Listeners also get a chance to dive into the prophecies of Revelation, explore the concept of sanctification, and unravel the significant implications of Christ’s sacrifice. Through thought-provoking conversations and biblical insights, Bob George not only answers questions with clarity but also emphasizes the importance of walking in faith and love. Get ready to engage with the foundational tenets of Scripture in an episode that reaffirms the central role of Christ in our daily lives.
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 02 :
We’re going to go now to Albuquerque, New Mexico, listening on KXKS. Brian, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Mr. George, how are you?
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m doing fine, Brian. Thank you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good, good. I just want to let you know that I am a firm believer in our forgiveness of sins and the good news of the new covenant, although at my church we’re having a bit of a debate. And so my question lies in this, exactly when the new covenant begins, and of course I believe it starts at the cross, but opponents to this would say, for example, Jesus says the law and the prophets were until John. and then the kingdom has been preached. And so they’re saying things like the Beatitudes and the impossible standards that Jesus presents to us are part of the new teaching of the new covenant era. And then they would say things like, you know, even after the cross, when Matthew, in the last chapter of Matthew, Jesus says… Go and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you. And they’ll use that to say we must follow all the words of Jesus exactly. And so this has been causing me some trouble. I wanted to get your view on this.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, Brian, if you’re going to be honest, if you think it’s causing you problem, guess what it’s causing those hypocrites that are teaching it. Because if they think that they are following the teachings of Jesus, just one of them alone, which when you’re talking about following the commands of Jesus, his commands were to love one another, to love your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself. And upon these two is the fulfillment of the entirety of the law and the prophets. If you love one another, you have fulfilled the law and the prophets. Now go out and try to do that in the energy of your own flesh. And you just, I just go to them and just, I’d read 1 Corinthians 13 to them and say, okay, let’s see how you guys are doing who are trying to put this burden, this yoke of slavery back on your people. Let’s see how you’re doing in regard to what God said that the only thing that is important is is man and his relationship with God. And the only thing that’s important is faith that expresses itself through love, period. That’s what God is looking for, faith expressing itself through love. So let’s see how you’re doing in the love department. Are you always patient? I mean, I just want you to put the I am always into 1 Corinthians 13. I am always patient. I am always, I never keep records of wrongs. Do we need to go on? I am always kind to everyone. I am never easily angered, especially when someone disagrees with me. I never keep records of my wife’s wrongs or my husband’s wrongs or the congregation’s wrongs. Never have ever done it. Just got a filing cabinet full of them. I never delight in evil. Just makes me sick of my stomach when I hear a little something off color. Just makes me want to vomit. I always rejoice in truth, especially when someone tells me something truth about me that I’m doing wrong. I just rejoice in that. I always protect others over and above myself. I always trust everybody. I always hope the best for everyone, especially if someone gets the promotion and I don’t. I just hope the best for them. How did you do, self-righteous one? How did you do? And that’s what I’d hit those nitwits with, because what they’re teaching is just false doctrine. And you say that you’re going to live up to that? Listen, they’re in a person on the face of the earth that can live up to that. The only person who lives up to that is Christ Jesus. And that means that my role as a branch is to abide in the life of the vine, not in the law, but in the life of the vine. The new covenant went into effect at the death of Christ Jesus, period. It’s clear as a bell in the book of Hebrews. Went into a death that a will does not go into effect until the one who made it dies. And this will, this covenant, did not go into effect until the death of Christ Jesus. And at the death of Christ Jesus, he now had fulfilled the entirety of the law with his life. He then upheld the law in that the wages of sin is death, and he died on our behalf, taking upon himself the sins of the world. So now, through his resurrection, able to usher in a covenant of grace. whereby our sins and lawless acts, he says, I’ll remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins. A brand new covenant freed from the law and the demands of the law that we never could keep. And yet we as idiots, and I just have to say that we’re like idiots. We’ve gone in as the Gentile world and said, well, you Jews couldn’t do it, but you watch my smoke, Lord. And we’re as dumb and as incapable of keeping the law as the Jews ever thought of being. And the good law and the fact of the matter is that God never gave the Gentiles the law anyway. He gave it to the Jews. We just went over and stole it and said, well, you couldn’t do it, but you watch me. And there isn’t any more dumb theology in the world than people trying to live under the law because you cannot do it. No man could do it except Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER 05 :
And so, Mr. George, whenever he says, observe all things I have commanded you, he’s referring to the new way of love.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely, love. The laws that he said, this is it. Love your God with all your mind and love your heart as labor as yourself. And upon these two is the fulfillment, the entire fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Okay. Yeah. So I just hit them back with that love thing because that’s what these guys do. They cannot love. So they ignore that subject and they get into what you need to be doing and what you don’t need to be doing. The fact is, if they were doing it. they would be perfect in the sight of God, and believe me, they are not. So it’s time that someone has the guts to stand up to these guys with their degrees and to stand up and say, I don’t care how many degrees you have, we’re going to talk about what the Bible says and what the Bible means. And not what you’ve been taught, but we’re going to talk about what it means.
