Join us in this episode as we delve deep into the dynamics of God’s will and the role humans play in either fostering or thwarting it. Bob George tackles the often complex relationship between knowing the Word of God and living it out in our daily interactions. We explore the theme of standing firm in faith amidst trials and tribulations and discuss how our circumstances reveal our true nature.
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.
SPEAKER 02 :
And so it said that they displease. They’re hostile, it says, to all men. In other words, you do not have other people’s interest at heart when you’re out promoting sin, do you? You’re not looking out after the benefit of somebody else. You’re looking out after your own benefit. So you’re hostile to men in their efforts to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles. And so God’s goal for us It said it’s God’s will that none should perish and all should come to repentance. That’s his will. But is his will going to be fulfilled? Is it true that all of us are going to come to Christ? No. So, in other words, can his will be thwarted? Is it possible to thwart the will of God? Absolutely. If it wasn’t, we’d all be saved, wouldn’t we? Is it God’s will that we all give thanks in all things? For this is the will of God. Can that be thwarted? Can that thing come up and say, give thanks? You know what you’re talking about. I’m not going to give thanks for this. I’m hurting. And so God’s will could be thwarted. And we have to understand the truth of that. And so he said that in regard to these people who are out for one reason only, and that is to keep God’s will from being done. And in this particular case, God’s will for the Gentiles to be able to hear the good news of the gospel. It says they heap up their sins to the limit, and the wrath of God has come upon them, and actually it means fully, have fully come upon them. But brothers, it says, when we were torn away from you for a short time in person, though not in thought, out of our intense longing, we made every effort to see you, for we wanted to come to you. Certainly I, Paul, did again and again, but Satan stopped us. Now guys, how does Satan stop you from things? Well, it talks about up here that That these people that killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out, they displeased God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. So who does God use or who does Satan use to thwart the will of God? Who does he use, guys? People. People. Are we right or wrong? He can probably use other things. You know, he can get you sick and keep you from going to work and that type of thing. But basically, he’s going to use people. And how is he going to use us? By lying to us. In other words, where he can use people very easily who do not know the word of God. How does God get the lost deceived? Because they are deceived. Why? They don’t have a clue as to what the Word of God says. Now, you get people who have just a smathering of knowledge of the Word of God. They’re the most dangerous. They know enough to be dangerous. And kind of, I laugh… at Bill O’Reilly that many of you have seen on Fox News, and he’s got some very good sense on most things. But when he starts talking religion, I have to laugh, because he’s just got a smathering of knowledge there that he’s dangerous. And people like that are dangerous. But if you don’t know whether you’re lost or saved, what the Word of God says, you’re subject to deception, aren’t you? You can be deceived very, very easily. And so people, well-meaning people, thinking they’re giving you good advice, are literally going contrary to the Word of God. Look at the Apostle Paul. How many times was he told by God, by what he thought God was saying is to go into different parts of the world. And then his friends were saying, oh, don’t go in there. You’re going to be killed. Jesus, the same way. You’re not going to go into Jerusalem, are you? They’re all looking for you. Well, God was saying, that’s my destiny. And they were saying, no, no, Lord, we don’t want that to be your destiny. And so those were well-meaning people, but they were not speaking truth. And so he says here that Satan had stopped us. So in other words, in some way, in somehow, in some way, Satan had stopped them through people from getting to come to visit the people in Thessalonica. And so he says, what is our hope and our joy or the crown for which we glory in the presence of Jesus Christ when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and our joy. When God looks down on people, and again, I don’t think he’s impressed with the masses like we are. But when he looks down on a group of people and he sees a group of people that are walking by faith in Christ Jesus, trusting Christ Jesus with their life, and he looks down on them and he says to the people who have had anything to do ministering to them, those people are your joy. And that is really true. In this day and age, if you have people that you have discipled, your own children, if you have had the privilege of leading them into the path of righteousness, of being able to teach them about the Lord Jesus Christ, in many instances leading them to Christ at some point in their life, you have done the greatest thing that you could ever do for your child. There’s nothing that you could do for your child or your mate of any greater value then if the opportunity came for you to do so is to lead them to Christ Jesus, to lead them into a knowledge of Christ Jesus. You have literally been used of God to bring eternal salvation to your children and to those that you love. There’s no greater gift that you could give them. You could be a multimillionaire, give them all