In this episode of Classic Christianity Radio, Bob George addresses the profound struggles and questions from callers who are experiencing real-life challenges. From addiction and marital issues to complex theological interpretations, Bob guides listeners through the murky waters of faith, offering insights rooted in the completeness of the Gospel. With a compassionate and understanding approach, he illustrates how embracing the full spectrum of Christ’s message can empower individuals to transform their lives.
00:00:01 Introduction to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George
00:00:49 Call from Eric in New Orleans: Struggling with Addiction
00:06:43 Understanding the Completeness of the Gospel with Eric
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 04 :
Let’s go to New Orleans, Louisiana, listening on WLNO. Eric, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, I have a problem. with drugs and I want to know what scriptures I can read to help me it’s like a daily thing I use drugs but I know the law and I’m trying to change and it’s very hard I’m on heroin and drugs so it’s pretty hard to just stop it but I’m and people tell me I’m damning myself but I I believe that through reading the word and listening to it that God will convict me to change and just leave it alone.
SPEAKER 04 :
Eric, let me ask you a question. Have you ever come to the point of knowing Christ personally?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes. Yes, I read the Word and pray and speak to Him as my Father, yes. I do believe personally I do know Him.
SPEAKER 04 :
What is your understanding of the Gospel?
SPEAKER 06 :
That God loved me and I can have a peaceful life here on earth and then rejoice when I get to heaven.
SPEAKER 04 :
And that’s your understanding of the gospel? In other words, the gospel, Eric, has to be contained in what God did for you. What is your understanding of what Christ did for you?
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, he died on the cross for my sins.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay. Okay. Well, here, Eric, again, I think can be a part of the problem. I’ve asked this question I don’t know how many times in the 16 years that we’ve been on the air. And here’s the problem with that, Eric. And it’s because, in my opinion, that we have poor evangelism. dying for your sins is wonderful. Thank God for that. But that was merely the way in which God cleared the deck for the divine action of bringing life to the dead, what I was talking to Janie about, because you’ve got a far greater problem than sins. It’s called death. The wages or the byproduct of sin is death, spiritual death. And so many times people have come to Christ merely with an understanding to get their sins forgiven. Kind of a fire insurance policy. I don’t want to go to hell, and I know I’m a sinner, and so Jesus died for the sins of the world, so I’ll come to get my sins forgiven. But we miss what salvation is, because Romans 5 tells us that while we were yet enemies… and that means lost, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by His life? So we’re not saved merely by the death of Christ, you’re saved by the life of Christ. And what we’re saved from is the wages, the consequence of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is eternal life. And that’s why when you have the Son, you have what? Life. So many times, Eric, a person says, well, I’m saved, but I don’t have any power over this flesh of mine. And so what you’re dealing with there is, have you come to him for the fullness of of what the gospel is, and that’s not just his death for you, but his life in you, because otherwise you have no power to conquer the very things you’re talking about. So, Eric, the first stop that I want to make on this journey is to be sure that if you and your understanding of the gospel, because it says the gospel saves, it’s the truth of the gospel, and the gospel is the work of Christ saves you, that you have a full understanding of that your salvation is not just getting sins forgiven, but was the receiving of the very life of Christ to come in and take residence in your life. And if you didn’t understand that, and many people don’t, why then they think, well, my sins are forgiven and I’m saved, but I don’t have any power. And so the only thing I can do here is to ask you, where do you think you are in this process? Do you think that you understood these truths, or are you just now coming to understand them?
SPEAKER 06 :
The second truth about salvation, I’m just coming to understand.
SPEAKER 04 :
Just to understand that. Yeah. So there’s a possibility that when you accepted forgiveness, that you stopped there without going on to actually receiving the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. Well, Eric, you are not the lone ranger in this, believe me. And there are many, many people who are in that same situation. And that’s why it’s not our role, of course, to determine who’s saved and who isn’t. That’s between the individual and their Lord. But we do know that there’s a responsibility to present the gospel in its fullness. And the fullness of the gospel is that you’re saved from the wages of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is life. So, Eric, if it’s your desire tonight to go and to, let’s go with the completeness of the gospel, that in the event that I did not accept you as your life, but merely for your forgiveness, that today I want you to come and be my Lord, not just my Savior, but my Lord. Yes, that’s what I want. You want to do that tonight, Eric?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, I do.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay. Well, Eric, let’s go ahead and pray together. As I said to Janie, God knows your heart. And so prayer is not what saves you, but prayer is merely a way that you are expressing to God that you understand now the fullness of his life, wanting to come to live in you, and by faith you’re accepting that. Well, let’s pray, and why don’t you just repeat after me. Lord Jesus, I need you.
