Bibleline Radio Show – 2010-01-08

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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 1-800-576-3771. Hello Bibleline listeners. This is Pastor Ralph Arnold of Calvary Community Church. We regret to inform you that for financial reasons, Bibleline will now be brought to you in a half hour instead of an hour format.

These are difficult economic times for us all, but as Bibleline is a listener supported ministry, we hope that you will continue to support Bibleline. however and whenever you are able. We pray you will continue to enjoy Bibleline on the radio and on the internet. Welcome to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of the late Dr. Hank Lindstrom. I’m Tom Perry and today we’re featuring a teaching series on the book of 1 Peter. We hope that you will plan to open your Bible and join us for this verse by verse study.

We give thanks to God for this opportunity to study His word and pray that Bibleline and will be glorifying to Him. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family about Bibleline. If the program isn’t being broadcast in their area, then please ask them to listen via our website at BibleLineMinistries.org. Join us for Dr. Lynchton’s teaching for today as we turn to the book of 1 Peter chapter 3. Look if you will at Matthew chapter 23 verse 13. shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

So they weren’t saved, and they prevented those who would go to heaven from going because of their false message. He says in verse 15, judgment unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you come to see and land to make one convert, a proselyte. And when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. So obviously they’re going to receive a greater degree of punishment as a result. And this is what Christ is talking about here in Matthew.

There are many other verses that talk about degrees of punishment. Let me give you one more over in 1 Thessalonians. But people at Tessel and Nica really took to the gospel, and although they were persecuted, they were faithful to proclaim it, even though they went through very difficult times as a result. And we find here that God tells them that actually God was going to one day, even up the score in a sense. Here it says in verse 14 of chapter 2 of 1st Cestalonians page 1268, for you brethren, 14 of chapter 2.

It became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus, for you also have what? Suffered. And Peter, of course, the book we’re studying is a book about suffering. You also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as those in Israel did of the Jews. So the Christians in early Christianity, in Jerusalem Judea were persecuted by their countrymen. He says, you people in Tesalonica also persecuted by your countrymen. And verse 15 talks about the Jews in Israel who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and it persecuted us and they please not God.

Notice they please not God and are contrary to all men. What is it that they weren’t pleasing to God concerning? Well, here it is in verse 16, for bidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved. So one of the great crimes that somebody can commit is to hinder the preaching of the true gospel message. If you find yourself in opposition to the proclamation of the true message of salvation through faith alone and Christ alone, then you’re in trouble with God.

It says by doing that, it says to fill up their sins always. It’s a picture here like you might have a thermometer. And in a sense, this is a sin thermometer, not one that reads temperature. And so God says basically you’ve taken the thermometer to the top. You’ve filled it right up to the top. And obviously that’s when God will do something about it. the wrath of God has come upon them. What does it say? So we know that people that go to hell will have the wrath of God come upon them, but notice they will have the wrath of God come upon them to the other most.

Because they have fought against the gospel going out. So we find here rejecting greater light. We find in this case hindering the gospel as people try to witness and share it. Those that hinder that when they die without Christ will go to hell, but their degree of punishment will be much greater because they fought against the presentation of the gospel throughout the world. So if you’re a persecuted Christian, you can those that persecute you that die without Christ are one day going to be severely punished for what they have done.

And numerous other verses, but I wanted to bring that out. And here we’re talking about in 1 Peter 3, those that were unbelievers living in the days before the flood of Noah. And when the flood came, they all perished. And then they went into the heart of the earth into this prison where they still are to this present moment. In Luke 16, Jesus pulls back the curtain on the unseen world and talks about too many who die, a rich man who was lost, and a saved man, a beggar that was named Lazarus, and he went to Paradise, which was also in the heart of the earth.

And prior to the resurrection of Christ, there were two compartments in the heart of the earth. And the lost went to the place of torment. The saved went to the Paradise part. There was an impassable gulf between the two. They couldn’t pass back and forth to each other. And when Christ died, he went down into the Paradise part. Matthew 12.40 says he would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Luke 23.43 he told the dying thief, today thou shall be with me where?

