beyond what we can see and testing our understanding of the spiritual versus the material world.
00:00:12 Introduction to Classic Christianity Radio
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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So, we’re not those, he says, who shrink back. We shouldn’t be. And are destroyed. Because you’re going to get destroyed by that. What it means by destroyed? It means it’s going to destroy your faith. Because your faith is going to shift from what he did onto what you’re doing. And your faith is going to be predicated on what I am doing to gain God’s acceptance. It’s a faith in the fact that God has already accepted me, so therefore go do. It’s going to destroy your faith in who? In him. Won’t destroy your faith in you. You still got a big bunch of faith in you. But it’s going to destroy your faith in who God said is the object of your faith, who is him and not us. Are we together? Now, faith is being sure. Now going into the 11th chapter. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. And this is what the ancients were commended for. So let’s take a look at this, guys. You have the five senses of man. Sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. Let’s just analyze these for a moment. You have the sight of something. I can see something. And when you see something, it’s going to trigger your emotions. Remember, we’ve talked about that. There are emotions predictably are going to respond to whatever you’re thinking. If you’re thinking depressing thoughts, you’re going to be depressed. Period. No way to escape it. God made you that way. If you’re thinking anxious thoughts, you’re going to feel anxiety. Can’t escape it. You’re made that way. And so the issue is that when you’re dealing with sight and sound, the difference between sight and sound and the other senses that we have is that I can create pictures in my mind And I can create sounds in my mind that I’ve never seen or heard before, can’t you? That’s what’s called fantasizing. How many of you have ever dreamed? What are you doing when you’re dreaming? What’s going on? You’re seeing things in your head, aren’t you? And sometimes you can hear things, can’t you? Are you really hearing things? No, but are you in your head? Because you have the ability… to create pictures and sounds in your head that can create an emotion precisely as if it was going on. Am I right or wrong? That’s why you can go to a movie theater and get the daylight scared out of you, knowing full well where you are, but you’re looking at a scary scene and you’re listening to scary sounds and your emotions begin to predictably respond to whatever you’re looking at and hearing. Does faith deal with that? No, it goes around it. It just gets you to think. Faith is being certain of what we hope for and don’t see. So you say, I’m not dealing with your five senses. This is a spiritual deal that I’m dealing with. Your five senses is how you get along out here. I’m dealing with something that goes on down here. I’m dealing with something different than your senses. You and I can get down and say, oh, yeah, but I want to see. I want to see it. I want to hear it. Give me a sign. Give me a wonder. Give me something I can see. Well, what did God have to say about that? Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7. Turn with me there for a moment. 2 Corinthians 5, 7. Y’all got it? We live by faith. Not by sight. Don’t live by sight. We’re confident, I say, and I would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him whether at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the beam of seat of Christ and each one receive what is due to him while done in the body, whether good or bad. So we don’t live by sight. You live by what? By faith. Not by sight. So he bypasses That sense, the sense of sight, bypasses that. You don’t live by feelings. That’s a repudiation of faith. Now, guys, there is a huge population of people who call themselves Christians who live strictly by feelings. And if I don’t feel it, it’s not real. Well, guys, I can conjure up all kinds of feelings in you, can’t you? I mean, you can get all kinds of feelings that aren’t real. When you’re teenagers, you can get a feeling that I’m just madly in love with somebody. And you can just get all kinds of ooshy-gooshy feelings that have no credibility at all in life. And so it has nothing to do with feelings. God aims at our spirit. God is spirit, right? And you must worship him in what? spirit and in truth so god is is ministering to my spirit bypassing all of these senses and going right directly into my spirit and my spirit then is teaching my senses teaching my head and as i’m taught in my head i’m going to end up feeling but that’s not faith what’s faith is what he teaches you in your spirit and so guys when we’re studying the scripture And we’re studying these books together. It’s not just something to come every now and then and say, oh, well, that was nice today. Thank you very much for the nice message, Bob. This isn’t a message. This is the truth of God that if you don’t get in your heart and I don’t get in my heart, we’re going to walk around like a bunch of spiritual dummies. And all we’ve got is a bunch in our head that we’ve seen and heard. And God has never touched our spirit. That’s why I don’t want bits and pieces of this book. I want the whole book. I don’t want to study it this week and five weeks later study. I want to know the whole book. Because I want to tell you something. This book of Hebrews will change your life. This book of Hebrews has changed our lives. Because it’s teaching us truth. And the truth that it’s teaching us is, I want you to learn to walk by faith. Now, you see, when we’ve reversed that and said, well, yeah, I walk by faith, Lord. Didn’t you see what I did last week? He said, and guys, turn with me again to Matthew 7. It’s a great passage. Matthew 7, 721. If I can find 7, there it is. Look at this, guys. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Now, what is the will of the Father? It’s God’s will that we should do what? Walk by what? Faith. Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. So what is God’s will for you? To walk by faith. What is God’s purpose for you? To walk by faith. You see, we get into the purpose-driven life. I’ll tell you what the purpose-driven life is, to walk by faith. Don’t need a book for that, just one little sentence, walk by faith. That’s what you’re here for, is to walk by faith in Him who wants to direct your lives. Lord, Lord, will never enter the kingdom of God, but only Him who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. It’s God’s will that we should walk by faith. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, In essence, didn’t you see what I did? Weren’t you observing me when I was doing all these things? Didn’t you see me prophesy in your name? Well, I prophesied. In fact, I named myself a prophet. Now, you didn’t name me a prophet. That’s okay. The people think you did. I named myself a prophet. There aren’t any prophets today. People walk around thinking they’re prophets, telling people they’re prophets. There aren’t any prophets today. What do you need prophesied? You already got the Bible. What new information do you need? That’s why you have what? Latter-day Saint prophets who wrote their own Bible. Prophets. Self-made prophets. Didn’t you see me prophesying your name? And did you see me drive out demons and perform miracles? Man, you can drive out a demon. You must be holy. And do you see me perform all these miracles? And I’m going to tell them plainly, I never knew you. I don’t know who you are. Get away from me, you what? You evil doing exorcist? You evil doing miracle man? Man, You evil doing prophet? Yeah, that’s what he said. Depart from me, you evil doer. Claiming what you’re doing instead of walking by faith in what I’m doing. For it is all him and it is none of us. There’s two lines of thought in regard more than that. But when you get to evangelical Christianity… You’ve got the idea that it all ties around the Holy Spirit. You’ve got one idea where people believe in the Holy Spirit, but believe that the Holy Spirit comes along beside you to help you or in Texas to help you to lead a good life. You also have another group that says that the role of the Holy Spirit is to come along beside and to help you to obey the law. Both of those are dead wrong. Because number one, he isn’t there to help you obey the law. He said to be dead to the law. So how could he be helping you to do what he said to die to? Think that one through. He didn’t come along to help you to live the Christian life. And I’m going to show you the truth of that. You had the apostles. Number one, you had, as I said, 4,000 years of God dealing with man in the Old Testament, showing them there’s not a way in the world that you can ever gain acceptance in my sight any way except by one way. What was it? Faith. That’s what the 11th chapter is all about. We’ll get to that next year. Faith. And so there’s only one way to please God, and that’s through faith, isn’t it? So he’s saying to us, you had that. And then Jesus appeared. And these men walked with Jesus for some three or four years. They saw everything that Jesus did. They walked hand in hand with the most marvelous human being that ever stepped upon this planet. The most loving man. Human being that was ever here by far. Walked with him. Talked with him. Heard what Jesus said. He discipled them, did he not? He discipled them with words and he discipled them with actions, did he not? They saw it all. You couldn’t have gotten a better discipler than Jesus. He is the best. He went through his death. He showed them in advance what that was all about, where I’m going to take away the sins of the world. They didn’t understand a chance. He was raised from the dead. Oh, that got their attention. Raised from the dead. Now I’ve seen it all. I’ve walked with Jesus. I’ve talked with Jesus. I’ve heard everything that he had to say. I’ve watched him model this life. And now I’ve seen him die for my sins. I’ve seen him raised from the dead, which was proof to me that he was God, and so that he said something about a Holy Spirit coming later. I don’t know for sure what that’s all about, but I’ve seen it all. Now, I’ve seen everything necessary in the gospel. I’ve lived with him, and I’ve seen his death, burial, and resurrection. I’ve seen everything I need to know. Wouldn’t you think that would be enough for you to go out and live a good life? I mean, if you had walked with Jesus, had the best teacher there was on the face of the earth, wouldn’t that say that that ought to be enough for you to follow him and walk in his life? Wouldn’t it or not? To me, I’d think, yeah, wow, that’s pretty good. Was it? No. And that’s why I think those 50 days following the resurrection of Christ were there. He said, I’ve given you 4,000 years to show you you can’t do it. Now you’ve seen everything I came to do, and I’m going to show you you still can’t do it. There is not a way in the world, even if you had walked with Jesus for all those years, seen everything he did, heard everything he said, there’s no way in the world you can live a Christian life. He said, the day of Pentecost is the day that I’m going to send my spirit To live in you, not to walk beside you and teach you, but to live in you and to be your life. And when Christ is your life appears, you’ll appear with him.