SPEAKER 06 :
Lord Jesus, I need you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you for taking away all of my sins.
SPEAKER 06 :
Never to see them again.
SPEAKER 04 :
You didn’t come to cover sins, but to take them away. Having done that at the cross, I now accept your resurrected life.
SPEAKER 06 :
I ask you to come into my heart I ask you to come into my heart.
SPEAKER 04 :
To be my Lord and my Savior. And my very best friend. You promised never to leave me or forsake me.
SPEAKER 06 :
And I trust you for that. In the days ahead.
SPEAKER 04 :
As I allow you to take control of my life. And depend upon you.
SPEAKER 06 :
And depend upon you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Rather than drugs.
SPEAKER 06 :
Rather than drugs.
SPEAKER 04 :
For my meaning and purpose to life.
SPEAKER 06 :
For my meaning and purpose to life.
SPEAKER 04 :
In Jesus’ name.
SPEAKER 06 :
In Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.
SPEAKER 04 :
Amen. Thank you. You’re sure welcome, Eric. Now, Eric, here’s the case now. You have the living Christ. who has made a promise that the Holy Spirit of God living in you will now lead you into all truth. recognize the fact that what you have with drugs, alcohol, or any of the other things that all of us get plagued with is a misplaced dependency. We are depending upon drugs to do something for us. That’s why they call it drug dependency. Or alcohol to do something for us. Or the popularity of the crowd to do something for us. Or a sex partner to do something for us. And it’s impossible. It’s a spiritual need. That can only be filled spiritually. And so when that desire continues to come, and it will, to depend upon what you’ve been depending upon, drugs, to meet this need, recognize that who is putting that thought in your mind? Because it’s not God. And if it isn’t God, then it’s right, it’s the devil. So the issue is, do you want to be mastered by the devil or do we want to be mastered by God? Because it’s not being mastered by drugs. That’s just an avenue that he uses to mess you up. But it’s being mastered by him. And so our choice comes down. Do we want to be mastered by the one that we know came to do only three things? Kill, steal, and destroy me. Or do I want to be mastered by the one who loves me perfectly and demonstrated that love in that while I was a sinner, he came to die for me so that raised from the dead he could come and live in me. And so that’s how you’re going to have to handle this situation. It’s not going to be easy. But to recognize that you don’t have to depend upon that anymore. You have Christ now. You have something far greater than a drug to keep you going. And you may fall in the meantime. When you do, pick yourself back up. Never forget, if you do fall, never forget that the love of God has never left you. Don’t ever let that go. And who are you now? You’re a child of God, aren’t you? A person come down and say, no, no, Satan come in. No, you’re a drug addict. No, no. No, I’m a child of God. who’s had a problem with drugs. I might still have it for a while, but I’m a child of God. And if I’m a drug addict, one of the most natural things for me to do is take drugs. But I’m not a drug addict anymore. I’m a child of God. Eric, I’m going to send you a tape series that we’ve done on how to have a proper self-image, and it deals with hanging on to this new identity that you have now in Christ. And I’m going to send that to you as our compliments. And I want you to listen through that and continue. Like I say, the pathway is not going to be easy. But I want to tell you, there’s light at the end of that tunnel. I see. Okay?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, sir. Could I ask you another question?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, Eric.
SPEAKER 06 :
I was raised as a Catholic, and I was christened. And now… As I’ve grown and I’m 46 now, I find out that a lot of the beliefs I was taught, I don’t believe anymore. But they tell me that I would have to be baptized. Is that so? Is my Christmas considered a baptism?
SPEAKER 04 :
No, neither one of those things have any meaning to them at all until you come to Christ. The sprinkling water on anybody is not a picture of anything. The baptism of the scripture, which is immersion, shows a picture. And that’s what baptism is for. It doesn’t identify you with anything. It’s a picture of who you’ve been identified with, and that’s Christ Jesus. So it’s a picture of dying. And coming alive. So it’s a picture of your being dead, you know, that’s like drowning, and then being raised in the newness of life in Christ Jesus. So it is not necessary for anything. It’s a wonderful visual picture as to what God has done for you by raising you from the dead and giving you new life. So it’s not something you have to do. As God leads you and puts a desire in your heart to be baptized, fine. But that has nothing to do with your salvation at all.
SPEAKER 06 :
Because I was under the impression that if I didn’t get baptized, I couldn’t enter into the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, no, you’re already in the kingdom of heaven. There’s only one way to do that, and that is by faith and faith alone. So you’re already there, brother.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you, man. Praise God.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay. God bless you, brother.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
Robert in Waco, Texas, listening on KBW. Robert, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, thank you so much for taking my call. How are you today?