SPEAKER 05 :
And Mr. George, if I could ask one more clarification. So whenever Jesus says, the law and the prophets were until john um what does he mean by that exactly are the words that he is saying still old covenant law what jesus said correct yeah jesus taught under the old covenant the new covenant couldn’t go into effect until he died so how could he have taught under the new covenant And so anything that’s not of the new covenant has to be old covenant.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, absolutely. Jesus taught under the old. Whether he didn’t like the new, he didn’t have it yet. He hadn’t ushered it in yet.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. Well, that answers my question. I really appreciate all of you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Brian, what you’re dealing with are people… who are trying to commingle law and grace, Old Testament and New Testament. If the Old Testament worked, what in the world did Jesus come here for? If the Old Testament worked. There’s nothing wrong with the law, Paul says. He could have said the Old Testament. But nothing wrong with it. But when it flows through me, it kills me. And so Christ had to come and usher in a new covenant where we’re out of the equation. These people want to teach this law and this commingling. They’re hypocrites. They are not in obedience to the law. They’re proclaiming the same way that the Pharisees did. They’re proclaiming doing something that they’re not doing themselves. And so you’re up against, when you’re up against this, you’re up against the identical same thing that Jesus was up against when he was talking to the Pharisees, that John the Baptist was up against when he had his head cut off, and the apostles, every one of them died through a martyr’s death because of people that killed them for what they were teaching, freedom. People who are in bondage can’t stand freedom, and they cannot stand people who are in freedom.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, thank you very much.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’re welcome, my brother. Hope that helps.
SPEAKER 05 :
Sure does. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, let’s go to Sacramento, California. Let’s go on KCBC. Larry, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey, Bob, how you doing?
SPEAKER 02 :
Pretty good, Larry.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you lost him, but you found me. That’s great.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, that’s good.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I was looking at Revelation 22, verse 10. Yeah. And I was just wondering if you could help me with the understanding of that, possibly. Revelation 22, 10.
SPEAKER 02 :
Don’t seal up the words of this prophecy, of this book.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right.
SPEAKER 02 :
Is that the one you’re talking about? Because the time is near. Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong. Let him who is vile continue to be vile. Let him who has done right continue to do right. Let him who is holy continue to be holy. I don’t know what it means except what it’s saying.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, as far as what does he mean by still not? Still not, is that leaving?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, you’ve got to get up to who he’s talking to. Behold, I’m coming soon, he said. Blessed is he, again, who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book. I, John, is the one who heard and saw these things, and when I had heard and seen them, I fell down. to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. And he said to me, don’t do it. In other words, I guess don’t worship me. I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers. And with your brothers, the prophets, and all who keep the words of this book. Worship God. In other words, don’t worship me. Don’t worship angels. Don’t worship Paul. Don’t worship Calvin. Don’t worship Luther. You worship God alone. Period. And then he told me, don’t seal up the words of this prophecy. In other words, don’t seal it up and keep it to yourself because this needs to be spread to other people. So in other words, it isn’t something to seal up. It’s something to keep open. And let him who does wrong continue to do wrong. What all that means is I guess whatever a person’s doing, let him continue to do it. But he said, I’m coming soon and my reward is with me. And I’ll give to everyone according to what he’s done. I’m the Alpha, the Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end. So he’s talking about end times.
