Join Bob George in this enlightening episode of Classic Christianity Radio as we delve into understanding what it means to live with the mind of Christ. Explore how spiritual discernment transforms lives, enabling Christians to access divine wisdom independent of human judgment. By recognizing ourselves as spiritual beings, we learn to hunger for the spiritual truths found in the Word of God, laying the foundation for a faith that calls us beyond the worldly state of infancy.
00:00:04 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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We live in dependency upon what does the pastor say. tell me, Pastor, what I’m supposed to believe, and I’ll believe it. And I say, you’re an idiot. Because it’s the Spirit of God who will teach you the truth of the Word of God. And I can count on that. I don’t have to sit and feel threatened by that. That each and every one of you who are sitting in this room or listening on our television or wherever it might be, if you’re born again… You have the Spirit of God living in you. And quite frankly, I can trust the Spirit of God to teach you truth. And it’s not my truth. It’s His truth. I don’t have truth. It’s His truth. And I can trust Him to do that if you’ll rely on Him to do it. Now, that’s a big if. But if you rely on Him, we’ll be in total unity in understanding the Scripture. Not an ounce of difference. If we’ll depend upon the Spirit of God to reveal truth. the meaning of the Word of God to you. And so he’s saying that in verse 14, that the man without the Spirit doesn’t accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. They’re foolish to him. He can’t understand them. Why? Well, because spiritual things have to be discerned spiritually. And you can’t discern something spiritually unless the Spirit of God lives in you. The spiritual man, that’s a person now who is indwelt by the Spirit of God, makes judgments about all things. But he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But look at that, folks. But we have what? The mind of Christ. Now, if that isn’t mind-boggling, I don’t know what is. That he is saying to you and me that you possess the mind of Christ. Now, if you’re like me, Which would you rather depend on, my mind or the mind of Christ? You see, if you’ve got an ounce of discernment, you ought to figure that out. That I, from at least with my thinking and what some of the dumb stuff I’ve thought and gotten into, I don’t want to depend on that. But I don’t have to depend on it. Aren’t you glad you don’t have to depend on your mind alone? You have the mind of Christ living in you. And that means that I have the ability now, as it says in the scripture, to participate in that divine nature that lives in me. That’s available to every single one of us, that we can access the mind of Christ. And so just imagine, and that’s all you’re going to be able to do is imagine, that you lived your whole life doing nothing but thinking the thoughts of Jesus. And that’s why I say that takes a big imagination. But just imagine that you could. Look what you would save yourself from. Look at the trials and tribulations that you and I have had in our lives that could be saved, that we would have been saved from had we just listened to the mind of Christ. And especially is that bad when you’re a Christian and you had the mind of Christ to depend on, but you’re too dumb to do it. So, guys, if you just think through the logic of this marvelous plan of God, he said, I have done everything that you need for life and godliness. I’ve given you my mind. You have the mind of Christ living in you. And therefore, every decision that you make, you can depend upon that mind, if you will, and get instruction directly from me. It’s not a bad deal, is it, guys? And so, it says, who has not known the mind of Christ that he may instruct him? Now, he says in chapter 3, Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly. mere infants in christ i gave you milk not solid food for you’re not ready for it yet now what’s he talking about there guys he’s talking about the fact that you are born again but you have allowed yourself no growth none at all i’ve known people like that that are 20 said they came to christ 20 30 years ago that are no further along than the day they were born again still depending on their own understanding, have no knowledge of the word of God, have no appreciation for the fact of even the need to study the word of God. I’ve had people say, well, you don’t need to study the word of God. Really? And so the whole thing is that he’s saying you’re a babe in Christ and babes need to be what? To live. What do they need to be done? Fed. Fed. Now spiritually, if you’re a babe in Christ, what do you need to live? Food. What kind of food? Spiritual food. Spiritual food. If you’re a spiritual being, now you need spiritual food. You’re a physical being, you need physical food. You’re a spiritual being, and you need spiritual food. Now where are you going to get