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It is all Him and it is none of us. There’s two lines of thought in regard more than that. But when you get to evangelical Christianity, you’ve got the idea that it all ties around the Holy Spirit. You’ve got one idea where people believe in the Holy Spirit, but believe that the Holy Spirit comes along beside you to help you or in Texas to help you to lead a good life. You also have another group that says that the role of the Holy Spirit is to come along beside and to help you to obey the law. Both of those are dead wrong. Because number one, he isn’t there to help you obey the law. He said to be dead to the law. So how could he be helping you to do what he said to die to? Think that one through. He didn’t come along to help you to live the Christian life. And I’m going to show you the truth of that. You had the apostles. Number one, you had, as I said, 4,000 years of God dealing with man in the Old Testament, showing them there’s not a way in the world that you can ever gain acceptance in my sight anyway except by one way. What was it? Faith. That’s what the 11th chapter is all about. We’ll get to that next year. Faith. And so there’s only one way to please God, and that’s through faith, isn’t it? So he’s saying to us, you had that. And then Jesus appeared. And these men walked with Jesus for some three or four years. They saw everything that Jesus did. They walked hand in hand with the most marvelous human being that ever stepped upon this planet. The most loving person. human being that was ever here by far. Walked with him. Talked with him. Heard what Jesus said. He discipled them, did he not? He discipled them with words and he discipled them with actions, did he not? They saw it all. You couldn’t have been, you couldn’t have gotten a better discipler than Jesus. He’s the best. He went through his death. He showed them in advance what that was all about, where I’m going to take away the sins of the world. They didn’t understand a chance. He was raised from the dead. Oh, that got their attention. Raised from the dead. Now I’ve seen it all. I’ve walked with Jesus. I’ve talked with Jesus. I’ve heard everything that he had to say. I’ve watched him model this life. And now I’ve seen him die for my sins. I’ve seen him raised from the dead, which was proof to me that he was God, and so that he said something about a Holy Spirit coming later. I don’t know for sure what that’s all about, but I’ve seen it all. Now, I’ve seen everything necessary in the gospel. I’ve lived with him, and I’ve seen his death, burial, and resurrection. seen everything I need to know. Wouldn’t you think that would be enough for you to go out and live a good life? I mean, if you had walked with Jesus, had the best teacher there was on the face of the earth, wouldn’t that say that that ought to be enough for you to follow him and walk in his life? Would it or not? To me, I’d think, yeah, wow, that’s pretty good. Was it? No. And that’s why I think those 50 days following the resurrection of Christ were there. He said, I’ve given you 4,000 years to show you you can’t do it. Now you’ve seen everything I came to do, and I’m going to show you you still can’t do it. There is not a way in the world, even if you had walked with Jesus for all those years, seen everything he did, heard everything he said, there’s no way in the world you can live the Christian life. He said, the day of Pentecost is the day that I’m going to send my spirit to To live in you, not to walk beside you and teach you, but to live in you and to be your life. And when Christ is your life appears, you’ll appear with him. I’m not asking you to live the Christian life either with me or apart from me. You can’t do it. That’s my life, not yours. But I will come and live inside of you and I will produce my life in and through you just like a vine produces its life in and through a branch. Identically the same. And there’s only one thing that I ask a branch to do. Walk by faith in the vine. Because there’s not one thing that you can do that I’m pleased with apart from abiding in the vine. Any fruit that you think you’re producing is artificial fruit, and someone comes along and takes a bite of it, they’re going to have a mouthful of wax. Because it’s not real. It looks real. If you stand at a distance, it looks real. That’s why we don’t want to let people get too close to us. You might find out what I’m really like. So just stay away a little bit. Don’t ever bite into me. That’s why we do that. Because we’re phonies. And so the issue is that he’s saying to us, you cannot do it. I never expected you to do it. I never thought you would do it. I never thought you could do it. And that’s why I’m coming to live in you, so that I can do it in and through you. That’s true Christianity. You’ve got a huge segment in Christianity today saying, no, Jesus came to walk alongside of you to help you to do it. And so if he’s helping me to do it, and I do it, who did it? Who did it? Me. Oh, I had a little help from Jesus. You know, it’s kind of 80% me and 20% a