the money in the world, but if they don’t have Jesus, they’re going to die dead, rich and dead. rich in money, dead spiritually. And so it’s the greatest gift that you could ever give to the people that you love is to find out where they are spiritually and if they’re not saved and to know that they’re not saved and to talk to them individually till you do know whether they’re saved or not and then to try to lead them into a knowledge of Christ. Their ability to accept that is in their hands. It’s not in yours. But it is our responsibility to communicate the truth to these people. And so he’s saying here that you are our crown, you are our joy, you’re everything. At the end of your life, you look back and you say, who is your joy? Who’s your crown? It’s the people that you’ve touched with the gospel. And those are the people that you love. So he said, when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. In other words, they’d been stopped enough to realize we’re not going to get through this barrier right now. And so he said, we sent Timothy, who is our brother and God’s fellow worker, in spreading the gospel of Christ to strengthen and encourage you in your faith so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. These different trials and tribulations that, again, have been put on these people in Thessalonica from the opposing body, people trying to stop this gospel. He said, you’ve been through a lot of trials and a lot of tribulation. And so you know quite well that we were disdained before them, that we were destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. In other words, God said, this is something that’s in our destiny, that we’re going to be proclaiming Christ. And when you’re going to be proclaiming Christ, you’re going to run into opposition. That’s your destiny. If you’re going to be out in this world openly and proclaiming Christ, then look for persecution. It’s going to be a part of your life. Sooner or later, it’ll be a part of your life. How many have found that to be true? Persecuted in your home, possibly? Today, that would still be the case in many instances with Jewish people who come to Christ. And quite frankly, there are thousands upon thousands of Jewish people who are in Christ Jesus today. One of their fears is that when that occurs, I’m going to be disowned. And that happens many times. There’s many people who have come to Christ, gone back to their families and said, I became a Christian and they say, you’re dead. As far as I’m concerned, you’re dead. You’re no longer a part of our family. And that’s tough. And that would cause you to think twice, wouldn’t it? Before you went out and proclaimed that you’re in Christ Jesus. But if you’re in Christ Jesus, he said, you can do nothing less than to proclaim where you are. And so many times that happens. That can happen with being a Catholic or a Protestant. Hey, mom and dad, I came to Christ. You mean you’re not a Catholic anymore? You mean you’re not a Protestant anymore? Then you’re dead as far as I’m concerned. There’s still that kind of thinking in people’s hearts that say, if you’re not like me anymore, you’re out of here. And so these kind of attitudes are the things that keep the gospel many times from from progressing but the fact is that paul says look for it it’s a part of your destiny It says, it turned out that way, as you know, for this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. So he sent Timothy to the Thessalonians in order to find out what was going on. He said, I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless. Paul was saying, I was in essence scared to death that what we said to you was said in vain. But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought us the good news about your faith and love. He’s told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us just as we long to see you. Can you hear the heart of compassion that’s coming out of the Apostle Paul for the people that he had the privilege of ministering to? He said, I long to see you and I thank you that you long to see me. Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution, we were encouraged about you because of your faith. Now, again, what is it that is encouraging to Paul about these people? It’s about their faith, isn’t it? It’s the fact that I hear that you’re walking by faith. Is that encouraging to you when you know somebody’s walking by faith? It’s terrifically encouraging to me. We have many, many people in our congregation and many people across the country. that are going through tough times. I think of Doris Caldwell out in Northern California, just lost her husband, Dick, after I don’t know how many years of marriage, probably well over 50 of marriage. And Dick has gone to be with the Lord, and now Doris is very, very sick. But she calls Amy back and forth, and Amy calls her, and she still is walking by faith. She’s hurting. She’s hurting emotionally because of the loss of her husband. She’s hurting physically because of the physical ailments she’s going through. But in the midst of that, she’s walking by faith, and she’s talking about the Lord and trusting Jesus and looking forward to the day that she’ll be absent from the body and present with the Lord. And you look at that and say, Doris, you’re our hope. You’re the… It’s because of people like you that our hope and our joy and our crown for which we live. It encourages you to hear that people that you’ve had an opportunity to minister to are walking by faith. Numerous ones of you here have lost your mates and your heart is broken. But you walk by faith and you hang in. And then you’ve got others who’ve lost their husbands who don’t hang in. You never see them again.
