Bob George delves deep into the meaning of salvation, explaining that our journey with Christ isn’t simply about transitioning from sin to righteousness, but about allowing Christ to live within us, transforming our lives from the inside out. He breaks down misconceptions about the nature of Christ’s sacrifice and the essence of eternal life, urging listeners to live by the eternal hope outlined in scripture. This episode challenges believers to see beyond tradition and engage with the true essence of faith in God’s word.
welcome to classic christianity radio with bob george as we celebrate the christmas season together we are reminded of god’s greatest gift to you and me his son jesus christ we are told in the scriptures for god so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life It is our prayer at Bob George Ministries that you would accept God’s gift of eternal life and know how much you were deeply loved by God. Go to BobGeorge.net online to find out how you can grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ. We have many books, CDs, and other teaching materials available for your personal growth as you discover more about God’s unconditional love and forgiveness for you. 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 01 :
We live in a strange world. We live in a world today where people like to criticize Jesus. And I look back and say, what is there to criticize about this Jesus? A man who came to preach love to people. That’s all he talked about was love. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. You say, what is there to criticize? Is this world against Christians or is it against Christ or just who is it against? What are people thinking about? But when you realize that in this world there’s a conflict, there’s the conflict between good and evil. And that conflict has been going on since the Garden of Eden. And so as long as we’re in this world, we’re gonna be living among that conflict. The conflict between people who wanna walk in the newness of life, serving Christ Jesus, or people who wanna walk in the energy of their own flesh, serving nothing but their own desires. And that is gonna be taking place until the Lord comes back. But we have an option. We as people have an option. We have an option as to whether we’re going to continue in our thoughts and in our sins. We have an option of whether we’re going to continue to engage in habits and activities that we know are contrary to who we are in Christ and in activities that we know are contrary to what is good for us. And yet we have a choice, don’t we? And how many times do we make the wrong choice? But the issue is that regardless of how often we have made the wrong choice, there’s always a new beginning for us. And with Christ Jesus, there’s always tomorrow, another day. But it’s a day when we can stand to say, God, from this day forth, and for me and my house, I’m going to serve the Lord. I don’t care what my mate does. I don’t care what my kids do. I don’t care what my parents do. From this day forth, I am going to serve the Lord. And that’s an inner decision. It’s guts. You say, what is a man? That’s a man. He’s the man. Somebody that will stand up and believe in something besides catering to their own flesh. To be able to say that there’s something more important in life than… gratification, and yet we live for gratification. And so we’ve got options in this world today because, and I say we’ve got options, unlike when we’re lost, because as we have been talking about over these weeks, we have the power of God living in us. We have Christ Jesus living in us. We’re told that. We have the mind of Christ If you’ve got a mind, that is good news. We have the mind of Christ living in us. We’re indwelt by God. We have been given everything that we need for life and godliness. And yet, folks, we put these things aside. We don’t have any priorities. This room should be filled every Sunday. Why? Because we ought to go to church? No. Why? Because God commanded us not to be unequally yoked one with another. That’s why. Because God says there’s a benefit to fellowshipping with other believers, and especially believers of like mind. I’ve been in churches. I’ve been in big churches. There was no like-mindedness there because there wasn’t any mindness in most of the places I’ve been. But the issue is here, you’ve got a place of people of like mind that you can fellowship with and have communion with. And yet we put priorities on everything else except doing what God says to do. And that is to be faithful, to be encouraging. I couldn’t help from thinking when I was sitting there looking at all of these decorations, looking at Greg back in the back every week, looking at the people running the cameras, looking at Richard and the people doing the music. I couldn’t look at me. because they can’t see me, is out a mirror. All of us volunteer, not a paid staff in this building. We are paid for doing people to people work. If we didn’t have Metro, we would have the identical staff that we have. We volunteer a time. Why? Because we believe in this message and we believe in you and we believe that there is a need for local fellowship. It says so in the Bible. I have laughingly many times at the end of this service wished everybody a happy Easter. because that’s probably the next time I’ll see you. Folks, I’m not saying what I’m saying to put a guilt trip on you, because you can’t have a guilt trip unless you’re guilty. What I’m saying is, Do you really believe that God meant what he said when he said, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together? Do you want to leave that out of the scripture or do you believe that God may have known what he was