SPEAKER 04 :
And he’s saying, so he’s saying, shut your mouth not on these words that it be known to more people.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. Yeah, don’t seal it up. Keep it open.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. Now, okay, go a little bit further in verse 18 and 19.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay. I warn everyone that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in the book. Is that what you mean?
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. Now, the prophecy of this book, is he talking about the book of Revelation? Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I don’t think so. I think it was the last writing of the apostle who was the last apostle who was alive at that time, and I think it’s the conclusion of the entire canon of Scripture. Now, read on to chapter… Larry, I don’t want to keep reading on if you’ve got a question on the thing, but I don’t want to keep reading on and reading on because I’m just trying to say that anyone who adds to the prophecy of this book and anyone is, number one, he said he’s going to add to him the plagues in it. You would have many examples that you have Jehovah’s Witness who added to the Bible. You have the Mormons who’ve added to the Bible. You have the whole Muslim world that has added to the Bible. You have all kinds of people that have written their own books adding to the Bible. And he says to them, the plagues are going to come upon them.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 02 :
So you can’t add to the Scripture.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I think probably sometimes when you add, you could be subtracting.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, either way. I mean, to take away or to add to. And again, when you’re taking away would be to diminish what is in the Scripture and Or to add to is adding to the scripture, which many, many people have done.
SPEAKER 01 :
Be sure to go to BobGeorge.net to find our in-depth and practical Bible study guides. Each Bible study will teach you more about Jesus and will help strengthen your relationship with God. Now back to our classic Christianity radio program.
SPEAKER 02 :
Let’s go to Long Beach, California. Let’s go on Cape. John, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Bob, my question is in the area that I’ve heard you a number of times kind of go across. And the Bible says this is the will of God, your sanctification. Yes. And it says the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And one more text where Jesus said sanctify them through thy truth.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
The word is truth.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Deal with me again a little bit more today on the role or the part that sanctification plays in salvation.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, it’s where you were set apart. You can’t separate sanctification from salvation. You know, in the sixth chapter of 1 Corinthians, it says, and that’s what some of you were, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our Lord. So you didn’t separate those things. You were washed, you were cleansed, you were sanctified, and you were justified. It’s another way of saying that you were reconciled. That’s what took place at the cross. You were cleansed of your sins. You were set apart from the world. And you were justified in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord. So all of those flow together. And sanctification is something that takes place at the moment you’re born again. The moment you’re born again, you are set apart from the world. And then what do you do? You’re indwelt by truth. So what do you do? You grow in truth. And the more you and I grow in truth, the more set apart we are from the world. That’s full of error. And so people are out trying to sanctify themselves by trying to be holy when you’ve already been made holy. uh to try to make themselves more acceptable when you’ve already been made acceptable and that’s truth that sets you apart what sets you apart from the world is i’m set apart and yeah so what we do is you’ve got people that come up with progressive sanctification there’s only one problem with that it’s not in the scripture and you don’t progress in your sanctification any more than you progress in your justification, that when you are saved, you are saved. You are set apart, and that’s good news to me.
