Bibleline Radio Show – 2009-09-21

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

So cherish me. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Hank Lindstrom, a ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, declaring God’s love through radio and the internet, providing real answers to an ever-searching world. To reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep Bibleline on the air in your community, dial toll-free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3716. 637-71. Hello and welcome to today’s broadcast of Bibleline. I’m Tom Perry. For those who aren’t familiar with Bibleline, our format includes a combination of Dr. Hank Lindstrom’s teachings straight from the Word of God and biblical answers to questions posed by callers.

We hope that you will open your Bible and join us for our current study, which is a verse by verse look at the book of John and includes topics such as the feeding of the five thousand, prophecy concerning the Holy Spirit, the woman taken in adultery, and more. We pray that Bibleline will be glorifying to God as well as enriching to you. It’s time to join Dr. Lynch from teaching for today as we turn to the book of John chapter 1.

The Holy Spirit takes you and places you into Christ’s body and from that moment on, as far as God is concerned, He sees you as being the body of Christ and members in particular. So every believer is a member of the body of Christ at the moment you believe. What does that mean? It means that God looks upon everybody that is a believer as being in the body of Christ and what happened to Christ, therefore, happened to you as far as God is concerned.

So when Christ was crucified, you were crucified because God saw you in the body of Christ when he hung on the cross. And he saw you crucified with him. Paul talks about in Galatians 2-20, I’m crucified together with Christ. Nevertheless I live. God sees every believer in Christ and crucified with Christ. Then it says in Romans 6 that we’re buried with Christ. So when that body was placed in the tomb, God saw you and me as believers who are placed into the body of Christ positionally, or as we were buried in that body that was placed in the tomb.

When Christ was raised in Romans 6, it says we were also resurrected together with Christ. So when Christ’s body came out of the grave, God saw us being resurrected with him. Christ ascended. He also saw us ascending with Christ back up into heaven. So as far as God is concerned, you and I, as believers, are already in heaven. I’m still here, but as far as God is concerned, positionally, I’m already crucified, buried, resurrected, ascendant and also turn, if you will, to your right to Ephesians 2.

We’ll just kind of end this little sidebar with this. But in Ephesians, I’ll give you the page number, Ephesians chapter 2, and this will be on page 1251, I believe, page 1251, Ephesians chapter 2. Look at you will at verse 6. And here it says in Ephesians 2, 6, and have raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So when Christ ascended to heaven, he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.

And so the Bible tells us that’s That’s where Christ’s body is right now. And God sees you and me in Christ, not only ascended with Christ’s body when He went back to heaven, but He sees us seated in Christ’s body right next to God Almighty Himself. So this is talking about the man Jesus and how that He is in authority, the right hand man of God, and that we are seated in heaven with Christ. How can you ever be lost?

God would have to throw you out of heaven, or somebody would have to pull you down out of heaven. Positionally, we’re already crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended, and now also as we just saw, seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So I’m in heaven as far as God is concerned. I’m just waiting for it to take place in real time. But my position is already settled with God. The moment you believe on Christ, you’re safe. Your past present future sins were all paid for at the cross in full.

And so He can offer you in real time, eternal life. And right now God sees me already, positionally in heaven, though I’d already lived there since Christ went to heaven 2000 years ago. But I am placed into the body of Christ in real time at the moment I believe. When I believe I am taken by the Holy Spirit, placed into the body of Christ, and seen positionally with all the believers of this age as already seated in heaven with Christ.

And that’s kind of neat to know, isn’t it? So therefore, your sins, my sins, were paid for on the cross, and God saw you in Christ’s body hanging on that cross and dying to pay for sin. So therefore, your sin that was met in Christ and you were seen in his body, and it was fulfilled at the cross. So here we have Jesus, now the one who had baptized with the Holy Spirit, and every believer has it, And obviously you may not even know or be aware of it.

If you’re a believer, you may not know then unless you study the scriptures and see what God has done because there’s no feeling associated with it. It’s just a fact that God has done for every believer. And we know here in verse 34 that John says, I saw and I bear record that this is the Son of God. One more word about the phrase, the Son of God, because we are not Jewish, we probably miss the full meaning. The phrase, son of, from the Hebrew means to have the same nature as, the same characteristics as, and it doesn’t mean necessarily that you had a baby and this is your son.

So we have examples throughout the New Testament. For example, you have James and John were called the sons of thunder. Now, did that mean that James and John’s dad was named Mr. Thunder? How are you? Mr. Thunder? Glad to meet you. Two fine boys you have here. No. It meant that the nature, the characteristics about John and his brother was that they were apparently quick-tempered. You’d probably say something wrong or touch them wrong and they’d probably swing on you.

You’d probably be in a brawl. Barnabas was called the son of consolation. Did that mean that his name was Mr. Consolation? No. It meant that Barnabas had the characteristics, the nature, where he was able to console people, to comfort people. And so that’s what he was called. He’s called a son of consolation. When Jesus was called a son of God, it meant he had the very nature and the very characteristics of God himself. He’s God. When he referred to himself as the Pelicans, the High Priest would rip his clothes and claim blasphemy.

