In this thought-provoking episode, we dive into the significance of the Apostle Paul’s teachings, focusing on the large letters he used to authenticate his writings and the relevance of his messages for today. We explore the canonization of the Bible and historical challenges, drawing parallels to the issues faced by early Christians with the pseudepigraphical works and modern-day believers dealing with false teachings. Bob George elucidates how outward appearances and religious activities can sometimes overshadow the true essence of faith in Jesus Christ.
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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Let’s turn to the sixth chapter of the book of Galatians. We’re going to move down to 11. As we come to the end of this book, the Apostle Paul, in conclusion, is confirming a couple of things. First of all, he’s saying, see what large letters I used to write to you with my own hand. As I explained briefly last week, that you had people in those days who would write letters and sign the apostles’ names to them. There’s a whole segment of literature like that called the pseudepigrapha. And I just kind of a long name that means I don’t know. But they were letters that were written by someone else other than the apostles. And there were reasons for protecting those things because in the scripture and in the canon that we hold in our hands today, and incidentally that word canon is the same word in almost every language, whether it be German or Greek or whatever it is, the word’s canon. And it means a rule. And so in order for these books to be in the book that we hold in our hands today, It had to be written by an apostle or an amanuensis of an apostle, which means a scribe. And so as the Apostle Paul would have written this book, he would have dictated that to a scribe. And many people believe that one of the scribes that he had was Dr. Luke, who traveled with him and who would write down as the Apostle Paul would communicate these truths. The Apostle Paul had a thorn in his flesh that he talked about, and no one knows for sure what that thorn in the flesh was. But there’s another indicator in Scripture where he talks about the fact of his eyes being weak. And I’m of the opinion that that was the thorn in his flesh was poor eyesight and even to the point of his eyes being unsightly to look at in one form or another. And yet he said, you welcomed me like I was an angel from God. And so he writes, look at the large letters that I’m writing and signing my name to prove that this letter came from the Apostle Paul. And the reason, as I said, for that is because of the number of letters that would have been sent throughout the church with their signatures on it that they had nothing to do with. Kind of like we have today. And so what he did was to sign his letters in such a way that no one could mistake the fact that this letter came from the Apostle Paul. And so we are very certain when we hold this Bible in our hands today that the letters that are in these books were written by an apostle or an amanuensis of an apostle. And so we know that it’s the Word of God. Now, that would be in comparison to, as an example, what you have in between in what we call the Catholic Bible, which is really not a Catholic Bible. It’s just the Old Testament and New Testament with a group of writings in between. And you don’t have to be a genius to read any of those letters and to know that it’s not scripture. But yet they kept them in there in retaliation to Luther who said to take them out. So they kept them in because of Luther. And so we kind of have a little history of our Bible coming together as we know it today. It had to be in the Old Testament written in Hebrew and by a prophet, and in the New Testament it had to be written by an apostle or an amanuensis of an apostle. And so he says that, look, see what large letters I used to write to you with my own hand. Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. Now again, the circumcision group, and that was the Jews, the leadership among the Jews, the circumcision group, They were saying that you could not be a true Christian unless you became a Jew. And one of the outward signs for being a Jew was to be circumcised. And that was a big thing for the people in those days. That was the identification for being a Jew. And so they were going to the Gentiles and saying, if you’re going to be a true Christian, you must be circumcised. And Paul talked about that, and the people talked about that, and they had councils on that, where they, in the council, said that is not true. That was a sign for the Jew, but it has nothing to do with the Gentile. And so he’s saying to them, they’re trying to make a good impression. They want to make a good outward impression. Now, folks, I want to think about that for a minute. How many of you live to make a good outward impression? But inside, you’re a mess. We go to church.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hi there.