SPEAKER 04 :
Doing good, Robert. Thank you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good. Well, I have a predicament. My wife and I have been going to the same church for quite a while. I’m 55. She’s 40. And we got a new youth minister about six months ago and found out last week from the church secretary that she just happened to walk in on those two when they were in the middle of something very naughty. And I don’t know how to approach it. I don’t know what I should do.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, have you confronted your wife with this?
SPEAKER 05 :
Not yet. Not yet.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, that’s the first thing that you have to do. There’s nothing to be nervous about on it, Robert. I think if that’s the case, at least you need to get her side of the story because you’ve got two things. You either have your wife that is going to be lying or a secretary that’s lying. And you could have either one. You don’t know whether that secretary has a false motive or your wife does. And you’re going to have to confront it. So I would confront her with it. And if she denies it, then I would take her to the secretary that is the one who told you. And if she told you, then she’s already out in the open. And take her to the secretary who made the accusation and let her express what she saw. And start from there. If that doesn’t work, why go, you know, then. then you’re going to have to make some decisions.
SPEAKER 05 :
But one decision that I would… Our youth minister is new. I mean, he’s been there for six months.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, if he’s fooling around with your wife, that should be the last six months that he’s there. So that’s another deal. If he’s fooling around with your wife, he needs to be fired. And so that needs to come out. He has no business as a church leader fooling around with somebody in the congregation.
SPEAKER 05 :
I know.
SPEAKER 04 :
He’s only 27 years old. Yeah, well, I don’t care how old he is. The issue is you need to bring it out in the open, Robert. Don’t sit back and stew over it. Confront her, and if she denies it, go to the secretary. And if that doesn’t work, go to the pastor and let him get involved in it. Let him then confront the youth director. Because the secretary is who saw, huh?
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, I… I can tell you about two years ago, she did have an affair with another guy that we got through. But this new youth minister is very popular with the ladies in the church.
SPEAKER 04 :
Robert, I could care less as to how popular somebody is. You’ve got a wife that is evidently fooling around with a youth director. He needs to get his rear end fired. If that’s what he’s doing, he needs to be fired. That needs to be taken to the elders or to the pastor and confronted. That will be the only thing that’s going to stop his idiotic behavior, and it might be the only thing that will stop your wife’s idiotic behavior. But you’re not going to stop at sitting around mauling on it. You need today to confront your wife and to get to the bottom of this. I wouldn’t sit around.
SPEAKER 05 :
I will do that. The secretary told me they were both naked.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I don’t care about the details. I’m just saying let her confront. If she saw it, then your wife knows she saw it. So get them together. And that needs to go to the pastor. And the pastor needs to take a stand on that and fire him. And your wife needs to be admonished, and she needs to have some truth driven into her head.
SPEAKER 1 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. That’s good advice. And don’t delay on that. Do it today.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, I will. Okay, brother. I don’t think I can stand this any longer.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, of course not. You’re not supposed to. And the church shouldn’t stand it. That’s going to ruin the church. So for the sake of the body of Christ, you need to do what we just talked about.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, I cannot imagine. Well, this guy, I don’t know what his problem is.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, one of his problems should be that he’ll be unemployed. So I wouldn’t care what his problem is. He needs to be unemployed. And there is no excuse for a church worker fooling around with a congregation. There’s no excuse for that. Go take care of the deal. Okay. Listening on WFIA in Louisville, Kentucky, we have Tom. Tom, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 02 :
Tom, how are you doing?
SPEAKER 04 :
Pretty good, Tom.