Here’s a man claiming to be God when in reality he was God and is God. But they were saying that he couldn’t be. They just couldn’t in their minds accept that Jesus was God. Jesus Christ is also called the Son of Man. And what does that mean? He had the same characteristics in nature as man has, except for the sin nature because he didn’t have a human father. And so Jesus as a man got tired, he got hungry, he ate, he slept, he had human emotions, he cried when Lazarus died.

He wept, the shortest verses in the Bible, John 11, 35, Jesus wept, and so on and so on. So he was also a man. He’s also called the son of David. What did that mean? Well, it means that he had the same character, nature as David. David was a shepherd, and Christ had that shepherding quality about him, and David became the shepherd king and was a great king in Israel, and Christ will become a greater king than David and sit upon the throne of David ruling over Israel.

And so these phrases really take on a lot more meaning when you understand how they’re used from the Hebrew. So the phrase son of man means that Jesus is a man. The phrase son of David means he’s like David in many ways. Yet again, of course, he’s the sinless son of God. But as the son of God, he is literally God. And here John is giving testimony. To the fact that Jesus is God. As we said, this book brings out the deity of Christ.

Verse 35, again the next day after John stood in two of his disciples and looking upon the man as he walked he saith, notice the next day again, behold the lamb of God. Those are important phrases. And it speaks about right from the get-go. This is right at the very beginning of his ministry. Jesus is recognized by John as the one that would be slain, the one that would die to pay for sin. Jesus had come to die. He had come to be God’s lamb.

He came to pay for the sins of the whole human race. And John recognized that right up front. If you’re reading Matthew, it would talk about Christ being king. But here, notice as God in a human body, John recognizes right up front, he’s the lamb that was to be slain. He was the lamb that would take away the sin of the world as we saw in chapter 1 verse 29. So it says here in verse 37, and the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus.

When Jesus turned and saw them following and said unto them, whom seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted Master. Where dwell us thou? He said unto them, Come and see. And they came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day. It was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peter’s brother. So here we have Andrew saved through the ministry of John the Baptist, and here now having John point him out, here he is, and here is God’s Lamb.

And we find that Andrew gets saved. But notice now, Andrew, the brother of Peter, verse 41, was concerned about his brother. And it says, he first findeth his own brother Simon and saith in them, we found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, now art Simon, the son of Jonah. Now, shall be called Cephas, which by interpretation is a stone. This is the salvation experience of Peter.

Peter gets saved first. He was one of John the Baptist disciples. And now notice he brings his brother. He finds him, tells him that here’s the Messiah. Obviously Peter comes to him now and believes that. It says in verse 41, he first find his own brother, Simon, and saith unto him, we found the Messiah, which is being interpreted to Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. That expression is a salvation expression. When you come to Jesus believing who he is, that’s what it is to become saved, to receive him and to become God’s child.

Then we find here that God gives him a new name. It’s apparent in the Bible that every believer is going to get a new name. The new name is associated with the new birth. You know, When you come into this world physically, your physical mom and dad name you. They give a name to you as their child. And it’s interesting that when you become born the second time, that God apparently names you with a new name that relates to being in his spiritual family.

Now in the Bible, we find apparently many get their new name before they get to heaven, they get to find out what it is. We find that Abram became Abraham, that Jacob became Israel. Israel means child of God. When Jacob got saved, God changed his name from Jacob to Israel. Thanks for joining us today on Bible I. We appreciate your continued support. Coming up, Dr. Lindstrom answers questions from callers, so you’ll want to keep listening. Would you like to learn more about God’s Word?

Then visit our online store on our website and check out Dr. Lindstrom’s DVD teachings on the topics of lost people seeking God. Are we in the latter days? And many others. Call our Resource Center at 1-800-576-3771. We’ll come back to today’s teaching later in the program, but now let’s listen to some questions from callers. We’re now going to go to Annie in Miami, Florida. I believe we were trying to get here before. Annie, welcome to Biblehead. Yes. Okay, Pastor.

How are you this morning? time thank you and i’d listen to this radio station i try to every every morning and i look forward to by the line wonderful and thank you and i have been i listening to question that here people say i’ve heard questions and answers that uh… as it relates to uh… believers and unbelievers both of us with trusting price and those who don’t that we will go to heaven when Christ comes back. Those who don’t believe will be cast into the lake of fire or it will go to hell.

Is there literally in the Bible, is it literally an eternal hell? Because Jehovah Witness came by, never turn them away, I listened to what they say. Yet he was saying that there is not an eternal hell that when unbelievers or those who don’t trust, when Christ cast away, they will be going into external existence as they’ve never been born. Well, the Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t get much right, and that’s one more thing. And I think you should not listen to them because you’ll be, you get your head will get mixed up.