In Paradise. So we know Christ was in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. And we know he told the dying thief he would see him in Paradise. That very day it’s very, very clear that Paradise used to be in the heart of the earth. And so that’s where Christ went. And there was Lazarus the beggar of Luke 16. There was the dying thief that died and believed in Paradise in Christ, pronounced them liberty and victory over sin.

He had made the full payment on the third day. He opened up Paradise, removed it, took it all the way to heaven. Now, Paradise is in heaven itself. Now, if you have your Bible return to Ephesians, I think it’s well worth seeing this. What is disturbing, some of the newer translations completely take away this story. One of them, and I mentioned it on the radio today, I think, is the new living translation. There is no hint of this story at all if you have a new living Bible.

You might want to check it out. But in Ephesians chapter 4, to your left, I’ll give you the page number. Look at how plain it reads here in your King James Bible. Page 1253, Ephesians chapter 4, look at verse 8. Wherefore he saith, page 1253 chapter 4 verse 8. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now what group did Christ lead captive that were captives? Well it says in verse 9, now he that us ascended, which is Christ, what is it but that he also So descended first into the lower parts of the earth.

Ephesians 4 and 9. So Christ went into the lower parts of the earth. We just quoted Matthew 12, 40, where Christ said He’d be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Then it says in verse 10, He that descended is the same also that us ascended up far above all heavens that He might fill all things. So Jesus noticed the sins into the lower parts of the earth, and then he goes up as he ascends far beyond all the visible heavens in the universe.

And it says here in verse 9, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive. So all of the Old Testament believers were in the heart of the earth until Christ died. And at the end of the three days, Christ opened up paradise and took it up to heaven. the second Corinthians 12 that paradise is now in heaven. This side of the cross, when we die, we’re absent from the body, present with the Lord. But if you lived in the Old Testament, you would have been absent from the body, present in paradise.

And you would have avoided there until Christ died on the cross and then came down during those three days and announced liberty and then took you out of there and took you up to heaven. The reason why is their sin had not even paid for. They had the promise of salvation, but they had what I call a layaway salvation. They really couldn’t take it home, you might say, until the debt was fully paid. And Christ didn’t make the full payment for sin until on the cross, and then he immediately goes down there and proclaims liberty.

He had now paid the full sin debt and that he could now take paradise out of the heart of the earth and take it up to heaven itself. And so believers now this side of the cross go directly to the heart of the earth. the heaven. So if you lived in the Old Testament, that’s where you would have gone. David, for example, in Psalm 16 talks about how that he knew when he would die, he would go to Hades, which the Old Testament word is shield.

And he says that he knew that the Lord would not leave him there. So he would stay there until Christ paid for sin, and then he would take him out of there. So David knew about how all the saints would come out of there. Stay with us. We’ll hear more from Dr. Lindstrom coming up. Would you like to learn more about God’s Word? Then visit our online store on our website or call our Resource Center at 1-800-576-3771. Now, let’s listen to some questions from callers.

Alright, we’re going to go ahead and take phone calls here in just a moment. Off the air, callers just came in from Clearwater, Florida. Benjamin calls in and says, who are the 144,000 and are they the same when it says the woman that flees into the desert? Well, 144,000 are young Jewish men that will get saved right after the rapture and be God’s evangelist. What is interesting that the cults like to claim to be the 144,000, the Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that they are the 144,000.

The Seventh-day Adventist claimed that they are the 144,000. But the 144,000 are Jewish, they are unmarried, they are virgin, and they haven’t gotten saved yet, they will get saved after the Rapture. Revelation 7 and 4 says that the number of those that were sealed were 140 and 4000 of all, not Jehovah’s Witnesses, not the Seventh-day Adventist, but of all the tribes and the children of Israel. And so there were 12,000 for each of the 12 tribes mentioned there and 12 times 12,000 is 144,000.

