Join Bob George as he delves into the essence of Christian teachings, emphasizing the vital relationship between the Father and the Son, and how that relationship serves as a model for our faith. This episode unpacks the symbolism of the vine and the branch, explaining how our spiritual fruits are a product of our connection to Christ. Through vivid metaphorical lessons, Bob highlights how we can live inspired and empowered lives in accordance with God’s will.
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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You have nothing to fear with that. We’re not out trying to recruit. We are out trying to see if God can touch your heart the way he touched my heart and convert you. But when you’re converted, we’re not there to say to become an enemy of all religions of the world. We’re not enemies of those religions at all. There’s nothing to be an enemy about. We just know from the Bible that the way to God is through the Son. And we pray and hope that you’ll grab a hold of that as well and come to know that new birth that he is offering in Christ Jesus. Not to politicize you, not to lord it over you, not to sit around and tell you what to do and what not to do, but to show you how to come to the Father. That should be our intent as Christians. Nothing to fear from us at all. Nothing at all. And so he says, no one comes to the Father except through me. Now he said, if you really knew me, and an alternate translation of that is, if you really knew about me, you would know my Father as well. So if you really knew about me, if you really knew me, Jesus, you would know the Father as well. There’s something inside of you that’s going to testify to the fact that I know not only the Son, but I know the Father. And from now on, he said, you will know him and have seen him. Now again, guys, this is all preparation. For the time that Jesus is leaving this earth in physical form. It’s all preparation. It’s preparing you and me for how to we live with Jesus physically away from us. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father. He still didn’t get it. Show us the Father and that’ll be good enough. He just got through saying, I am the Father of one. He said, show us the Father. That’ll be good enough. If you just show us him. He’ll be good enough. And Jesus said, do you not know me, Philip? Even after I have been among you for such a long time, you’ve seen the miracles that I have done. You’ve seen me raise the dead. You’ve heard words come out of my mouth that you’ve never heard before. You’ve seen a love that you’ve never seen before. You’ve seen the joy of the Lord that you’ve never seen before. You’ve seen patience and kindness that you’ve never seen before. And I told you where that all came from. It all came from the Father. because i don’t do anything unless the father tells me to do it and i don’t say anything unless the father tells me to say it that’s where it came from philip don’t you know that don’t you understand that now guys in a moment he’s going to bring all of this down to how we live with the vine and branch illustration it’ll be in the next chapter But before he does that, I want us to see that if we’ll get a glimpse of this vine and branch as it relates to God the Father and Jesus, I think it’ll help us with understanding how we live. And so you could look at this and say anyone who has seen the branch has seen the vines. If you want to follow along with me, we’re in verse 9, chapter 14. Anyone who has seen me, the branch, has seen the vine, the father. How can you say, show us the vine? Don’t you believe that I, a branch, am in the vine and that the vine is in me? We know that, don’t we, in the relationship of the vine and branch. It works together. With God’s economy, the vine couldn’t produce fruit apart from the branch. And the branch could not bear fruit apart from the vine. They need each other. They’re a part of one another. They may look different, but they’re all one. Do we understand that? They all look, might have a different look to them. Total function is different, but it’s all oneness. The vine does nothing that the branch does nothing that the vine didn’t tell it to do. And the branch does nothing or says anything that the vine didn’t tell it to say. Are we together? The words I say to you are not my own. Rather, it is the vine, the father, the vine living in me, doing his work. It’s like a branch saying, look, I’m not doing this on my own. It’s the vine doing it in through me. If a vine could talk or a branch could talk. But Jesus is kind of talking to us here. Believe me when I say that the branch is in the vine and the vine is in me, the branch. Or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves that could not have been produced by any man but only by God who lives in me. I tell you the truth that anyone who has faith in me, the branch, will do what I, the branch, have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And I, the branch, will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father and you may ask anything in my name and I’ll do it. Now we ask the question, that’s good, Jesus. You’ve just told us how you functioned because I don’t think anyone figured that out while he was there. You would look at the works of Jesus and say, wow, what a guy. And Jesus is saying, yeah, what a guy is because I’m abiding in the father. He is explaining to you, guys, look, I know what you think that I’m doing is something quite unusual, which it is. But the reason is because I’m abiding and depending on God to do that in and through me. He’s showing us how we are to live. If it’s good enough for Jesus, it ought to be good enough for us. There’s no other way to live the Christian life except how Jesus lived it, and that is in total dependency upon the Father to produce in us what we cannot produce in and of ourselves. He’s preparing us for that. So he’s going to show us now how to pull that off. If you love me, you’ll obey what I command. And I will ask the Father and he’ll give you another counselor to be with you forever. It’s always saying, here’s how it’s going to be pulled off. I’m going to give you my spirit to live in you. The spirit of truth is going to live in you. And my friends, if you will abide in the spirit of truth, you will be so set apart from this world that you won’t even be recognizable. Because the world is full of lies. The world is motivated by the kingdom of lies. By the author of