The Bible is very clear. Christ spoke more about hell than he did about heaven. And if you read what he says in Mark’s Gospel, chapter 9, verse 42, 44, 46, he says, three times that those who die without Christ, their soul will never die and the fire will never be quenched. He says it again, verse 44, and the soul will never die and the fire will never be quenched. And the next verse, it says, verse 46, the soul will never die and the fire will never be quenched.

And he talks about in Matthew 2541 that those that are lost will be cast into the eternal lake of fire, a brimstone where the beast and the false where Satan and his angels will eventually go later in Revelation that talks about the Antichrist and the false prophet being there and they’ll be tormented day and night forever and ever. So if hell is not literal, then heaven is not literal and nothing is literal in the Bible because the Bible doesn’t say, well, this is not real, I’m just trying to scare you.

The Bible is talking about a real hell. And then you see it in the Old Testament. Again, the same thing that the soul would never die, the fire never equenced in Isaiah 66. And Daniel 12, too, says that some will be awakened to everlasting contempt of God and everlasting punishment while others will be awakened everlasting life, Daniel 12, and many, many more verses we could cite. So clearly they don’t believe the Bible. And that’s the problem is that they believe the watchtower society.

And that’s what they’re preaching to you because they don’t get it right. They don’t believe in the Trinity. They don’t believe in the deity of Christ. They don’t believe in salvation by faith. They don’t believe in hell. They don’t believe in blood transfusions. They don’t believe in fighting for your country. They don’t believe in sleeping in the flag. don’t believe in observing birthdays and I could be wanting to tell you more about what they don’t believe than what they do believe.

I think you ought to stay away from them. Okay, Pastor, very quickly that was Daniel chapters of two and Mark. Mark chapter 9 verse 42, 44, 46. Okay, and I says 66. As a 66. This is the last chapter. Okay. And one more question and I’m off the line. What does it mean to pray in the Spirit? I was told that the way you pray in the Spirit is by speaking in tongues. And so if I don’t have the gift, I mean, I don’t know.

But I was told when you don’t have to know the Holy Spirit will make intercession, especially when you’re going through some real deep problems. You need to pray in the Spirit and praying in the Spirit is praying in tongues. And I would like to know your answer on that. Thank you. I’m going to hang out as you answer the question. that cannot be further for the truth as well. Praying in the Spirit means praying in line with scripture which the scriptures are authored by God the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the author of scripture. God spoke through prophets and apostles to give us the Bible. The one who superintendent and guidance directed the writing of the Bible was the author of scripture which is God. And God the Holy Spirit, according to Peter’s epistle, is the author of Scripture. And when you talk about that praying in the Spirit is tongues, there is no tongues today. The gift of tongues was temporary in nature and ceased. But the verse that they often refer to that you just, I think we’re alluding to, that the Holy Spirit would intercede.

Let me read that verse in Romans 826 where it says, likewise the Spirit also himself, help with our infirmities, but we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself makeeth intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” So here they say, this is the Holy Spirit and the groanings are the gibberish that they do and it’s supposedly a prayer language. But guess what? I ask them a question. Can anybody hear this when you do it?

Can you hear it? They say, yes, of course. then you don’t have the Holy Spirit’s interceding on your behalf here. Because notice it says here, the Holy Spirit himself make a thinner session for us with groanings. Mark the last four words here, which cannot be uttered, which cannot be uttered, which cannot be uttered. If one little peep comes out of your mouth, one little groan comes out of your mouth that’s audible, then this is not God the Holy Spirit doing it.

Notice the Holy Spirit does it silently as he intercedes on your behalf, but he does not do it with groanings which can be uttered. These are sounds that people are making that are counterfeit and not the Holy Spirit at all. I’ve been in meetings where people would groan and moan and jibber and to me it’s so distracting because I can’t concentrate on what I’m trying to pray about. And not only is it not the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit does not make any audible sounds.

the verse carefully and most people don’t study the Bible carefully and read it carefully, but this is certainly not a proof text for a gibberish and a special prayer language to God. It just does not exist. Thank you, Annie, for calling in. Wow, we have an exciting Bible and God throughout says, there is no God like me. I am God and there is none beside me. is an unlike me, there is no Savior except for God Himself who came in the first of Christ and He describes here, long before Christ ever came, how the plan of salvation would be worked out and whosoever would believe in Christ or trust Christ’s or Savior would receive the wonderful gift of everlasting life.

That is truly good news. And I hope you have trusted Christ as your Savior. If you haven’t, would you do it right now? Would you whisper a prayer and just say, Lord, I am a sinner? That’s just being honest. Every one of us have sinned and have come short of the glory of God according to the Bible. But when we trusted Jesus Christ, made the full payment for our sins at the cross, then God saves us and forgives us and we become a child of God.