your spiritual food? What is spiritual food, guys? It’s the Word of God. It’s the word of God. Spiritual food. Now, what is that feeding? Your toes? What’s spiritual food feeding? Your mind. Your mind. Not feed my arms, my legs. It’s feed my mind. Spiritual food feeding my mind. Not my stomach. My mind. My mind. Because he says, as a man thinks, what? So is he. Whatever you are and whatever you are going to become is going to be totally predicated on the renewing of your mind, on what you’re thinking. What you’re thinking when you’re 50, 60, 70, and if you live to be 80 or 90. I won’t go beyond that. So he’s saying to us that I would like to be able to address you as a spiritual person. But you’ve remained a babe. You’ve been in Christ 20 years. How long have you had this Bible? See, I used to sit around and say, why didn’t the church teach me this? And God says, idiot, why didn’t you learn it yourself? You’ve got a Bible. But you see, I sat there. Well, you just tell me what to believe, huh? And I hope none of you are believing what you believe because I’m telling you. I’m just telling you what I’ve learned out of this word. But until you’ve learned it by God, all you’ve done is learned what I’ve told you. And I could be lying out my teeth to you. If you don’t believe that, just watch Christian television. So he says… You’re mere infants. I gave you milk. I couldn’t feed you on meat. Couldn’t feed you on solid food. Not ready for it. And you were not ready for it. Indeed, you’re still not ready. Said you’re still worldly. You still are thinking worldly. You’ve never transferred over to realize that I can study a book and get some information. And I could regurgitate that information. into a blue book and get enough grades to have a degree and get as high a degrees as I want. But if I want wisdom from God, I’m going to have to get it here because this is spiritual food. This is what is feeding you spiritually. The other is feeding you on a human level. But I need wisdom from God, don’t I? I’m living here in this earth, but I have God’s wisdom available to me. Is that right or wrong, guys? So he says, you’re still worldly. You still haven’t grown up. I marvel sometimes at people that have no appreciation for the word of God. They have no desire. They’ll read everything under the sun, but never sit down and read the Bible. Don’t have any interest in it. I guess it’s the idea that don’t see worth to do you much good. Didn’t do much good for old Harry. Or something. I don’t know. I don’t. I do not comprehend why someone does not have a hunger to study a love letter. I mean, I’ll guarantee you if you were in love. And the person you were in love with wrote you a letter, I guarantee you’re not going to sit around and go, I wonder what’s in the paper. I guarantee you’d be reading that letter. And you’d read it upside down and backwards and forwards and in between the lines. And if she wasn’t clear in how she interpreted it, you would interpret it for her. Why don’t we want to read this love letter from God? Well, I’ll tell you the reason is because we’re in a spiritual warfare. And it’s talked about in the scripture that we’re in a spiritual warfare. And God is continually pushing us to get our wisdom here. And Satan is never ending relentlessly to keep you away from it. Is that right or wrong? How many times have you ever said, I’m going to go read the Bible? And you said that in the kitchen. And the Bible’s in the office. And between the kitchen and the office, you’ve got ten chores you’ve got to do. And you never get around to reading the Bible. Because you’re in a warfare. Now again, guys, if you eat because you’re hungry… Or some people just eat because it’s there. Why did you eat? It’s there. But you should eat when you’re hungry. And when you are no longer hungry, you ought to stop. That would be the best way to do if you were going to have some kind of weight control. But you’re hungry. Well, you ought to be hungry for spiritual things. If you’re a spiritual being, there should be a hunger for spiritual truth. Because what are you going to talk about, guys? I mean, what are you going to put your basis of thinking on? Either the world or spirit. And so he’s saying, you’re not ready for it. You’re still worldly. Now, he says here, guys, for there’s jealousy and quarreling among you. Are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men for? And when you see a for, it’s because of what I just said, for worldly. When someone says, I follow Paul, another, I follow Apollos, are we not mere men? So what he’s talking about here in regard to jealousy and in regard to quarreling, he’s talking about man followers. Now, he talked about that over, did he not, in the first chapter where he said one follows Paul, the other follows Apollos, and the other follows Cephas. Now, look what he says here, guys. In other words, you could say… that I follow the Baptists, or I follow the Presbyterians, or I follow the Catholic, or I follow this. Same thing, man-followers.