lies, Satan. And I’m going to give you the spirit of truth. So that you can discern the difference between truth and lies. Is that worthwhile guys? I mean if we’ll grab a hold of that. And to realize that the standard of truth is not what Rosie says. That the standard of truth is God and what God says. That we have to have a standard of what is truth. And God has told us what truth is. He calls sin what it is. And he wants us to call it what it is. He called us what we are. Wicked and deceitful above all things and who can know us. Wretched man that I am. That’s the condition of mankind until he becomes a born again believer. That’s the condition of the world. Wretched. Hearts wicked and deceitful above all things. Who can know them? Now, you see, we don’t even believe God with that. And as a matter of fact, I think that’s the biggest point of rebellion in regard to salvation messages. It’s not that I don’t want to believe that Jesus died on a cross. It’s just don’t tell me I’m a sinner. And for goodness sakes, don’t tell me I’m wretched. Because I’m basically a good person. And if you don’t believe me, just ask me. And I’ll tell you how good I am. Is that right or wrong, guys? We don’t need defense attorneys. We’re the best defense attorneys in the world of ourselves. Highly skilled to defend ourselves. God says it doesn’t make any difference how nice you’re acting. I have said that you’re wretched apart from me. You’re lost and you’re wretched. And the only thing that a wretched man needs is salvation. And there’s only one point of salvation in the Bible. And that’s through Jesus. So he comes and says the spirit of truth. The world can’t accept him. Doesn’t know anything about him. Because it neither sees him or knows him. But you do. For he lives with you. That’s Jesus. And will be in you. That’s the Holy Spirit. Do you believe that? Do we believe that Jesus, through His Holy Spirit, literally lives in you? If He doesn’t, we’re to be pitied of all people. If Christ Jesus isn’t alive living in us, where are we going to get our instruction from? I’ll not leave you. I’m not going to leave you. He says, I am not going to leave you. I’m going to leave you physically, guys, but the physical is not the issue. The spiritual is. I’m going to leave you physically, but I’m going to send my spirit to live in you, and my spirit will never leave you nor forsake you. I will come to you. I’ll never leave you as orphans. I’ll come to you. So that’s a promise. I’m going away physically, but I’m going to come to you spiritually. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. Is that good news? I’m going to be raised from the dead. And you also are going to be raised from the dead. Salvation. Salvation isn’t the cross. That was preparatory to salvation. We celebrate Good Thursday instead of Good Friday because he didn’t die on Friday. He died on Thursday. We’ll see that that was preparatory to the resurrection. That the cross had to take away eternally salvation. the cause of death before he could give you life eternal he could have given us temporal life by not dealing with the cross and gave you life and next time you sin you just die again but in order to give you eternal life he had to take away eternally the cause of death which was sin which is what the cross was preparatory to salvation
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On that day, you’re going to realize that I am in the Father and you are in me. I am in the Father, I am in my Father, I, branch, am in the vine, and you are in me, the branch. I am in you. Whoever has my commands obeys them, and he is the one who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him, and I’ll show myself to him. And then Judas, not Judas Iscariot said, but Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world? And Jesus replied, if anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. And later on down here, he teaches what the obedience to his teaching is, is to love your God with all your heart, mind and soul and to love your neighbors yourself. And that is my teaching, because love is the fulfillment of the law. Now he says, if anyone loves me, he’ll obey my teaching and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. So in essence, guys, when you’re born again, he comes to live in you. I mean, where is home? Isn’t that something? That this old body of ours and some of it, as feeble as it is, is the home of God. That’s where he lives. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. The reason that we don’t obey the teaching of the Lord, we don’t love him. Why? We don’t know him. Don’t want to know him. These words you hear are not my own. Again, reiterating, these are not my own. They belong to the Father who sent me. Again, guys, the reiteration that what I’m saying to you is not me initiating. It is the Father initiating it to me, and I’m merely passing it on to you. I could initiate everything that I say to you because I’m God as well, but I wouldn’t show you how to live. And I have come here in order to show you how to live. I haven’t showed you to follow my example of living. I’ve showed you how to follow my example of believing and entrusting in God to live his life in and through you and me. How hard do you think this was for the apostles to grab a hold of this? How tough is it for us to grab a hold of this? All of this, he said, I have spoken while I’m still with you. But the counselor, the Holy Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, in my authority. will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Who was he talking to, guys? The apostles. Who wrote the scriptures? The apostles. How did they remember everything? Because Jesus said, I’m going to send my spirit and he’ll remind you of everything I said to you. The apostles weren’t sitting there jogging their memory. Now, what did Jesus say here? When they wrote down the scripture, it was like God himself revealing everything that Jesus had ever communicated to them. He’ll teach you all things and remind you of everything I’ve said. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I don’t give you as the world gives. Again, a reiteration of what he said at the beginning of chapter 14. Don’t let your hearts be troubled. And do not be afraid. You have all kinds of things ahead of you. What was ahead of the apostles? Persecution? Death? Torture? Being looked upon as second-rate citizens? That was upon you, but fear not. Don’t let your heart be troubled by that. It’s all there. I’ve already told you what’s going to happen. So don’t be shocked when it does. And don’t be afraid. Why not be afraid? Because perfect love casts away how much fear? All of it. Yeah. So if you’re believing what I’m saying to you, and that is anyone who loves me will be able to obey my teaching, and anyone who loves me doesn’t need to be afraid, and doesn’t need to live in fear, and doesn’t need to let their hearts be troubled, because that love will push out fear. Why? Because if God’s for me, who can be against me? The world may be against me. The world may be able to take my body, but the world cannot take my soul. And quite frankly, this body isn’t going to live very long anyway. It’s going to fall in a grave, isn’t it? Become worm food. But when we do, he says you’re going to be absent from the body. Now the real you is not your body. Your body is the house. Now Jesus said I’m going to go and find a new house for you. What’s it going to look like? We don’t know. Thank goodness we’re up there visualizing something in Highland Park. So, no, that’s not it. You heard me say I’m going away, and I’m coming back to you. If you loved me, you would be glad that I’m going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. Now there’s some people say, you see there, Jesus didn’t God. He couldn’t say that God the Father was greater than God the Son. Because if it’s God, well, they’re all the same. Why do you think he would say the Father is greater than I? Why do you think he’d say that? Well, I think it’s very simple. I think that God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, all of them, totally God. And again, quit putting flesh and blood on them. God is what? Spirit. You must worship him in spirit and truth. So quit putting flesh and blood on God. How spirit exists, we don’t have a clue. That’s out of our realm of influence, isn’t it? It’s out of our realm of experience. We don’t have a clue. but he says that he exists in the form of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So he’s saying that each one of us have a role. And my role as the Father is to give the instruction, and your role, Jesus, is to carry it out. It would be like, to a degree, guys, having a mirror up here saying, And I’m looking into the mirror, and Richard is out there, and I’m looking at his reflection. And I’m talking to him because I don’t see him out there. I’m talking to this mirror and saying, Richard, how are you doing? He said, doing good. Thank you. Tell me about the Father. Well, if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. I’m a direct reflection of God the Father. And I can sit there and talk to that mirror just like I’m talking to the Father, couldn’t I? Because he’s a direct reflection in our experience. Well, the same thing is true in our experience. That God has come to live within us and he wants us to be a mirror of who lives in us. He wants us to live a life commensurate with who lives in us and who is living through us. So he says, I’m coming back to you, and if you love me, you’d be glad that I’m going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And I’ve told you now, before it happens, so that when it does happen, you’ll believe. I will not speak to you much longer. Again, this is probably a few weeks prior to the resurrection. I will not speak to you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming, Satan. He has no hold on me. But the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. Reiterate it again, guys. He’s saying, get this into your skulls. That I came to this earth to show you how to live. That I am God. I could be the initiator of my own action. The cause of my own effect. And the dynamic of my own life. If I chose to do so. I’m God. I could do any of those things. But I chose not to do though. I chose to find myself in an appearance as a man. And in so doing live in total dependency upon my father. So that I can teach you how to live. Do we get it, guys? The example of Jesus was, abide in the Father and let the Father guide you. Are we together on this? Now that is precisely why, as we have come to Christ as born-again believers, that we come up with these harebrained ideas that we’ve got this agenda that we want to get across. And I’m quite sure that God will bless my agenda. But I’m not 100% sure that He’ll bless my agenda if only I talk to Him. So what we’re going to do is have a prayer meeting. And we’re going to try to get hundreds of people together to pray to God about my agenda. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll get a few hundred more. Because if I can just get a thousand people telling God what a good agenda this is, because he may not understand how good it is. He may be a little dense. So we’re going to enlighten him, and we’ll get about a thousand people out there praying to God to take care of my agenda, and he’s got to listen to me. Where’s the problem? Now, I want to ask you a question. We’ve just read, haven’t we? We’ve just read what Jesus said. I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. Who is the initiator? God the Father. Who’s the responder? Jesus. Who’s the initiator in your life? Who’s the responder? Did Jesus ever initiate in prayer or anything else to God? No. Or did God initiate to Jesus? If Jesus said, I don’t say anything, what in the world do we think prayer is? Talking to God. And if he didn’t say anything to God except what God told him to say, that is dependency. I am not the initiator. I did not create you to be an initiator to me. We have in this world a law called the law of causality, that the result of something is never greater than the cause of something. The warmth of the sun is not greater than the sun. My salvation is not greater than my Savior. It’s a law of causality. And if we live by that law here, why would we deny that in our spiritual realm and think that we are the initiator? I’m going to tell God what I want, and he’s got to respond to me. Isn’t that what prayer is? You just initiate whatever you want, and God’s got to respond to you. And if your faith’s big enough, he’s got to respond. And if he doesn’t, we’ll get a prayer meeting, get a few hundred people praying. Then he’s got to do it. Have we reversed things, guys? Is that what prayer is? I want to tell you something. If God isn’t telling you to pray, don’t waste your time praying.
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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.