And from that point on we can be certain of living in heaven with the Lord forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. The Bible tells the whole life of Christ before He ever came and God said, I know you’re obstinate. I know you’re brass-headed. I know you’re iron-necked. I’m going to tell you before it comes to pass so you can know that I’m the author of this Bible and that this book is reliable and you can trust what I tell you.

I hope you’ve trusted Christ. If you haven’t, just don’t die. Everybody in hell believes on Christ, but it’s too late. You don’t want to wait until I have few nights too late once you die. And if you have unsaved relatives or friends, you need to tell them now while they’re still living while you have a chance because the day is coming when if you’re a believer you’re going to be evacuated out of here and the loss will not have you there to try to reach them and the probability of it getting saved becomes very slim.

We hope that you’re learning with us as you listen to this question and answer segment featuring Dr. Hank Lindstrom. If you’d like to hear today’s program again, then please visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org. There you’ll be able to replay today’s program in our audio archives, as well as access other resources, including articles on a variety of topics written by Dr. Lindstrom, in addition to many other resources in our online store. time for us to take a short break now.

When we return, we will continue this question and answer segment and then hear more Bible teaching from Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Don’t go away. Bibleline will be back in a moment. To pledge your support for Bibleline, give us a call at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. We’re going to turn to the little book of Jude what an exciting book this one is. and it tells us here that it is a letter addressed from Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father.

Now guess what? Every believer is sanctified by God the Father at the moment of belief. When you trust Christ as Savior, the Bible says we are sanctified by the one-time offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Now the The word sanctified from the Greek, the verb form is sanctified and the noun form is saint. So every person that has been sanctified is a saint. And by the way, the word translated sanctified means from the Greek, the original word from which we find the English word sanctified is a word that means to make pure and holy.

And so the Bible says that you are made positionally pure and holy before God at the moment you believe. And as a result, you become a saint. You know, it’s interesting that a lot of people think that saints are special people that have lived special lives, that have to have their lives reviewed, and after they’ve been dead for a long time, a council will vote and decide whether they’re made a saint or not. Well that’s not the biblical way because God makes instant saints out of sinners.

When you trust Christ as Savior, God sanctifies you and you become a saint at the instant that you believe. If you read the New Testament letters, it addresses common ordinary people just like you and me that had trusted Christ as Savior and calls them saints. It says that they were sanctified in Christ Jesus. And when you trust Christ, that’s exactly what happened. Some people tried to define the word sanctify as to set apart. Guess what? That is not the meaning.

Now things that are pure and holy are set apart from things that are not pure and holy. And so anything that is sanctified is obviously set apart from things that are not sanctified. So if you have trusted Christ, you are made pure and holy in God’s sight positionally. And obviously that sets you apart from everybody else on the planet that is not a believer in Christ. Every believer is sanctified. Every believer is a saint. But if you have been sanctified, you are pure and holy in God’s sight and that sets you apart from everybody else on the planet.

You know the Bible tells us that we are a unique people. We are a unique group. We are a group that has become born again, we are members of God’s family by the new birth and we are considered by God as though we had never sinned because we’re declared to be as righteous as God, and that is who this letter is addressed to. Amazingly, we’ve lost this wonderful truth today that I’m a saint, believe it or not. And that might sound awkward if I went around and told you that I’m a saint Hank.

But guess what? If you’re listening today and you’re a believer, you’re St. Joe, or St. George, or St. John, or St. Whatever your name might be, because you are sanctified by God when you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior. Hebrews 10-10 tells us by the will of God we are sanctified, made pure and holy, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. The moment you trust Christ you become made pure and holy in God’s sight.

And again the verb form of the Greek word is translated sanctify. The noun form is translated Saint. And so every person that has been sanctified is called in the Bible a saint. Then he goes on to say here in Jude chapter 1 and verse 1, and preserved in Jesus Christ. Did you know that once you trust Christ, God preserves you. You are preserved forever. That’s right. So in other words, you’re saved forever and can never be lost once you become saved.

What a wonderful truth it is that we don’t have temporary salvation given to us, but we’re eternally saved when we trust Christ. And the Bible says that we are preserved forever. And that has got to be some of the best news that you and I will ever learn or discover in our entire lifetime. Again, if you can help us financially, we are totally listener supported. We don’t have any other means of support, and we would appreciate your help. So please, please consider giving a gift to Bibleline, and certainly we thank you for praying for us.

If you would do that, we’d be very happy. Anyway, we are going to go back to the stations that have been on break. You can take in half hour, Bible, and so here we go. We’re going to do Bibleline in the second half hour right now. 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. And now back to Bibleline. Welcome back from the break. We hope that you’re learning with us as you listen to Bibleline and hear real life questions with scriptural answers from Dr.

Hank Lindstrom. Please make plans to join us and open your Bible as we also present in-depth studies covering a variety of biblical topics. Now let’s return to our question and answer segment and then you’ll hear more Bible teaching from Dr. Hank Lindstrom. We now have Steve and Tampa, Florida. Steve, welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air. Well good morning Dr. Hank. I just wanted to call in and speak to you for a moment because last night my brother and I were looking at scripture and I get a lot of people who come to my website which you’re familiar with and they ask for help and guidance.