And I don’t know what you’re talking about here about women fleeing into the wilderness. Maybe that was just a misunderstanding from the phone call. But when it talks about a revelation 12 about the woman singular fleeing into the wilderness, that’s talking about the Jewish people fleeing from the hand of the antichrist to the Rock City of Petra in southern Jordan and doesn’t talk about women although women will be a part of that flight. It is talking about the woman there that represents the nation of Israel that brought forth the man-child who would rule the earth with the rod of iron that’s Jesus.

And in the middle of the tribulation period when that takes place the 144,000 Jewish men will be martyred. They’ll be killed wherever they are in the world so it cannot be them. But the woman, the remnant of Jewish believers in Israel will flee to the mountains and there is a fleet of southern Jordan where God has a city prepared for them forty square miles of city. I have been there numerous times. It is called the Rose Red City of Petra and there God will miraculously feed and clothe Israel for the last three and a half years of the tribulation period.

And so the woman in Revelation 12 is Israel who flees in the middle of the tribulation from the Antichrist and apparently the country of Jordan becomes politically neutral throughout the tribulation period and they will escape out of the hand of the Antichrist. But the 144,000 at the midpoint of the tribulation period will be all martyred. And we read in Revelation 14 about them then being in heaven. And how they sang a new song which no man could know or learn except the 144,000 and they will sing and rejoice of their salvation.

And it tells us again that they are men, they are redeemed men, they are virgin men, and they are Jewish. All right, we are also asked here by Benjamin to explain Isaiah 26 verse 20 where it says, come my people.” That’s talking about Israel. During the tribulation period, enter into thy chambers. I believe that’s the Rock City of Petra in Southern Jordan. Shut the doors about the hide thyself as it were for a little moment. That’s the last three and a half years of the tribulation until the indignation, which is also a description of the last three and a half years of the tribulation until that be overpassed.

Verse 21 says, Behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their nickwity. That’s at the end of the tribulation period when Christ comes back to judge the earth. And in the meantime, when the earth is going crazy with the antichrist in charge and he trying to kill the Jewish people. The Jewish people are invited to enter into this place called Petra into the chambers that God has provided for them. And there they will be protected for that last three and a half years of the tribulation period.

We have Ricky in Lutz, Florida here on the line. Ricky, welcome to Bibleline. Hey, Dr. Hank, how you doing? Good. Hey, I’ve got some questions, I guess, on the…okay, the Old Testament saints. Okay, they’re supposed to get their glorified body after a tribulation correct. That is correct. Okay now And the mallet transfiguration Was Moses and Elijah in their glorified body. I don’t think so, but we’ll just have to wait and see apparently Moses’s body has been preserved for him to come back in the tribulation period and so I think it’s still his the body had thousands of years ago but we’ll have to wait and see you know in June verse nine apparently Michael was in charge of this preservation of the body of Moses and apparently Satan calls foul and so that’s not fair to allow Moses to come back in that body but apparently he will so we’ll wait and see

so like a so Elijah’s body and maybe Enix whatever could have been could be preserved they died I mean like you say the two witnesses he think is Moses and Elijah’s are killed. Exactly. Okay. But otherwise, they probably don’t have their glorified bodies yet, but I think we could argue the point and because the Bible isn’t that definitive on it, we just have to wait and see. Okay. But they definitely are going to come back. Moses and Elijah will come back and preach during the first three and a half years of the tribulation period and it’s described in Revelation chapter 11 and it’s clear that these are the two guys coming back.

going to go to george in tampa florida george welcome the bible on your own ear good morning dr linson the market uh… i have a question what does is there anywhere in the bible where dot deals with the believers but doubters of the twenty-first century well yes a computer chapter three it says that knowing this first of the last days scoffers will come mocking the bible and boy do we see all of that happening right now and so we shouldn’t be shocked when people you know make fun of the bible or ridicule the bible or try to you know put down christians today this is up this is part of the course in the last days the bible says that people would mock and laugh at the bible i’m sure they did uh…

the same thing with noah when he was building his art they probably had a lot of fun with him teasing him about building uh… this huge uh… boat probably hundreds of miles from water and uh… that wouldn’t seemed to be like a smart idea if you just were thinking in the natural but they just obviously didn’t believe that God was going to bring about a worldwide flood and that water would definitely float that boat. And I certainly believe the story of Noah being true.