SPEAKER 02 :
We’re so happy. We get in the car going home, and we’re as miserable as a bear. You get your kids in the back seat. knock their heads together, and then smile out the window, good to see you, brother. We live to make good impressions, don’t we? We do something, and we tell everybody the good things that we’ve done. How many of you communicated the bad things you’ve done this week to your friends? So glad you called, Barry. Let me tell you of my failures this week. We are in bondage with to making good impressions outward impressions on people are we not but folks who you are is who you are at home not who you are here because you knack nice here it’s only an hour so anybody knack nice for an hour but it’s who are you at home who are you at work are you mean as a hornet are you miserable Or is the joy of the Lord a reality in your life? Because we live to make outward impressions. I want to make an outward impression on everybody. Do you know that’s the main reason for people going to church? Is to make an outward impression on people. And like my daughter said when she was in college, all the guys and gals used to get all dressed up in their suit and tie and go to the cafeteria to make everybody think they’d been to church. You see, we have used going to church as a substitute for a relationship with Christ Jesus. And after a while, church becomes not a supplement to the Lord, but a substitute for the Lord. And we are so proud about how many times we go to church. And of course, if you can get in a church that goes more than others, you really can get holy. Right? And so, if you get in a church that has a church service in the morning, and one in the evening, and then one on Wednesday. Now, if you go in the morning, I was told this, if you go in the morning, you’re semi. You may not even be in the Lord. You’re just in the building. If you go in the evening, you’re really in Christ. But if you go on Wednesday, you’re ready to make your ascension into heaven.
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Amen.
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And then if you go to visitation on Monday, on top of that, you’re already there. You just don’t know it. And we got all of these things that we build up that we put outward attention to. And you can do all of those things, my friends, and not even know the Lord. You don’t have to know the Lord to go to church. I went to church for 36 years without knowing the Lord. I’d hate to think how long you went. You don’t have to know the Lord to go on Sunday evening. You don’t have to know the Lord to enjoy the choirs and the orchestras. You don’t have to know the Lord for that. That’s fun stuff. You pay money to go to a concert to hear that stuff. You don’t have to pay there. Unless you tithe. And so you got all these outward things. To the Jew, it was circumcision. To us, it’s tithing. Or baptism. or any of these outward things that they say, if you do, you’re a true Christian. And we have to understand those things. And we have to understand that you can sit in a church service and not hear a word that is said. And you get in the car and someone says, that’s a good sermon. Yeah, it was. What did he say? You don’t have a clue. I was in Zulu land. I parked my body and I moved. I was out someplace else. I used to sit and think about my business. And I loved silent prayer because I could think about it without the noise going on. Never hear a word that was said. Never hear a word. Well, you might catch a glimpse every now and then, but never a word. But you’re there. And you tell your people, I was there. I remember… When I was in business, I went down to San Diego with two guys who were president and the vice president of the carpet company, one of them that I represented. And we went out on a complaint of carpet that was laid at a church. And the night before, we had been out on the town and came home probably was taking a look at that complaint with a headache, not feeling real good, all of us. And we went into this church. And I went into this church and I looked around and I said, this kind of looks like the church I go to. And this guy said, you go to church? And the other one said, you go to church? I said, well, of course. I didn’t see anything contradictory about being smashed on Saturday night and go to church on Sunday. I didn’t see anything contradictory about that at all. You know, I went, I go to church. They couldn’t believe it. Well, today, I look back and say, I don’t blame them. I couldn’t believe it either. But I saw no contradiction to that at all. None at all. People say, you didn’t see any? None. None. Because going to church has meant you went in church. You parked your body for an hour and put your dollar in the offering plate and Tried to look to see if there was any change so you could get something back, but there wasn’t, so you left it there and moved on to the next week. And that’s all there was to it. You have church all over the country where people are sitting on Sunday with no meaning to it. So if you’ve had good church exposure, praise God for it. Because I want to tell you, it’s not common. I sat in church for 36 years of my life and never one time ever heard the gospel. I was in a liberal church. I didn’t know it was liberal. I didn’t know it was anything. I never listened to anything. But I knew that if I did listen, I wouldn’t have heard anything anyway because it was all liberal. And folks, that’s the major condition of the church of Jesus Christ today. Not people who are proclaiming truth, but people who are proclaiming nonsense. And so we have to understand that there’s an outward appearance that we love to give to people. We got this outward thing and we love to con people and we sound so nice. And you’ll see that in sales. You’ll see it on the phone. I’ll see that on the phone where people are so nice on the phone. And the thing of it is, is I know who they are. And I’m not saying that to be discrediting anything, but I can remember that there was a time when I had spent a little bit of time working and helping Zig Ziglar in his positive thinking deal. And he had a girl that worked for him. And she had called me on the phone for counseling. And so I called her back. And she answered the phone. It’s a great day at Zig Ziglar. Yeah. And I said, Joan, this is Bob George. Oh, my God, am I glad you called. Well, let me get to the other phone. Get to the other phone. About to die inside.