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Classic Christianity Radio thanks you for your support of our online and radio ministry. Make sure to visit bobgeorge.net to order a copy of the Closer Look Bible Study Series. A Closer Look Bible Studies features eight in-depth study guides that detail hundreds of Bible verses to help you deepen your understanding of the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. A Closer Look Bible Study Guides are an excellent tool for both individuals and larger Bible study groups. Please visit bobgeorge.net to order your copy of A Closer Look Bible Studies, as well as many other wonderful books, CDs, and study guides. With your support, we can continue to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Let’s continue now with our Classic Christianity radio program.
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He says, and look what it says, what, after all, is Apollos, and what is Paul? Notice he doesn’t say who. He didn’t say, after all, who is Apollos? He says, what are they? What are they? And it says, only servants. Well, you see, Apollos and Paul were called apostles. And they could be called pastor. I don’t like somebody calling me pastor. I really don’t. Pastor George, come on, just call me Bob. Why? Because those names make it sound like you’re somebody’s somebody. And we’re not. We’re not. And so here’s Paul and Apollos and Peter, who were apostles, handpicked by Jesus, who’s saying, what are we? He could have said, well, we’re apostles. Well, we’re preachers. And we’re pastors. And we’re priests. He said, no, we’re servants. A servant. That’s a person who serves others. That’s a person who washes people’s feet when they’re dirty. A servant. And that’s what he said. And you know what? He’s proud of it. He isn’t sitting there saying, we’re just servants. He’s glad to be a servant. He’s here serving the Lord. He says, what are we? What are we? We’re only servants through whom you came to believe. In other words, we are serving you and you came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ because of what we came to tell you. As the Lord assigned to each of us the task, he said this was not self-induced. This was following what the Lord told us to do. He said, I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. You go out in your lawn, you plant something, you can plant it, you can water it, but guess who has to make it grow? God. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything. What is… Can you imagine the apostle Paul saying, I’m nothing? I’m nothing. To me, he’s big, isn’t he? To me, there’s never been a man like him outside of Christ Jesus, to me, as I read his life in the Bible. And he said, no, Bob, got the wrong deal. No, you don’t got the wrong deal. Who are we? We’re nothing. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. But we are God’s fellow workers and you are God’s field and God’s building. We’re all in this together, guys. We are all in this together. And those of you who have decided to worship in this assembly and to follow this ministry are following a movement of God that is bigger than us or you. We have been dedicated for 25 to 30 years of doing nothing less, nothing else except drawing people away from legalism back into the arms of the grace of God. And if you think that is not God’s will, you don’t understand the scripture. Paul says, don’t let anyone put you back under the yoke of legalism, the do’s and the don’ts. And we have been helping. We’ve been on the cutting edge media-wise and book-wise and everything else. We’ve been on the cutting edge. There’s no question about that for over 20-some years of getting people out of that legalism that kills you back into the grace of God that gives you life. We haven’t compromised the gospel. We haven’t added to it. We haven’t told people that you have to be baptized to be saved because baptism is not in the gospel. We haven’t told people you have to speak in tongues because I think, quite frankly, we don’t speak enough with the language we do know. We don’t need a thousand tongues to sing when we don’t use the one we have to speak the good news to people. We haven’t told people that you have to tithe because tithing is not New Testament form of giving. We never had to compromise. We never had to coerce people. Paid this building off in six years. Never told people to tithe. Why? It’s not biblical. What did we ask you to do? Give sacrificially. Give joyfully. Just what it talks about in Corinthians. Give in accordance to what you do have, not in accordance to what you don’t have. That’s biblical giving. And today, we’ve gotten away from biblical giving. Said, no, you ought to come tithe. We had a guy call the other day. He said, what do you think I ought to do? I said, what do you mean? He said, well, I’m in a church where the pastor demands that we bring our tax report to the church to see what we make so to be sure we’re tithing. And I said, well, I don’t know who’s dumber, the pastor or you, for staying there. That’s what I told him. I don’t know who’s dumber, the pastor or you. I wouldn’t stay in that church for five minutes. And yet a person will sit there and say, well, what should I do? What should I do? Backdoor evangelism. Get out of there. Find yourself someplace that teaches truth. It’s not truth. Tithing is a way of supporting the Levitical priesthood. Tithing was giving foodstuff. So I said, you ought to really surprise them