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
SPEAKER 02 :
And so you have to just take a look and say, well, I can’t control that. I don’t know where a person’s heart is. I don’t know where you are anymore than you know where I am. I don’t know how you’d respond if you lost your mate. And I wouldn’t know until you lost him. Then I’ll find out where you’re walking. And you’ll find out where you’re walking. Whether you’re going to keep hanging in there and keep trusting Jesus and keep thanking Jesus. It’s not that you don’t hurt. But it’s the fact that you’ve got Christ on your side and that you can trust him with it. So basically, your circumstances of life don’t cause your nature. Your circumstances of life reveal your nature. In other words, I can’t cause you to be angry. I can reveal the anger in you, but I can’t cause you to be angry. The circumstances of life don’t cause your nature. They just reveal where you’re walking. You say, you make me mad. Say, no, I didn’t make you mad. I just revealed the mad that was in you. I’m a stick. I stir you up. It’s like George Reaver said, I got the most perfect wife that God could have ever given me. Been married 50 some years. Said, George, what a sweet statement to make. Why do you say that? Because he said, because everything God wants me to see about myself, she reveals. And that’s really true. And so we realize that circumstances don’t cause your nature, they just reveal it. You can’t stir up beans in a pot unless there’s beans in the pot. And if there weren’t beans in the pot, you couldn’t stir it up. And so when you get angry, don’t say you made me that way, you just revealed my nature. Are we together? Oh, no, no, that’s tough to deal with, especially when it’s your nature that gets revealed. But again, it shows you something that you’re not the one making me mad. You’re not the one doing this. You’re just stirring up and causing me to see what’s really going on inside. Now, many times when we have adverse circumstances, what is our initial response? Is it normally spiritual or natural? natural yeah very much so somebody pulls in front of you on the freeway you don’t just sit back and say oh praise jesus you may use some biblical sounding language but it won’t be that kind of language and then god gets a hold of you and the spirit begins dealing with you and if the spirit doesn’t your wife will so either one of those take place so you’re never without hope So we have to realize that in this life that you’re going to have circumstances to come and that what a pleasing thing it is to see your people walking by faith with the hope of Christ Jesus in their hearts. So it says, you brought this good news to us. Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution, we were encouraged about you because of your faith. For now we really live since you’re standing firm in the Lord. There’s the key. Are you standing firm in the Lord? What does it mean to stand firm in the Lord? Regardless of what circumstances come your way, are you walking by faith? Are you standing walking by faith? What do you mean walking by faith? Well, you’re walking by faith and truth. What is truth? Truth. Regardless of what you’re going through, nothing can separate you from the love of God. How many of you believe that to be true? It said trials can’t. How many of you had trials? Did that separate you from the love of God? Might have separated you from your bank account. Might have separated you from your job. Might have separated you from your mate. Right? But how many were separated from the love of God in the midst of trials and tribulation? So regardless of what happens, what you’re saying is nothing can separate me from the love of God. Might have separated me from these things I was holding on to, but it never separated me from the love of God. Knowing all these things, he says, we’re more than conquerors. God loves you. More than you could ever dream or imagine. He’s got a love for you that is totally out of our realm of experience. It’s called agape love. It’s called unconditional love. I love you not if. I don’t love you because. I just plain love you. That’s God. And you can rest in that truth. You can rest in the fact that nothing can separate me from the love of God. Is death going to separate you from the love of God? No, it’s going to enable you to know in its fullness the love of God. So in essence, death for the Christian is a time in our lives when we’re going to get to know experientially the unconditional love of God totally without any interference. So that’s a promotion for us. And we must look at death in that fashion. that death is not something we can miss a person down here, but death for the person who is in Christ Jesus that is absent from the body present with the Lord, that’s the greatest day of his life, when he leaves here and goes into the presence of Christ Jesus. We have to look at death in a different way than what the heathen world does, don’t we guys? And so when you hear that you’ve got an illness or you hear that you’ve got something that could cause death, your approach to that have to be, if that happens, well, I praise God because I’m going to be absent from the body present with the Lord. For me to live is Christ. For me to die is gain. Do you believe that? Do you believe that to die is gain for us? For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. So how can I fear facing gain? And so when we’re prepared for death, we’re prepared for life. And until we’re prepared for death, we are not prepared for life. And so that’s all a part of standing firm. It’s all a part of bringing the good news about your faith and love. And that’s all this life is down here, guys. He says the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through what? Love. What is God looking for from you and me? Love. Love