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But it’s a great day at Zig Ziglar. 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 :
That’s how phony we are, folks. Do we realize how phony we can be on the outside? Just phony as can be. On the outside, everything’s wonderful, everything’s good, but inside our guts are hanging out. You want to know something? Jesus isn’t looking at her outside. He’s looking at her guts. What’s going on underneath the skin? Not what’s going on in the outward appearance, but what’s going on underneath the skin? Where are we? Where are we living right now? Underneath the skin. And so this thing of trying to please people and to look good outwardly is not unusual. It’s been going on for centuries. So he says in this particular case that the only reason that these people are doing this is to avoid being persecuted of the cross. Now, who got responsible for killing Jesus at the cross? Who was the blame laid on there? The Jews. Now, did the Jews execute Jesus? No. Who did that? The Romans. What did the Jews do? Encouraged it. They were the motivation behind it. But the Gentiles carried it out. So who killed Jesus? The Jews and the Gentiles. But in essence, you killed Jesus. And I killed Jesus because of my sins. But the Jews got credit for it. Now here, they had a way and a means of being set apart from the rest of the world. What was it? So if I can get the Gentiles circumcised, no one’s going to know whether I’m a Jew or not. Because everybody’s circumcised now. And that has gone on to this very day. And I won’t go into the details of that. But I think we know that to be true. That circumcision is no longer a sign of being a Jew. So that was accomplished. And that was one of the ways in which they avoided being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Now he’s saying about these people who are looking for outward impressions, that even to those who are circumcised, not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. Again, How does that relate to this modern day? I don’t care what’s going on in your heart. Just show up. I’m not interested in you. I’m interested in numbers. Nickels and noses is what I’m interested in. And so it doesn’t make any difference whether you’re growing in the Lord or not. I could care less about that. I just want a large number of people to show up. So that I can boast in how many people show up. Any of you been involved in that? Around that? And so everything is outward. And we brag on how many people we have in our congregation. We don’t have a clue what’s going on inside their hearts. Whether they’re in the Lord, whether they’re not in the Lord. And of course then the way to do that is to promote baptism. Not baptism as proof of salvation, but as a means of joining my church. So the way that you become a member of my church, not a member of Jesus’ body, but a member of my church is to get baptized. And so we baptized hundreds last year. And because we’ve convinced ourselves and others that that’s a means of joining the church, and then we may throw a little Jesus in there. That’s also a means of coming to Christ. We throw that in just in case we might need it. But basically, this is church membership. When I was a kid, we went to church in the Christian church. It was a branch of the Disciples of Christ Church. And in that church, every Sunday, you recited the Lord’s Prayer. And every Sunday, they had communion. And every Sunday, the cup was passed by with the bread. And I loved grape juice. And every Sunday, that grape juice came under my nose. And I sat there dying to get some grape juice. And I used to, you know, have those little glasses. And after it was passed, I’d get the little glasses out and lick the bottom out of them just to get me some grape juice. And finally, one time I asked mom, mom, how do I get to drink grape juice on Sunday? And said, by being baptized, I said, would lead me to the waters. And I was baptized the next Sunday and I got my grape juice. Now, that’s a phenomenal motivation, isn’t it, for being baptized? And that lasted for a while until one of my buddies asked me to go over to the Presbyterian church. And what was spiritual about the Presbyterian church is it had a basketball court in the basement. Now, the ceiling was only about eight foot tall, so you could slam duck when you were five foot tall. But it didn’t make any difference to me. It was a basketball court. And Reverend Spurgeon loved kids. He had a phenomenal youth ministry. In that little church, 20,000 people, 300 kids marched down the aisle on Easter Sundays with palm branches, singing, Up from the grave he arose. None of us knew the Lord. He didn’t know the Lord. But we sang songs. And in order to play basketball in the basement, you had to be in the choir. And so every kid… in the church was in the choir. And his concept was, I don’t care whether you can sing or not. Some people are off key low, some are off key high. It’ll all balance out in the end. Just open up your mouth and make a joyful noise unto the Lord and sing. And that’s what we did. What did it sound like? I don’t know. But we sang and we got to play basketball and we got to go out on, he bought a bus. That was unheard of back in my days for a church to have a church bus. He had a bus, went out and to Memorial Park, and Amy and I were just back there recently, and we played ball there, and