talking about when he said that? Guys, I don’t want you here so that we say, hey, so many people were here. I want you here because it’s good for you. Do you always feel like it? I don’t even always feel like it. Amy has to remind me sometimes, you’re the pastor. Would I sometimes just as soon lay in bed, feed my flesh? Sure. Who wouldn’t? But there’s something inside of you that says, get up and go be with people. Do you realize that’s an encouragement? I don’t know whether any of you are interested in being an encouragement to the Richards and the Bob Christophers and the Bob Davises and the staff of People to People. I want to tell you, when you are here and you’re fellowshipping and you’re loving one another, you couldn’t be a deeper encouragement to us. That’s what keeps us going. It’s like the story in the Old Testament of Moses when he said when he held up his hands, the army was winning and he couldn’t hold his hands up. Had people there to hold them up for him. That’s what encouragement is, people who hold your hands up and encourage you. Why? Because of this baby Jesus. Because of this little baby that was born in a manger, who was God in the flesh. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now folks, we’re not here to practice religion. I’ve been through religion. I’ve seen all of that. I want to see. Are we together on that? I’ve seen all of that stuff. It doesn’t impress me at all. You couldn’t get me back in one of those churches if my life depended on it. I’d rather stay home and disobey God who says I need fellowship. I’d just find some place to fellowship. But to go back into that treadmill and into that phoniness, I got tired of it. I got tired of, hi there, sweetie, bless your sweetheart. And then walking out, batting your kids in the head. I want to be around sincere people. And if you’re sincerely in Christ, you should too. I want to ask the people here and within the sound of my voice that are in this area to think about a decision. And that is a decision to start weighing your priorities. I have people sometimes in business say, well, I can’t do it because I got business. Listen, if you had an appointment, if you were meeting Paula with somebody in your business and you’re meeting them at on 12 and one o’clock on Sunday, and I came up and said, I got to get an appointment with you, Paula. And you say, well, what time do you want? I want a 12 o’clock say, what would you say? I can’t do it. I’ve got another appointment. It’s the same thing with here. This is an appointment. You say, well, I’ll lose a customer. No, you won’t. Not if there’s a God in heaven, you’re not going to lose one. It’s prioritizing your life to do what God wants you to do. If we will not do such a little thing as that, why do you think we’re going to obey him in regard to the other things that we went into in life? Why do we think we will? So guys, I’m asking us from a biblical standpoint to prioritize your life, to get some priorities in your life that make some sense. Because I’m not talking about some harebrained idea that I want you to do. We’re talking about what God has called us to do and what is beneficial to you when you do do it and what is not beneficial when you don’t do it. Talk about stuff that’s good for you. To get a priority in your life and keep it. That’s my priority. Like I say, sometimes don’t want to do it. It’s okay. You do it anyway. I never liked mowing my lawn either. But I want to tell you, if I didn’t, it’s going to look pretty bad. Then my neighbors are going to have to come over and mow it. But there’s a lot of things in life that we don’t like to do sometimes. But guys, again, make it a priority in your life. And I’m not saying this stuff so that we can have counting nickels and noses. That is not the issue. I’m saying these things so that we can come together as a group and praise our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as a group. Every week. Every day of the week. That’s one day of the week. A couple hours of the week. Don’t tell me that we cannot work our priorities in. We have people that drive here every Sunday from Waco. We got people that drive in from Austin. If you’re 200 miles to find a fellowship. And yet we have people who won’t drive 15 minutes. too far away. So you’re not walking, are you? I’ve heard all these silly excuses that are nothing but silly excuses. And the whole issue is we haven’t prioritized our life. Get a handle on your life. Prioritize it. I don’t want life to run me. I want to run my life. And the only way I’m to do that is there’s some things I’m going to sit down and say, this day I’m going to do this, and then I’m going to do this, going to do this. When we were first married, Amy had never been a housewife before, but she prioritized her life. Every Monday, we were going to have hamburger. Every Tuesday, you’re going to have hamburger. Every Wednesday, we were going to have hamburger. Prioritized. She knew that on a certain day was wash day. You know, we have songs like that. That was wash day. So she wasn’t sitting there saying, well, I’ll wash later. I would have said that, not her. Because guys, what I’m talking to you about, I’m talking sometimes about my very own weaknesses because I have to force myself or did have to force myself to become disciplined. Amy was always disciplined. She was good for me. Sometimes I thought she was bad for me because I didn’t want to get out of bed. She was good for me. And so I didn’t mean to get off on that. It’s not exactly a Christmas message, but maybe it is a Christmas message. If God loved you and me so much that he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but but have everlasting life. Why should we do less?