does not criticize one another. Love is kind to each other. Love is encouraging to one another. That’s why he says up here in verse 12 that I came to you encouraging and comforting and urging you to live a good life. See, not urging you to get involved in all the garbage of the world, telling everybody how much fun that would be, but to encourage people to know if you want to be blessed, you’re going to be blessed by living a good life. Amy and I were talking about that the other day that… by the grace of God, and I have to say by the grace of God, that Amy grew up to survive. Her life was a life of survival, even up to the point when I met her when she was 20 years old. They lived to survive. They didn’t live for luxuries. They didn’t have any. They didn’t have money for anything. She never had roller skates. She never had a bicycle. She never had anything except clothes on her back that were given to her by goodwill or something. And so the issue is that she didn’t have time for foolishness in her head. She was living to survive. Now me, well, we don’t need to talk about that. You could just take the very opposite and you’ve got me. I didn’t live to survive. We lived for pleasure. We lived for fun and games and whatever else was around. And so the issue is that she lived a life that was pretty sheltered because of the circumstances that were there. Well, going through those circumstances, probably in her heart, she’d be saying that this is kind of tough, although they kind of accepted it. This is just the way it is. I think her mom’s expression, it has to be so. And so that’s how she grew up. And met me when she was 20 years of age. I guess God wanted her to get some experience and to learn to walk by faith or whatever it was. But she’s lived a pretty, what you and I would call a decent life. It hadn’t been a big sinful life. She hadn’t been a drinker or a smoker or running around with men or anything else in her life. And she was talking the other day that, you know, maybe I should have had more experience. Maybe I should have had this. I said, honey, are you out of your mind? Praise God for the fact of the kind of life he gave you. I got to praise him for the life he gave me or let me have. And I’ll guarantee if I’m capable of doing that, you sure are. because in the final analysis, when God looks at all of us, even though morally her life was certainly up here where mine was down here, from God’s standpoint, we’re all here, same level. And all of us were the same. And therefore, we do not have the ability to look upon people and say, oh, thank God, I’m not a sinner like they are. You know, that’s what makes God sick. And one of the problems many times that you run into if you’ve led somewhat of a decent life is there’s a tendency for judgmental spirit. And that’s where God begins to convict you on those kind of things. But what he’s going to do is neutralize all of us down to the same level of saying, there for the grace of God, go I. There for the grace of God, go I. I see a guy out on a street. there for the grace of God, go I. See a person who’s an alcoholic, there for the grace of God, go I. Drug addict, there for the grace of God, go I. That’s when you understand, guys, that in God’s economy, none of us are pure in heart. None of us. And that’s why we’re able, hopefully, able to recognize the truth of that and to reach out with compassion to people rather than in judgmental spirit to them. When you, I think of how easy it is to say things sometimes to people that you don’t mean. How many of you ever said, done that, said something to somebody that you didn’t mean it at all, but it was taken the wrong way? How many of you? Oh, okay, all of us. That’s good. That happened to me the other day in a conversation we had with Richard. And I said something, and I was trying to make a point, but it’s kind of a stupid point, I guess. But I didn’t know it, but I really hurt his feelings. And so he called the next day and said he wanted to talk, and he sounded serious. And so I said, well, I wouldn’t plan on coming over, but I’ll come over. And so we came over, and he just opened up his mouth and told me how that hurt. And I just collapsed like a little pussycat. I felt bad all weekend because I’d said something to hurt somebody. I didn’t intend it at all, but it hurt him. And it really made me feel bad to think that you said something. You didn’t mean it, but you said something to hurt somebody. Now, if he had been mad, I’d have been mad. I mean, if he would approach me in anger on something, why, then I’m going to respond to him in anger. But when you’re sitting there and saying, hey, that hurt. Gee, if you hurt somebody, you want to put your arms around them and say, I’m sorry. Isn’t that truthful? So we can say things. We’ve had people there in the assembly that somebody said something to somebody and they got their nose out of joint and off they go. Well, I don’t know where they’re going to land, but wherever they land, somebody’s going to be in trouble where they land because that attitude is going to go with them. You can’t escape yourself by leaving here. You’ve got to go. And so the issue is that we need to look at these kind of things and to stand strong in our faith and to stand strong with the idea that we’re not here to criticize people, we’re not here to put people down, but to encourage one another. families that encourage one another become very, very strong families. Where ridicule is prevalent, it weakens you. And so if you want to help somebody and to be looked upon as a helper and encourager, then encourage one another. And God looks at those things and says, well done, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER 01 :
Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
SPEAKER 03 :
Put Jesus first in your life and turn your life around.