we’d take our lunches out, and he’d have a prayer with us. And all those things were true, and they were good. It was a good environment to be in, but no one knew the Lord. No one knew the Lord, but we had a nice youth ministry, and we had a nice program. And today, the same is true. You’ve got a program. You’ve got a youth program. And that’s what, where am I going to go? Where they’ve got a good youth program. Doesn’t matter whether we know the Lord or not. Just activity. And we’ve got a good singles department. And we’ve got a fantastic young marriage department. We’ve got the adult. And here, the Bible says we all are mixed together. And here we separate. You’ve got the old adults and the medium adults and the young adults and all this. And you’ve got all of these classes down. So the people can relate to each other because that’s what’s important is relating to each other. And that’s the condition of our organized church today. It’s programs. And more money. And more buildings to house what? Hearing the gospel? Programs. And so before long, as we’ve talked about before, what is a supplement to becomes a substitute for. And it’s subtle. And anyone who thinks that they’re not subject to that, something’s wrong with your head. You’re not aware of the spiritual battle that is going on in the hearts of man today. You’re not aware of what Satan wants to do to you. And that is to deceive us and to get our focus off of him and on to anything except him. Satan does not care what you have your eyes on as long as they’re off. Of Jesus. That’s all he cares. Christian activity. Praise God. He likes that. It doesn’t make a difference. As long as they’re off of Jesus. And so. We have to understand. That the apostle Paul. In writing this book. Is trying to drive us to our senses. And trying to get us to see. It’s not activity. It is not fun and games. That this Christian life is a serious matter. It doesn’t mean we walk around looking like we just ate a skunk. Because we have joy in the midst of trials and tribulation. But he says in this world you’re going to have trial and tribulation. I want to tell you folks there’s not a person sitting in this room that doesn’t have trials and tribulation. Is there? And so in this world you’re going to have it. If you don’t have it externally we have it internally. And the issue is Where are you going to go to? And you see, we get all of these young people, especially, all wrapped up in our youth groups, in our high school youth groups. What happens when you go to college and your youth group isn’t there anymore? I’ll tell you what happened to probably eight or ten people that I know of. They all died of AIDS and became homosexuals when they got to college. They might have been in high school. I don’t know. But I do know they’re dead today from AIDS. sitting in a Baptist church singing their hearts out. Folks, you don’t have anything to draw upon if you don’t have Jesus. You cannot draw upon your youth program when you don’t have a youth program. You can’t draw on your young marriage class when you don’t have a young marriage class. If you’re by yourself, all you have is Jesus. And we better have a relationship with him and someone that we can talk to And relate to. And pour our heart out to. And be ministered to. By him. Because he’s all you’ve got. And so to these outward appearances. That we get so hung up on. They’ll kill you. And they’ll put you in bondage. To desiring outward appearances. And acceptance by man. Jesus said if I was. If I was teaching the law, I would not be persecuted by man. I’m not here to be pleasing to man. We’re not running for sheriff. We are children of the living God who’s under a continual spiritual warfare and attack every moment of our lives by the one who says, I have only one goal for you to kill, steal, and destroy everything in your life. I’ll steal your marriage from you if I can. I’ll destroy your marriage from you. I’ll destroy you. I’ll destroy the ministry. I’ll destroy anything that I can get my hands on if you allow me. And that’s the enemy that is nudging into your and my head every single moment of the day. And I want to tell you, fun and games. Don’t contradict that. And so he’s saying to us that not only those who are circumcised obey the law. The people were saying, be circumcised. That’s a part of the law. But I don’t obey the law. What are the requirements of the obedience to the law? If you’re under the law, it says, first of all, you’re under a curse. Why are you under a curse? Because you can’t obey the law. And what’s the wages of sin under the law? Death. That’s the curse of the law. As long as you hang on to one piece of the law, he says you may as well hang on to all of it. Because if you’re trying to obey one law, you’re obligated to obey all of it. We studied that, didn’t we? And it says in there that if you kept the entire law and just violated one law in all of your life, you violated all of them. And so he’s saying to you, if you’re under the law, you’re under a curse. So if you’re going to hang on to the law of circumcision or baptism… or any other law that you hang on to for salvation, you’re under the curse of death. Because you’re obligated to be all of it. And all of it’s outward signs, outward impressions that mean nothing to God.
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Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