SPEAKER 02 :
Classic Christianity Radio is a listener-funded program, and because of your generous donations, we are able to be on the air. During this Christmas season, remember to go to bobgeorge.net to find many gift ideas to give to your family and friends. The best-selling book Classic Christianity by Bob George and his newest book, Jesus Changes Everything, are perfect gifts to give to people. The greatest gift we can give to others is to share the good news of God’s forgiveness and love for them. With your prayers and support, we can continue to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Let’s continue now with our Classic Christianity radio program.
SPEAKER 01 :
You see, I want to be able to say to the world through testimony or whatever it might be, when I’m out with people, when you’re out with people, I want to be available to give an account for this hope that is within me. Why? Because there is a hope within me. If you’re in Christ Jesus, and I’m assuming you are, do you fear death? I don’t mean fear dying. None of us want to go through that. I’m talking about fear the ultimate thing of death. Because you shouldn’t, if you believe that when we close our eyes for the last time, that we are merely absent from the body and present with the Lord. So there really is not a lot to fear with this. Well, if that is true, is that worthy in conversation to say to people? Yeah, it is. I can remember the first heart attack that I had. I have to laugh on something. If you ask me a question, Bob, are you healthy? Man, I’m healthy as a horse, however healthy that is. Yeah, I’m healthy. Well, what’s the evidence of your good health? Well, I’ve had two heart attacks, prostate cancer, melanoma. I’m healthy. You know why those things don’t bother me? I wouldn’t bother many of them. Didn’t bother me. So I got told the doctor who wanted to do open heart surgery on me, ultimately had to do it, but at that time said, I’m not having open heart surgery, I’m having stents put in. Well, there’s a little place down there that if that stent doesn’t go in just right, you’ll die of cardiac arrest. My comment to him, why? Because it was true. Doc, I cannot think of a better way to die than cardiac arrest. If I could choose, how I’m going to leave this place, that’d be it. Snap, like that. He thought I was crazy. Talked to Amy and thought she was crazy. But the issue is, that was truth. I wasn’t trying to play a big deal. That was just truth. We have eternal life. We have assurance of salvation. I talked to a gentleman that I had not met with any length of time before. The father of A bride that we were marrying a couple of weeks ago. And one of the first things he said to me, I have eternal life in Christ Jesus. I know where I’m going when I die. I mean, just as bold as black. I understand that wasn’t always the case, but something’s happened to him. He’s gotten a hold of something. And brother, he is not afraid to step out and say, I have eternal life. How are we going to reach people? with this message of Jesus outside of going back to Santa Claus, if we haven’t had a change in our lives. And I don’t care how big the change is, if you’ve had a change in your life, talk about it. Talk about it. Let people know. This is what Christ has done. Hadn’t done a lot yet, but this is what he has done. To know that you’re saved. To know that God gave you a life called, what? eternal life that you have an inheritance called what an eternal inheritance now you have people in religious they want to bomb they want to get rid of that talk you tell people you have eternal life you tell people you have eternal inheritance they’re going to go sin i say they’re going to go sin whether they know that or not they’re going to be sinning till the day they die Why do you think Jesus went to a cross if people could stop sinning? Just why do you think that he went to a cross to take away the sins of the world if he thought there was some way that man could quit sinning? He came to give you life. What kind of life? Eternal life. Is that good news, guys? This baby Jesus that grew up to walk on this earth for some 33 years went to a cross to do what? take away the sins of the world. I know that semantics sometimes get in the way and I know I probably shouldn’t be as critical as I am with it, but I tell you, I get so tired of listening to these pastors, people that I know, on radio talking about the atoning death of Christ Jesus. He didn’t come to atone for sin. The blood of bulls and goats atoned for sin. He came to do something far greater than that. He came to take it away from the eyes of God, never to see it again. Do you understand that, guys? He grabbed every sin that you and I will ever commit in this world and put it upon Himself and there He who knew no sin became sin for you so that you could become the righteousness of God in Him. Is that good news? Is that worthy of praise? Is it worthy of celebration? I think so. I really do. I think so. That’s what we have. But we get off on saying, hey, I got a new car. Or I got a raise. Or I got a bonus. It’s a little private joke. We’re more thrilled with that than we are with this