little whipping cream. Little Jesus whipping cream never hurt anybody. And so we go out and try, because Jesus is helping me, to live the Christian life in the energy of our flesh, still in the energy of our flesh. Because I’m doing it. He’s helping me to live in my flesh. He is helping me to walk in the flesh. Is he? No. But I want to tell you, folks, there is a huge segment of evangelical Christianity. I mean huge, that that’s precisely what they teach. You have people who teach that there is no such thing as the indwelling spirit. That sounds like voodoo. You see, the evangelical Christian world has come along and said, boy, don’t talk about this Holy Spirit. That’s too charismatic sounding. And automatically they start placing you with some wild charismatic teaching. Isn’t that just like Satan? Take what the heart of the gospel is and say, don’t get so involved in that. That’s what the wildies are doing. I don’t care who’s doing it, what they’re doing. This is truth. I don’t care who’s doing it or isn’t doing it. This is what truth is. That if I’m the vine and you’re the branch, that the only way that you’re going to function as a branch is through abiding in the life of the vine. That life that’s produced, that fruit that’s produced is not yours, branch. It’s mine. You just get the privilege of bearing it. Do we understand that, guys? You cannot love in your own strength, can you? You can try. But can you love with God’s love and your own strength? No. Can you have joy? No. You can have a little happiness every now and then, but that’s short-lived. How about peace? Can you have some peace occasionally? Yeah, a little bit of peace. You can go out on a river bank and fish, have a little peace, but you’ve got to go home. Patience, kindness, goodness, what’s called the fruit of what? The fruit of what, guys? By flesh? Or is it called the fruit of the what? The spirit. Only spirit can produce that. This isn’t voodoo, guys. This is real. If this isn’t real, Jesus isn’t real. He’s the one who told me, Bob, it’s good for you that I’m going away. Because while I’m here, you’re dealing with me on the basis of the five senses of sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. I’m going to deal with you on something totally different than that. It’s called spirit. You were born again of mom and dad. That’s flesh. I’m going to make you born again of the spirit. That’s God. And you cannot function apart from being born again of God. You can try. But it doesn’t make it. You know it doesn’t make it. We bounce prayers off of the ceiling. We know there’s an emptiness inside. We’re always seeking for something to bring me some happiness. I have no peace. I cannot rest. I’m always looking for something else. Looking for the next job. Looking for the next dollar. Looking for anything. Next girl. Next guy. Looking for anything to satisfy this empty heart. You know when you’re empty that you’re empty. I knew full well I was empty. I had the things of the world, but I was empty as a pork barrel inside without God living in me because God in the man is totally indispensable to the humanity of the man. And so faith is not dealing with sight. Faith is not dealing with feelings. Faith is not dealing with miracles. He gave those in order that we would believe his message. The only reason Jesus ever did a miracle, the reason he ever healed a person physically was so that we would listen to what he said spiritually. Because whatever you do that heals your body right now, you’re going to go into the grave sooner or later. It’s all temporary, is it not? But when you’re born again in the spirit, my friends, you’re told you have eternal life. Eternal life. Someone said to a man one time, I’m sorry to hear that you lost your wife. He said, oh, sir, when you lose something, you don’t know where they are. So I didn’t lose my wife. I know where she is. I’m just separated from her for a while. But I didn’t lose her. I know where she is. And folks, when we can live with that, we live with a peace in our hearts that passes all understanding. I want to tell you something. For Christians, you look at Christians and how they respond when people die. The world looks about. These people must be insensitive. These people don’t have any feelings. Why? They’re not moaning and groaning and wailing. And they’re saying, praise Jesus. What’s wrong with these people? Do they have any feelings or any heart? Do you think they understand that? Do you know what that’s called, folks? The peace of God that what? Passes what? All understanding. You cannot understand it on a human realm. It’s spiritual. And so, he’s saying to us that there’s one way that you’re going to function in this Christian life. You put your faith, not some of it, guys. I am convinced that nothing can separate me from the love of God. I may do things to separate you from me, but I’m not ever going to be separated from the love of God. I know that as well as I know that I’m standing here right now.
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Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.