SPEAKER 03 :
When you come to a man who has accepted Christ, and he gives his life to Christ, or a woman does, and their entire mind has been surrendered to Christ, they still have those brain capacities there that need to be overcome you know those things that are that have been reoccurring for years and how do you deal personally with that individual do you have them focus on the justification side of it or the connection with christ or how much of it do you have them focus on the actual sanctification process
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, John, you see, again, you’re trying to solve a problem through a theological terminology. I don’t deal with them on any of those issues. I deal with them on the fact that Jesus Christ is alive and he is living in you and he is truth. And if you will yield to him and his truth, he will set you free. And what does he set you free from are all of the idiotic thoughts that we gain and we have accumulated in our minds through the world. And again, you cannot, I don’t understand why people argue with Scripture. In the 29th verse of the 10th chapter of Hebrews, it goes on, “…how much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished and is trampled the Son of God underfoot and treated as an unholy thing, the blood of the covenant that sanctified him and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” So it isn’t the case of progressive sanctification. This is the fact that when you and I came to Christ, we have been set apart. We’ve been set apart to learn from God. The world can’t learn from God. Natural man can’t understand spiritual things. We are set apart as people of God with the capacity now of partaking and participating in the divine nature that lives within us. And so a person who is denying the finality of the cross out of one side of the mouth saying, I believe Jesus died for my sins, but I’m going back to my day of atonement, get my sins forgiven. They have never repented. They’ve never changed their mind.
SPEAKER 03 :
Say that one again.
SPEAKER 02 :
To a person that says out of one side of their mouth that Jesus died for all my sins and took away my sins, and then to say I’m going back to the Day of Atonement to get my sins forgiven is talking out of two sides of their mouth. A person that says I believe Jesus took away all my sins at the cross, but I’m going back to the confession booth is talking out of two sides of their mouth. And if they’re saying that because they believe that, then what the scripture says is you’ve never repented. You can’t be brought back to repentance because you’ve never repented to begin with. You’re still hanging on to your tradition.
SPEAKER 03 :
But you don’t see those Old Testament types like the daily service or the atonement or the day of atonement. You don’t see those being fulfilled in the New Testament.
SPEAKER 02 :
They’re totally fulfilled in Christ. And that’s why with atonement, you had to go back and every priest had to stand and perform his religious duties over and over and over again, which it says could never take away sin. But when this priest died for sins, he took away the sins of the world. And so that’s why Jesus didn’t come to atone for sin. And when we call his death on the cross atonement, we are belittling, maybe not intentionally, but we are watering down what he came to do. He came to do something far greater than the blood of a bull and goat could do. He came to take away sins. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not counting their sins against him. The blood of a bull and goat couldn’t do that. And so what we’re dealing with there, John, is the fact that we need to finalize something. And what we finalize is I have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God in whom I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And so I’m going to rest in that truth, and I’m going to walk by faith in that truth.
SPEAKER 03 :
Do you think his blood was applied to you as a man individually at the cross, or do you think his blood is applied to you at your life now when you’ve surrendered to him?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, it took place for the whole world. His death on the cross for the sins of the world was of such magnitude that all sins, past and future, are covered under his blood. So, in fact, all men’s sins are forgiven. The only sin, Jesus said, the world’s sin is unbelief in me. And the only question that God will ever ask you and me is, what did you do with my son? Did you accept him for what he came to do, or did you reject him and hang on to your tradition? So, in fact, what Jesus did at the cross is applicable to all mankind. Now we enter into that in his life. That’s why it says in him you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Where is that forgiveness that was provided, received? In him. And I tell people, it’s kind of like telling somebody, I put a billion dollars in your bank. And you say, well, where’s the million dollars? Well, it’s in the bank. Well, I don’t like the bank. Well, you’re going to die a pauper.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, sometime it would be interesting if you take a half-hour program and explain if he died for a man’s sins at the cross. What is he doing today in the sanctuary? And I would be interested in hearing your take on that sometime. I know you’ve got other calls, but I appreciate your time.