Some people who are perhaps married to a spouse who is Catholic who wants some support from the scripture to help them to point out where Catholicism diverges from the Bible. And it truly was a really tremendous scripture that we looked at last night which is Hebrew 6. And I come to realize now that when I was Catholic, I was doing exactly what Hebrew 6 says and that is I was attempting to crucify Christ over and over and over again unto myself which according to the scripture says I’m putting Christ to open shame by doing that.

And I feel such regret for that’s the way that I lived my life before as I was a Catholic. And I wonder to myself and I thought maybe you could comment why is it now that this This is so obvious to me, the simple truth of scripture is so obvious to me when I was a Catholic it was obscured from me. And is that something that you believe that other religions that are not Christian, like let’s say Catholicism, is that something that they’re obscuring from their membership on purpose or is it ignorance or what do you think is the root of that?

That now when I try to converse with someone and show them scripture and point out to to them how incredibly simple and clear the message is they they just can’t get the message why is it a cure in them well i think uh… first korean is two fourteen has the answer and that is that the natural man the unsaved man the person is not born again does not receive the things of the spirit of god they are foolishness in him neither can he know them before you get saved obviously you’re just blinded to uh…

spiritual truth of course, in the Roman Catholic Church, these people generally are not reading their Bible, and they’re not aware of what Scripture is saying at all, plus if they read it, they probably wouldn’t pick up on what it’s saying, because as an unbeliever, it doesn’t make any sense. And you hear that all the time when you talk to people and say, the Bible doesn’t make any sense to me, it seems like foolishness. Well, that’s exactly what 1 Corinthians 2, 14 says will be the response of an unsaved person.

So once you become saved, the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit illuminates our understanding. And that is He sheds light on His Word. And I know David prayed in the 119th Psalm, opened my eyes that I may catch these glimpses of truth out of your Word. And as we ask the Lord’s help, He unfolds the meanings. But you’re right. the Roman Catholic Church, the mass is the sacrifice of Christ again to pay for sin. And that’s according to the catechism.

The catechism says, what is the mass? And the answer is the unbloody sacrifice of Jesus Christ again to pay for sin. The next question in the catechism says, is the mass the same sacrifice as that of Calvary? And the answer is yes, the mass is the same sacrifice as that of Calvary. So every time a mass is offered up and they’re offered up daily around the world. Jesus is being re-crucified over and over again hundreds of thousands of times and the one sacrifice that he made was sufficient.

We don’t need another sacrifice. Hebrews 10 10 says by the will of God we are sanctified or made pure and holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And verse 14 by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. So we don’t need a second or third or fourth or fifth or sixth and so on. and so on. And unfortunately, Roman Catholics are taught that they have to go back and crucify Christ again at the Mass in order to get their sins paid up to the moment, which again is wrong because Christ paid for all of your sins past, present and future when He died of the cross.

So when you receive His finished work at the cross, He saves you at that moment eternally. So you receive eternal life. Steve, I know your website is called Catholic to Christian and not ORG. I believe it is. That’s really been a good site. Yes, it actually dot org or dot com, you do one work and I was just really, really moved by Hebrew six last night because it’s such a powerful, powerful, clear message of everlasting salvation, of eternal salvation.

It’s just tremendous. Thanks again, Dr. You’re very welcome. Most people think it teaches you lose your salvation. The opposite is true. It teaches you can’t go back and become saved again because you’re already saved forever by the one-time sacrifice of Christ and to try to go back and have Christ crucified again, you would only do it to yourself because he will not be ever crucified again, period. And if you do that, you’re putting Christ in an open chain. It’s really a blasphemy against Christ to say that he needs to be crucified more than that one time that he died on the cross.

Thank you, Steve, for calling in. We now have Benjamin in Clearwater. Benjamin, welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air. Good morning, Mr. Hank. Long time not to talk to you. Yeah, good to hear you. I was in Dominican Republic doing some missionary work. Good for you. Dr. Hank, I happened then, you know, chapter four, verse 33, the name of the person I can now pronounce that, Nabokodono. So, and he said that he ate grass with the animal and the fingernail also grow up and or forever, I would like to know if that guy, he has some kind of disease.

And that’s why he saw nothing. He’s mine. What happened? Can you explain that to me? Yeah, Nebuchadnezzar because of his sin against the Lord, the Lord afflicted him with this mental disorder. And for seven years, he ran around like a cow out in the field and ate grass and so on. And he didn’t cut his hair or his nails. And it says here that his hairs were grown like eagles feathers and his nails like birds claws. But at the end of those days God restored his right mind to him and he winds up becoming saved.