But yeah, there’s always been these scoffers around. And Christ said it would be again as it was in the days of Noah. And 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 2 and 3 tell us that we should be fully aware that in the last days we would have people scoffing and making fun of the Bible. And yet the Bible stands tall. They really, no one can show you any evidence that the Bible is not true, but to the contrary. It’s accuracy about the future and about facts that are historical demonstrate that God has God has to be the author of this book.

But the question is, in reference to, what about those who believe but still have doubt? Well… Well, you know, that’s again a reality. We can all have doubts, but to live in our doubts would be wrong. Certainly the Bible tells us about Christians in the last days drifting away from sound doctrine, we see that right across the board in Christianity today in 2 Timothy chapter 4, 3 and 4 talks about Christians who will just want to have their ears tickled and obviously depart away from good sound, solid Bible doctrine today which we are seeing.

But that’s another thing that’s happening where Christians are, I went into a Christian so-called store the other day and ask the girl at the counter if she could quote uh… a bible verse she couldn’t quote any bible verse and i just you know i was i was a little kind of an eyeball as a friend but you know is it’s amazing when you are in a position when you’re hired in so-called christian story you think you’d maybe be a step or two above anybody else in christianity but she couldn’t uh…

even quote i said how about roman six twenty three she didn’t even know what it was. What about Romans 3 23? Those are so basic. If you are a Christian, you ought to be able to say that we are all sinners and have come short of the glory of God, that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. She just did not think about her Bible. Yet she was working in a Christian bookstore.

last question and I’m going to get off the end if I want to listen to it. If Gideon would not have seen the angel of the Lord, would he have done what he did or would he have doubt it? Well, I’m sure that he would not have gotten the instruction that he should have had. The angel of the Lord there, I believe, was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. And obviously he was given instruction by the angel of the Lord, so most likely he would not have done what he did, because he would not have had the direct command to do it.

But you know, all of us have better than that, according to what Peter tells us, he was an eyewitness at the Transfiguration. But if you look over what he says in 1 Peter chapter 1, he says that we have something far better. We have the actual complete Word of God, which is a fuller instruction than the Peace Mill instruction that some of those in the Old Testament got where they just got a little piece of the plan or piece of the pie.

We have the full word of God, so we ought to be more fully energized and doing greater exploits than those because we have a fuller revelation in God’s Word. And we lost our connection there with George. But George, thank you for calling in today to Bible on. And we’re now going to go to several of the off the air questions we have here. We have Sam in Richmond, Virginia. He says, can a person be led to Christ without the Bible if you go through the plan of salvation with Scripture?

The answer is absolutely yes. You can quote Scripture or allude to Scripture and as long as a person understands that Christ is God who came and took on human flesh, went to the cross of Calvary and died and paid our sin debt by his death and shed blood was buried and rose again from the dead when they trust Christ as their only means of salvation. God saves them. Again, we pray that everybody listening is trusted in the Lord and we know that some of you may not have.

But right now you could trust the Lord as your Savior and be assured of going to have it according to the Bible by simply just telling the Lord right now, Lord I am a sinner and we all are. But Lord I believe Jesus died and paid for my sins at the cross. By his death and shed blood paid my sin dead and full was buried. He goes again from the dead and I trust Jesus right now as my Savior to forgive my sins and to give me the gift of everlasting life.

The moment you do that, God up and never knows any Savior. Would you do that now? I hope you would and again we are praying for you and if you have questions, we’ll try to answer them here on Bible on for you. If you’re ever in the area, we’ll need to come by and visit us. And of course you can always come on a worship day and join us for worship services. Sometimes terminology that is used by Christians typically is not correct.