SPEAKER 02 :
What do you mean by that, what is he doing in the sanctuary?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, it sounded like what you were saying to me, that Jesus died for Bob George at Calvary. And yet that blood, that perfect sacrificial blood that he gave for you and me, Are you saying that it was applied to your record 2,000 years before you were dead, or is it applied to you today only when you receive him as sort of the fulfillment of the Old Testament type? That’s the issue.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I think that the provision that was made for the entire world, John, going back to Adam and forward to eternity, The provision was for the whole world. You enter into that provision in him, in his life, in his resurrected life, which is how you’re saved. That’s why it says in Romans 5.8 that while we were yet enemies, and that’s lost, we were reconciled. That’s past tense. We were reconciled to God through the death of his son. When? When we were lost still. How much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by his life? And the issue is you’re not saved by the death of Christ, you’re saved by the life of Christ. And what we’re saved from is the wages of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is life. But in order to give us a life called eternal life, he had to deal eternally with the cause of death, and that was sin. So the eternal consequence of the sin is what enables you and me, whenever we’re born again, to enter into that life. And when we do… We receive redemption and the forgiveness of sins. So it’s provided for us then, but it’s received now.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, in Corinthians 15 where it says, you know, if he be not resurrected, we are still in our sins. And it says in Hebrews there in 725, I’ve read it, it says, he ever liveth to make intercession for us. What do you see him doing today?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, Satan is continually zooming up to God, accusing, and he is there saying, finished.
SPEAKER 03 :
So you don’t think it has anything to do with your actual sin today?
SPEAKER 02 :
He’s not dealing with you and me on the basis of sin today, John. He’s dealing with a Christian on the basis of new life. And if he was still dealing me on the basis of sin, then he didn’t take it away as he said he did at the cross. So he’s dealing with you and me on the basis of here you are as a child of God. You’re a butterfly, not a worm any longer. And you’re acting like a stupid worm. Now you need to get up and fly. You need to start growing. And you need to start entering in and participating in that divine nature that is living within you. And so it’s not the case anymore of having to deal with unforgiveness because I’m not dealing with unforgiveness. I’m in him and I’m a forgiven person. But when I mess up, God’s spirit is always there saying, Bob, was that consistent with who you are? Was that love? Was that a loving thing to say to a person?
SPEAKER 03 :
But yet you’re saying you don’t have to deal with the sin then today?
SPEAKER 02 :
The sin issue has been dealt with. I never did deal with sin. God dealt with sin.
SPEAKER 03 :
So then is there no confession from Bob George if you do something wrong?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, didn’t I just say, listen to what I just said, John, that if I am acting inconsistent with who I am, God’s spirit points that out to me. Now, did I say you don’t pay attention to it? Well, of course you’d pay attention to it. You’re going to spend the rest of your life paying attention to it, and that’s what brings about repentance. You can confess without ever repenting, but you cannot repent without having confessed. So we’re not dealing with the issue of confession. You’re dealing with the issue of confessing in order to get forgiven, and that is an insult to the cross.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, that’s my point I wanted to get you to say. You really don’t believe that there needs to be any confession that was done at the cross.
SPEAKER 02 :
John, listen to what I just said. The confession, when you come to Christ, you agree with God that you are a sinner, and you agree that he took away the sins of the world, and that included me. And now I also agree that there was a consequence to that sin, and that’s death. And the only solution to death is his resurrected life. Now, once I’ve entered into that resurrected life with Christ Jesus, having done so because he took away my sin, I’m now in a position of walking with him in the newness of life, no longer under the law that kills, but under the spirit that gives life and being instructed daily by his spirit. And his spirit continually is instructing you if you allow him. And so when the spirit says to you, John, you just acted like a jerk to somebody. Your spirit is going to say, Lord, you’re right. That was not the love that you want me to have. What do you want me to do? He says, I want you to go straighten it out with your brother. And you go back and straighten it out. And what have you done? Fulfilled the law. Love is the fulfillment of the law. So you’re always going to be agreeing with God as he’s dealing with us. But I’m also going to be agreeing with him as to what I know he completed. And what he completed was my forgiveness at the cross.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’re saying that sin then was taken care of 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. That’s what I want you to say. 2,000 years ago, he took away the sins of the whole world. So that’s not to your account anymore. He took that away. Thank God. Now he’s dealing with you on the basis of new life.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, thank you for your time.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, John. Call again, brother. Thanks for your interest. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord. Find more information online at bobgeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.
SPEAKER 04 :
Put Jesus first in your life and turn your life around.