And how wonderful. You can read his testimony at the beginning of chapter 4 where it almost sounds like a new testament epistles where he says, I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the High God had wrought toward me. How great are his signs, how mighty are his wonders, his kingdom is the last thing kingdom, his dominion is from generation to generation. Nebuchadnezzar got saved and it was a result of this seven-year ordeal that he went through.

He was brought to his knees prior to that. You see him boasting that he had built the kingdom and that he was apparently as great as God or was like God and God says, oh no, you’re not. And he brought him to his knees and then he realized that he needed a trust in the living God of the Bible to be saved. And then he not he not paid grass with the animal? Yeah, he did for seven years. He sure did.

And after that, no, he didn’t anymore. No, he was restored. And then that that was true what happened to him? Yeah. And he and God restored his kingdom to him and everything. He’s he came back to his right mind and he He got his, his, his, uh, his, uh, thrown back and, and, uh, was apparently a Christian, uh, uh, leader ruler and he made a decree that everybody was to follow the God of, uh, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Look at verse 29 and 30 of chapter three.

Therefore, I’m making decree that every people and nation and language speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces. That is the God of the Bible, that is the God that appeared with them in the burning fiery furnace. One was like unto the Son of God, Nebuchadnezzar said, and I think it’s right along in there somewhere he got saved. And so praise the Lord. Okay, thank you Adam Washington. All right, you’re very welcome.

Good to hear your voice again, Benjamin, and glad you’re doing missionary work. That concludes today’s question and answer segment. There’s no other topic that is more important to us than the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it was Dr. Hank Lindstrom’s mission to spread the gospel. Please help the support Bibleline by visiting our online store for copies of any of our resources such as Dr. Lindstrom’s audio CDs on the books of John or Hebrews, plus many others, or you can contact our resource center at 1-800-576-3771.

Now it’s time to return to today’s teaching series. Now in the Bible we find apparently many get their new name before they get to heaven, they get to find out what it is. We find that Abram became Abraham, that Jacob became Israel. Israel means child of God. And when Jacob got saved, God changed his name from Jacob to Israel. We find here Simon becomes Peter, and that was his new name. Saul becomes Paul, the apostle, and God gave them all a new name.

I think for most we have to wait until we get to heaven to find out what our new name is. I know in my personal experience I was always called from birth Henry. That is my official name on the birth certificate. But when I got saved, people began to call me Hank, and I hated it. I resisted it. And I said, you don’t have it right. But then I stopped and I’d reflected and I said, God, I believe maybe this is my new name.

And I accepted it from God, like Saul became Paul and Simon became Peter. And I said, okay, that is special. And from now on, that’s what I’ll go by. that. So ever since. And I couldn’t shake it. I tried at the beginning. I rebelled against that. And I guess that was my flesh. That was my old nature. And then I finally resided in the fact that maybe God did give me a new name. And I don’t know. I’ll have to find out when I get to heaven if that’s the new name intended for me.

But I know that every one of you and every believer has a new name that’s written down in heaven. And as a believer, you will one day be introduced to your new name if you don’t know what it is as of yet. So in any case, Simon gets a new name. Verse 43, the day following, Jesus would go forth in the Galilee and findeth Philip and sayeth unto him, follow me. Now Philip was of Bithadia, the city of Andrew and Peter.

That’s up in northern Galilee, and we visited that city and actually walked through the ruins of that ancient city, which was the the city of Andrew and Peter, and that’s where also Philip came from. These were pretty much all fishermen. It was a fisherman village. Philip then finds Nathaniel and says unto him, we have found him of who of Moses in the law and the prophets did right. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And so, notice they’re introducing each other to Christ.

And that’s where the gospel is spread. And that’s the way it’s spread here through the early ones who became Christ’s disciples. And they said, we have found Him. We found the Messiah. The Old Testament had spoken about His coming. And they said, we found Him of whom Moses even in the Bible. And the prophets did right. They told about Jesus, the Messiah coming. And again, we find Jesus is from Yeshua. And we describe the meaning of that name in John 1,12 last hour.

And then in verse 46, Nathaniel said unto him, Can there come any good thing out of Nazareth? Obviously it was one of those cities where nobody of any notoriety came out of that city. As like saying, can anything good come out of Port Tampa or loot, Florida or some other little community around here? And I’m sure around the world there are lots little cities where no one of any significance came out of them. And Philip’s answer was a good one.

He said to him, come and see. And you know, you can’t get a better answer than that. When you’re leading a soul to Christ, you have to just say, come and see. Examine the claims. See this Savior. And obviously this book reveals the things about Christ. And when you get all done seeing his claims and what he did and what they gave witness to, you have to recognize this was no ordinary man. This was obviously God. No one could do the things that he did unless they were the Messiah, unless they were God.

And obviously the case is built in this wonderful book for the deity of Jesus Christ. And then Nathaniel saith unto Him, well, it’s the converse 47 because I missed that one. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to Him and saith unto Him, behold in Israel indeed in whom there is no Gile. And Nathaniel said to Him, How did you know me? How can you say that about me? And Jesus answered and said unto him, before Philip invited you to come to me, when thou was under the fig tree, I saw you.