SPEAKER 02 :
I wanted to ask you another question about 2 Timothy 2, verses 11 through 13, particularly verse 12 and 13. I can read it to you real quickly. It says, Here is a trustworthy saying, If we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. And then it says, if we disown him, he will also disown us. But the next verse says, if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself. Verse 12 would almost seem like, you know, legalistically, if we disown him, he will disown us. maybe if we refuse life or so forth, but then in the very next sentence it talks about like a believer, even if we’re faithless, he remains faithful. Would 12 be almost like a salvation thing and
SPEAKER 04 :
And 13 for believers? Yes, absolutely. If we deny him, and disown is an NIV translation, but a more accurate translation of that is deny. So if we deny him, he will also deny us. So people that deny him are lost. On the other hand, as a saved person, if we’re faithless, he’ll remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself. So I think you’re talking about, in verse 12, the lost, and in verse 13, you’re talking about the saved.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I thought that was in… I’m not a student that much, you know, I know about contentual things, but contentually, I’ve never seen one verse… talking about the lost and then jump right into the saved. I mean, it seems like, you know, usually in context it goes into various, you know, many sentences and paragraphs and then it’ll go on to something different. I’ve never seen one verse lost and the very next verse saved, you know. But I guess there’s no rule of thumb on that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, no. 1 John deals with that type of a thing. It talks about lost and saved in basic same context. So, again, you just have to look at those things in light of the totality of what you do know. In other words, if this appears to be somewhat obscure, you don’t go to the obscure to interpret the obvious. You go to the obvious to interpret the obscure. So the obvious of the scripture tells us, obviously, that if you’re saved, that he is not going to disown us as a saved person. And so that’s why I think when we look at 13, if I’m faithless, he’s going to remain faithful to me because he can’t disown himself. And If I am in him and he is in me, then for him to disown me, he would have to disown himself because we have now become as one, haven’t we? But on the other hand, if we disown him, he will also disown us. Now, that has to be two different kinds of people unless it’s contradicting itself. So the only people who can deny or disown, bad terminology to me, the disowned, deny him, he will also deny us.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay. Well, thank you very much.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, Tom. Good to talk to you, brother.
SPEAKER 02 :
You too, Bob. Thanks a lot.
SPEAKER 04 :
God bless you, pal. Well, let’s go to Indianapolis, Indiana. Let’s go on WBRI. Doug, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey, I have kind of a tough question to go through you with. My wife was talking to me, and she’s been seeking counsel with me, and we’re actually going to meet with our pastor. I listen to your program on occasion. I want to get your feedback. We’ve been married about 13 years, and her mother has really been a thorn in our marriage since the beginning. Right after we got married, she called my wife 13 years ago and said, hey, do you want to go to Disney World with us but not your husband? And she’s kind of been that way throughout our marriage, and now we have two children that are 8 and 5, and she’s just constantly telling my wife she’s not a good mother, she doesn’t have a good head on her shoulder, she’s not making good decisions. And we live a long ways from her. but my wife has kind of broken down lately and told me she feels like her mother is toxic in her life, but she doesn’t know what the Bible would tell her to do, because her mother keeps telling her she should basically leave me or get away from me, and we’re a Bible-believing family. We go to a Bible-believing church. We’re both saved. We put our faith in the Lord Jesus and that blood on the cross, and we have family devotions every night, but her mom doesn’t look at any of that. Her mother has been divorced twice, and She’s been just kind of a trouble in our marriage. She just wants to see what your advice would be. My wife basically wants to write her a letter and tell her to stay out of her life and never communicate with her or her children again. She sees her as being toxic.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I can’t tell a person what to do on that type of thing. I would just say there certainly is a violation of what Scripture is, and that is that you’re to leave your father and mother and to cleave to your wife and to your husband, and the two of you become as one. And explain that that’s how you’re going to live your life, regardless of whether she likes that or not. Yeah, Doug, I think that a lot of times parents don’t get the idea that there comes a point in the time where they’re no longer parenting their children.
SPEAKER 03 :
My wife is 38 and I’m 40. We were both college graduates. And, you know, I guess the question I really have is, is she not honoring thy mother and thy father? If you were to write her a letter and you said, Mother, you know, I’ve had a hard time dealing with your view of my marriage and what marriage is. She divorced her second husband because she said God doesn’t want anyone to be unhappy. She just wasn’t happy. and that marriage, and every single relationship in my wife’s family has been divorced other than she and I, and we firmly believe until death do you part, and that I’ll be God intended just to be happy in marriage. You should be happy, but you found happiness in Christ.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, Doug, let me stop. I understand all that. Here’s the key to it. Listen to what I’m getting ready to tell you. Okay. You don’t have to do anything. I mean, if you are under the grace of God, it isn’t what you have to do, it’s what you get to do. And the whole issue is that if this is a problem, she could very well either call or to talk to her mom and say that, that we live by the Bible, what the Bible says. The Bible says that I’m to leave you and to cleave to my husband, which I’m going to do. That is my loyalty is to my husband. I love you as a mother. I thank God for you as a mother. But you are no longer mothering me. We have a new entity called marriage, and that’s where my loyalty is going to be. So if you don’t mind, I would appreciate if you’d stay out of our business. We want to love you as a person. We want to have you around as a person. But I don’t want you mothering me anymore because that’s not your role, and I have no intention of accepting that role. That’s not being dishonorable to your parents. That’s being loving to them. It’s telling them truth.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you for your time.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, brother. Okay, Doug. Yeah, God bless. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 01 :
Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
SPEAKER 06 :
Put Jesus first in your life and turn your life around.