And one of those phrases that we often hear that is not correct when used for salvation is commit your life to Jesus Christ. Have you ever heard that phrase? Many people have heard it. Many evangelists will use the phrase, I’m going to ask you to commit your life to Jesus Christ. wrong, it’s not biblical, it’s actually implying works, and it implies that a promise that you’re going to make to live your life for Christ in order to be saved.

And oftentimes it’s presented in this way that it’s a commitment of your total emotion and will and intellect to God. Well, this is really a subtle way of asking the person to keep the first commandment. You know, for a while when I first heard this many years ago, I thought to myself, what is wrong with asking a person to commit your life? Well, several things. First of all, the focus is on your life. You know, salvation is not about us.

In that we can do something to save ourselves or to contribute to our salvation. It’s what God did for us at the cross in Christ that brings about salvation, not what we do for God, which when after we become saved we ought to live for Christ, but we don’t do these things in order to become saved. So the focus is on your life. You know the Bible tells us in Romans 5 that we’re saved by his life. It was Jesus who gave his life and died on the cross of Calvary and purchased our salvation by his death and shed blood and it’s his life that was given in orders that we might be saved.

But the focus on our life is obviously the opposite focus from what the Bible teaches about salvation. Jesus is the Savior. He says, I am the way, the truth and the life. And no man can come unto the Father except by me. The focus is not on you and your works and your deeds. You know, it’s amazing how we get brainwashed throughout our life. I think about one song that was sung years ago about a young man and his girlfriend died in a car accident and he would sing I gotta be good.

So I can see my baby in heaven. Well, most people think you have to live a certain way, be good enough to earn your way to heaven, and he had to be good in order to see his girlfriend again in heaven. Totally theologically wrong because obviously none of us are good. We’re all sinners. We’re all in need of a Savior. And Jesus Christ is the only one who is absolutely good or righteous. And he died in our place so that his righteousness could be, of course, course credited to our account.

But I was reading one night in my Bible, and this is many years ago now, I was reading in Matthew and it says in chapter 22 verse 35, one of them which was a lawyer asking Christ a question, tempting him and saying, Master, what is the great commandment in the law? In verse 37 of Matthew 22, Jesus said unto him, Thou Now shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.

Well love is a commitment. Love is where you commit to give, to meet the needs of the person being loved. And of course in the case of our salvation, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So we find because God loved us, he gave his son to meet our need by dying and paying for our sins by His death and shed blood, and when we simply believe or trust in Christ, then we will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

But this is really a subtle way of telling somebody to be saved. You have to keep the first commandment. It says in verse 38 here, this is the first and great commandment. These are the words of Christ. And so when you tell somebody to commit their life to Christ, you’re really saying, keep the commandments, or at least keep the first commandment. And some of the different evangelistic groups in this country, when they present evangelism, tell you that you must commit your total emotion and will and intellect to God.

Look at this verse and what Jesus said about the first commandment. Thou shalt love or commit thyself unto the Lord thy God with all your heart that speaks of your motion with all your soul that speaks of your will and with all your mind that speaks of your intellect. Notice it matches exactly. When I read that I said, oh my goodness, look at what a clever we’re dealing with, he takes language and he just gives us new terms and we say, isn’t that a nice new way to present Christ?

And people buy into it and they don’t think about the consequences that this is not scriptural or deceptive. I’m Dr. Engleman from saying goodbye, keep looking up because Jesus is coming and we believe he’s coming really soon. I don’t know the date, but I know he’s coming. Join us again for another broadcast of Bibleline and remember to invite a friend to listen with you. Bibleline is a listener-supported ministry and we appreciate your prayers and gifts in support of Bibleline.

You are part of Bibleline’s ministry of presenting the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ on the air and on the internet and we thank God for you. It is our prayer that unbelievers would come to accept God’s free gift of salvation and that believers would be encouraged in their Christian walk. Thank you to our audio team for their work on today’s production. This has been Tom Perry and we look forward to being with you again soon. And as Dr.

Lindstrom liked to say, 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 financial. 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.