And the thanyal answered and saidebted him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, the King of Israel. That convinced him. He said, How could you have known that I was sitting under a fig tree when that conversation took place between you and the thanyal before you ever came and saw like he invited you to do it? he invited you to do. Only God could know that he immediately recognized that this man was very, very different from any other man.

And he says to Nathaniel, I saw you when you were sitting under that fig tree. Before Philip ever invited you to come and see, I knew that you were sitting under that tree and I knew all about you. And so Nathaniel gave this wonderful response, Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel. Verse 50, Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw the end of the fig tree, Believe us Thou?

And of course, He is commended for that, and says, Thou shall see greater things than these. And verse 51, He said unto him, barely, barely, I say unto the hereafter you shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” What an interesting thing Christ is saying here. Jacob got to see that in the Old Testament. He saw heaven opened. He saw this, is described in Genesis as a ladder, and he saw angels going up and down this ladder between heaven and the earth.

Jesus says, you’re going to see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. I believe that we have God as a God much greater than we could ever imagine. A God that operates in more than the four dimensions that you and I are limited to. And we find, therefore, that God can do things that you and I certainly cannot do. It’s very difficult to illustrate dimensions, especially to go upward. But it’s easier to go downward.

So if I were to talk about a two-dimensional person, let’s say that we’re talking about an individual, he lives in only two dimensions. So we’ll call him Mr. Flat because he only exists in two dimensions. If I existed in a third dimension, I could approach Mr. Flat from near his head or near his feet or near his side or his arms, and he’d never know I was there unless I touched him. But then Mr. Flat only in two dimensions would not be be able to see me nor know who it was that touched him.”

Well, that might help a little bit to understand that God operates, and some scientists believe at least in nine dimensions to do all that the Bible says about Christ and what He can do that could not be explained by just the four dimensions that you and I live in. What I think is interesting to me is when you study all the world religions, every one of them, their gods are defined in terms of four dimensions. They are limited to the same four dimensions that you and I are limited by, time and space.

What does that tell me? They don’t have the true living God. Only the Bible describes a God who operates obviously beyond or outside of those four dimensions. And so therefore, because God is not bound by time, whenever he intersects time, he intersects time in the present tense. That’s why God uses the title I Am. God doesn’t say, I used to be. I’m a husband God, or I’m aspiring to be God, or I will be God. He said, I am.

And what that means is whenever he intersects time, He always appears in the present tense. Very fast, any thought. And what this really means is that God can intercept time any time He wants. Just like I could, if I were in a third dimension, I could touch Mr. Flat. And I could intercept Mr. Flat at any time I wanted to. And it’s my choice as to when and where and what. And God as a multidimensional God can intercept your life and absolutely have all eternity in a sense as a kind of an illustration here to spend quality time with you.

That’s how it can be described that God knows your thoughts. He knows everything you’re thinking and think about all the other people who live, but because of the multiple dimensions, he can just intercept you or me and know my thoughts. He can number every hair on my head, the Bible says later in the book of Matthew, that he knows exactly the number of hairs on your head. That decreases or increases. It probably decreases for everybody as we lose hair as we get older.

And so he knows exactly the number of hairs on your head. Who is ever bothered? But God has. He knows every thought, every hair on your head. And he can spend absolutely quality time focusing just on you or on me. And amazing. That’s what the Bible describes. That he cares about you individually. He knows about your thoughts. He knows about everything about your body. Everything about your mind, your thoughts. and everything that’s happening in your life. The Bible says he knows you’re down sitting, you’re up rising, your thoughts when you just wander off into the space thinking about things of no real consequence.

He knows all of that. And he can do that for every individual because he’s a multidimensional God. Also, Christ, according to the Bible when he was crucified and then buried in rose again from the dead, the Bible says he ascended into heaven. Now, is described in the Bible is beyond the visible universe. Scientists today tell us that the horizon of the universe is probably four trillion light years away. What does that mean? That means traveling at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second.

It would take you four trillion years traveling at that great speed to reach heaven. Now Christ went there and came back on the same day. Now think about it, if he traveled at the speed of light, which so far no human has ever done, he’d still be on his way to heaven right now, wouldn’t he? Four trillion years. It was only two thousand years ago when he left. But he came back the same day. How can he do that?

And I believe multi-dimensions explains that. There are two physicists that wrote an interesting book that describes all this phenomena. if you like to read heavy stuff, because most people are gonna be able to wade through it all. But shows how that multi-dimensions allow you to do a lot of things that can otherwise be explained. But I believe that science fiction writers have somewhat of an idea about some of these things. You have in some science fiction programs what they call it like a Stargate, where you can go through, and all of a sudden you’re at the other end the universe instantly.