marvelous gift of eternal life. Why? Because we’re humans. And that’s why we have to continually be renewing our what? Minds. Be not conformed to the world but transformed how? By the renewing of our minds. Now as the kids already have gone through with their little presentation here, the details of the birth of Christ, there’s no need necessarily in going through that. We know the details of that. We know that Joseph, and we know again how we were told that Joseph did not have intercourse with Mary until Jesus was born. That’s told in the Bible. And yet you have denominations, huge denominations that teach that Mary was a virgin all her life. Where did they come up with this? And why do people tolerate it? I’ll tell you why. They don’t know what the Scripture says. You err because you what? Know not the Scripture. But the Scripture lists Jesus’ brothers and sisters. So Mary wasn’t some kind of a freak that came along. She was a virgin girl, probably 15 years of age, who was impregnated by the Holy Spirit of God. Not through the loins of Adam as we were all born. If that was the case, Jesus would have been born of the sin nature. Because we guys get the privilege of passing on that sin nature. So Mary was a unique young lady. But she was a virgin at conception of Jesus. After the birth of Jesus, it says that Jesus had brothers and he had sisters. She didn’t remain a virgin throughout her life, only up until Jesus was born. Now guys, we have allowed, again, in Christianity, teaching to come in that is totally contrary to that. I don’t mean to be hard on Catholicism, as I say and talk about on the radio. I’m not angry at Catholics. I’m angry at Catholic teaching because it’s erroneous. And it’s based upon tradition rather than the word of God. When you teach that Mary was a virgin all of her life, you are negating what the scripture says in regard to the truth of that. Are you trying to tell me something? No, when you’re going like this, I’ve made a mistake someplace down the line. Okay, whatever I said, forget it. Now, what I want us to do is this. As we take a look again at this marvelous birth of Christ Jesus, his birth was how he got here. It’s how he became man. Perfectly God in an earth suit. It says in the scripture that Jesus found himself in an appearance as a man, in an appearance as a man, but he was God. He was always God, always will be God, always has been God. That was God in an earth suit. I am an earth suit indwelt by God. He was God clothed in an earth suit. World of difference in the two, between him and me. Only the flesh and the sacrifice of God himself was of such a consequence that it was capable of not covering sin, the blood of bulls and goats did that, atoned, but capable of taking away your sin from the eyes of God, never to see it again. Now, folks, sometimes people will say, you can’t teach that. Why not? Well, because you’re teaching that even the lost, their sins were taken away. Yeah. You telling me that Hitler’s sins were taken away? So are you telling me that your sins were taken away? Of course they were. But he wasn’t saved any more than you weren’t saved when your sins were taken away. You see, guys, we keep hearing and hearing and hearing, and we must get beyond this, that you are not saved by the cross. That was what prepared you for salvation. You are saved by the resurrected life of Christ. The emptiness that is inside of lost man, that awareness that something is missing, Something’s wrong inside does not come from being sinful. It comes from being lost. It comes from being dead spiritually. And that’s why Christ Jesus had to enter into my death with me in order that I could enter into his resurrected life with him. Jesus Christ’s objective for you and me was not to get man out of hell into heaven. It was to get himself out of heaven into you and me. And there’s where salvation came in. All of this took place and had to take place at the beginning of this whole plan of God at the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But his birth was what enabled salvation to occur. There’s no salvation at his birth. That’s just how he got here. Miraculously, miraculously. But after he got here, it’s what did he do is what saves us. And so folks, as we enter into this holiday season, attitudes towards giving. This is another thing we’ll study next week is the wise men because the wise men didn’t come in the manger. When the wise men came, they were in a house. So they came later. Tradition has them all coming with the shepherds. That didn’t occur in the Scripture. But they came with gifts. That’s why we give gifts, I guess, today. They came with gifts, and those gifts had significance to them. We’ll talk about that next week. But the thing of it is, is what did God want us to know about giving? That it’s more blessed to give than it is receive. Do you find that to be true in your life? More blessed to give than to receive. It’s a wonderful thing when you see people, lives have changed where giving is a part of their life.
SPEAKER 02 :
Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
SPEAKER 01 :
Put Jesus first in your life and turn your life around.