someday. Get a bushel of corn and dump it on the altar. It’s not biblical. And it’s a sin to teach what is not biblical as pastors. We’re told in the scripture that we’re supposed to be ministers of a new covenant, not the old that kills. Levitical priesthood is old. This is new. If any man be in Christ, he’s a new creation. Old things have passed away and behold, all things have become new. Thank God for it. So he says that when you’re following Paul, following Apollos, following Peter, aren’t you just mere men? You’re just man followers. After all, he says, what is Apollos? What is Paul? Only servants. God’s fellow workers. And you are God’s field, God’s building. By the grace God has given me, Paul said, I laid a foundation as an expert builder. and someone else is building on it. Now, guys, a foundation. We’ve talked about this, the importance of a foundation. In California, it was like Texas, where pier and beam type of construction was very scarce. It was all slab construction. And you had a lot of mass builders like here in Dallas and other places, people who built hundreds of houses at a time. Well, you had people who would go in and in concrete, if you know how that’s done, you’ve got what they call reinforcing steel. And you have to put the reinforcing steel in. And they would have the inspectors who would come by and solidify the fact that the reinforcing steel has been put in and then move on. And the builder would come in and take it out and move it someplace else. So you had a slab with no reinforcing steel. Thousands of houses like that. It’s against the law. It’s criminal. But they did it. Now, if you had one of those houses, it was concrete. You can’t see there in a reinforcing steel in there, but there wasn’t any reinforcing steel. Guess what happens in about a year? Concrete starts cracking. And if it lasts long enough, your house will fall down. Your foundation in a house, you know that in order to have a house that’s going to remain, it had better have a solid foundation, don’t you? Well, the same thing is true biblical. That Paul says that by the grace given me, I laid a foundation. In other words, I’m going to lay the foundation of Jesus Christ. He is the foundation. And he tells us later on in Corinthians that this is the gospel or this is the foundation that saves you. Death of Christ. burial of Christ, and resurrection of Christ. This is the gospel that saves you. When you come to Christ, you don’t come to get dunked in water. You come to Jesus to get life. Whose life? His life. Who’s available to you? The resurrection of Christ Jesus. The historical event of Christ Jesus’ life when he died for our sins and on the third day was raised from the dead. We can look at that as a historical event and say, I believe that. Yeah, but you don’t believe what he did it for. I mean, he just wasn’t raised from the dead to be raised from the dead because he was tired of being in the grave. He was raised in the dead so that that life that raised him from the dead can raise you from the dead. Because you’re born dead. You’re not born alive. No man was born alive except Jesus. That’s why his virgin birth isn’t up for grabs. You’re born dead. And if you’re dead, guys, that is not a good state to be in. You don’t have to be a genius to figure that out. That’s kind of dumb to come to understand that the Bible says you’re born dead and say, I want to remain dead. He said, I came that you might have what? Life. I am the resurrection and the life. And whosoever believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? He who has the Son has what? Life. What kind of life? Spiritual life. Where did it come from? The resurrected Jesus. If you have the Son, you have life. If you don’t have the Son of God, you don’t have life, which means what? You’re dead. The whole issue of salvation is an issue of life and death. Now, in order to give you life eternal, he had to eternally take away from the eyes of God, eternally, the cause of death, which was what? Sin. Sin. That’s why there is no condemnation for you who belong to Christ Jesus. Why? He took it away. God didn’t deal with man on the basis of sin today. He’s dealing with the basis of new life. The whole issue is, are you in Christ or are you out of Christ? If you’re out of Christ, you’re dead. If you’re in Christ, you’re alive. And we’ve made a big religion out of this. And we’ve made our list of do’s and don’ts out of this. And Christ says, Paul says through his word, the only thing that counts, Bob, is your faith in me resulting in love toward others. Period. Period. Period. The only thing that counts is faith in me and loving one another. Simple, isn’t it? But you see, what do we do with simple things? Make them confusing. So he has given him, he said, he laid the foundation. Each one of you should be careful how he builds. You’ll notice on that foundation there was no baptism, no tongues, no church attendance, death of Jesus, burial of Jesus, and resurrection of Jesus. Are we in that equation at all? Anybody out there have anything to do with that passage? You have anything to do with it? Not a thing. Not a thing. Your deal is accepted or rejected. If you haven’t been born again, it’s because you have not accepted what Jesus has done for you. Some people say, I haven’t been born again because I’m not good enough. You there will be good enough.
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Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