That is really multi-dimensional travel. And that’s what I think is talking about here. Our time together has ended for today. Please be sure to tune in again next time for the continuation of this teaching series. We’ve enjoyed being with you as always and hope that you are following along with us in your Bible. You can really grow in your Christian walk by spending time studying God’s Word while listening to Bibleline. If you missed any of today’s program or if you’d like to hear it again.

Visit our website at Bibleignministry.org. Click on the audio online link and then click on Bibleline radio. You can also listen to other programs by selecting the past shows or audio archives link. It was Dr. Lindstrom’s ministry to spread the good news of salvation. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh who came to this world and shed his blood, died and was buried and then resurrected. He paid in full the sin debt that we all owe but cannot pay for ourselves.

Don’t die without accepting God’s free gift of salvation by trusting Jesus Christ alone as your Savior. Our thanks to you for being with us today on Bibleline and to our audio team for their work on this program. Until next time, this has been Tom Perry for Bibleline Ministries, and as Dr. Hank Lynch can like to say, and we know it to be true. Keep looking up. Jesus is coming, and we believe soon. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a presentation of Bibleline Ministries of Tampa, Florida.

Your regular monthly donations to Bibleline make it possible for this ministry to continue in your area and on the internet. Please contact us today and lend your prayerful and financial support. Bibleline’s address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Or visit Bibleline online and BibleLineMinistries.org. Be sure to tune in to another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida.

The Bible says that we are preserved forever, and that has got to be some of the best news that you and I will ever learn or discover in our entire lifetime. The fact that a believer is preserved in Christ Jesus, and that is forever and ever and ever. Let me read to you a great verse from the Old Testament from Psalms 37, where it says here for the Lord Loveth judgment, this is verse 28 of Psalm 37. Lord Loveth judgment and forsakeeth not his saints.

We just defined who the saints are. Well, it says the Lord Loveth judgment and forsakeeth not his saints. And then it says here in this wonderful verse in Psalm 37, 28, they are preserved forever. So God’s saints are preserved forever. I don’t know if you know what preserves are, but you know, my My grandmother used to make a lot of preserves and would preserve food and put it on the shelf and it would maintain its life for years. And it was wonderful.

She would can things and it was great. Well we are like that. We are preserved by God, but it’s forever, forever and ever and ever. And of course somebody once was teasing and said, some Christians are pickled and I think that’s because they’re a little bit sour. But in any case, we are preserved forever if you’re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a great verse. Let me just read that one more time. It says here in Psalm 37, 28, for the Lord loveth judgment and forsakeeth not his saints.

They are preserved forever. And then the last phrase says the seed of the wicked. That is the unsaved, the unbeliever shall be cut off. So the Lord will bring about judgment one day upon the unbeliever, and the wicked, the unbeliever will be cast off and separated from God forever, but the believer will never go to hell. Once you trust Christ, you are saved forever. This wonderful little book at the end of your Bible, the book of Jude, tells us that it’s addressed to you and me that are sanctified in Christ Jesus.

And if you’ve trusted Christ, you have been sanctified. means you’ve been made pure and holy in God’s sight. And of course that sets you apart from everybody in this world that’s not a Christian. Everyone in the world that’s not a believer. Everyone in the world that is not saved. And so once you become saved, you become a saint. And of course that is the noun form of the same Greek word that is translated sanctified. So we’ve been sanctified and made saints.

And then it tells us in this wonderful book that the saints are preserved forever in Christ Jesus. And we just saw that from the Old Testament as well in Psalm 37, 28. Wow, I’m excited because, you know, wonderful. Isn’t it to know that you will never go to hell once you trust Christ, that you’re forever God’s child. If you’re delinquent, God will discipline you. If you don’t live for the Lord, you’ll suffer the loss of reward in heaven forever, but you’ll still be saved.

You know, 1 Corinthians 3, 15 is a wonderful verse. It talks about the judgment seat of Christ where every believer one day will stand and give an account for what he’s done since he’s been saved. And it says, if your works be burned up at that judgment, you will suffer loss, loss of reward. But it says, but he himself shall be saved. He himself shall be saved. In other words, it implies here that somebody could live their life out and do nothing worthy of reward.

all of their works burn up and they would suffer the loss of reward for eternity in heaven, but yet they would still be saved. Still be saved because we’re saved by grace, we’re saved by faith in Christ and not by works and we’re saved eternally. Well, I’m Dr. Ankelins, and I hope you’re sanctified and if you are, you’re a saint, you could tell your family, I’m a saint. You might look at you kind of strange because usually everybody’s taught wrong about what The Bible says about Saint John.

I’ve got a run, but we’ll be back tomorrow and I hope you’ll join me. Keep looking up. Jesus is coming and I really believe we’re getting closer. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a presentation of Bibleline Ministries of Tampa, Florida. Your regular monthly donations to Bibleline make it possible for this ministry to continue in your area and on the internet. Please contact us today and lend your prayerful and financial support. Bible Lines Address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634.

Or visit Bibleline Online and BibleLineMinistries.org. Be sure to tune in to another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida.