Bibleline Radio Show – 2010-03-16

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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 whenever 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. Well, good morning and welcome to Bibleline. I’m great to be with you today. Thanks for tuning into the broadcast. We appreciate you and all of our listeners and we’re glad to be able to be with you today.

Thanks for tuning into the broadcast. We’re coming to you from Tampa, Florida, from our studios here at the Calvary Community Church. Again, we’re going to get into the Bible for a few minutes and then we’ll be talking about your questions. Well, we’re going to take a look at a couple of passages today that I think are interesting. And these have to do with losing your salvation, which is not possible. And what happens is there are passages that are brought up, and I have a whole list here that is sent in by one of our listeners.

You know, it’s amazing how that it just boils down to a matter of not rightly dividing the word of truth, not understanding the difference between salvation and the Christian life, and also identifying passages where unbelievers or false prophets are being described. We’re going to turn to 2 Peter, chapter 2. This is 2 Peter, chapter 2, and it talks here about some false prophets in the chapter here. It says in verse 20, for if after they have escape the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

They are a get entangled therein and overcome. The latter end is worse with them than the beginning. Now when you read the chapter here, it begins in verse 1 talking about there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you. And it says something here interesting. It says who privately, which which means secretly shall bring in damnable heresies, that is, teachings that would cause the person to be damned to hell. And then it says, even denying the Lord that bought them.

Now, that is a phrase that catches my attention because here it talks about how the Lord died and purchased their salvation. You know, Christ died for false prophets. Christ died for false teachers, Christ died for false preachers. And notice it says in this verse in 2 Peter 2, 1, they deny the Lord that bought them, that happened at Calvary, Christ died and paid for their sins. And it says then they bring upon themselves swift destruction. So here are those who have denied the Lord that bought them as the means of their salvation and therefore they are not saved.

The whole chapters devoted to this, it says in verse 17, these are wells without water. They appear to have water but they don’t have water. Their clouds carried with a tempest. It says in verse 17 of 2 Peter 2, these are those to whom the mist, MIST, of darkness is reserved forever. They’re going to hell. And then you can follow the personal pronouns all the way down for when they speak great swelling words of entity they allure through the lust of the flesh.

Verse 19, while they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption. Verse 20, for if after they these are all false prophets these are ones to whom the midst of darkness is reserved forever. These are the ones who are wells without water, clouds carried with a tempest. These are those who are headed for hell and it says if after they have escaped the plutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There are a lot of benefits to knowing about the teachings of Christ that can bring about a measure of deliverance from some of the plutions of this world.

But you’re not saved by observing those teachings of Christ. You’re saved by trusting in the fact that He bought you. That’s why this chapter begins. It says, these false teachers bring in teachings that are damnable, that will bring or would lead a person to wind up in hell because they deny the Lord that bought them. You see, salvation is centered around the death of Christ, His barrel in His resurrection. And the fact that he paid for all of your sins at the cross is the means by which we’re saved.

Jesus says, let me give you a couple of verses here, John 6, 47. Jesus says, fairly, fairly I say unto you, he that believeth on me has everlasting life. That’s simple. When you believe or trust in Christ, you at that moment, present tense, possess everlasting life. When Jesus says in verse 37 of John 6, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. So once you come and trust Christ as your Savior, he’ll never cast you out.

Verse 39 says, it’s the Father’s will that Christ would lose none, not one of all of those that come to him. Isn’t that amazing? So not one person would ever be lost that gets saved according to Christ, or God’s Word would be violated. It would be broken, and we might as well light a match to our Bible and walk away. Second Peter 2 is talking about people who living in a somewhat Christian environment will be delivered from certain pollutions that are here in this world in the way of sins.

yet they deny the Lord that bought them, and therefore they won’t make heaven. Matthew 7, I believe, is talking about the same thing. Many, Jesus says, will say to me in that day, that’s the great white throne judgment. Lord, didn’t we preach in your name? Heal in your name and do many wonderful works in your name. And Christ says in verse 23 of Matthew 7, I never knew you. Not I once knew you and I lost you, that’s impossible.

He said, I never knew you. You see, these are people that are religious. These are people who claim to be Christian, and yet they are not. And it says here that the latter end is worse with them than at the beginning. And it says in verse 21 of 2 Peter 2, it had been better for them, Follow the pronouns all the way down. It’d be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness. The way of righteousness is being Christ.

Remember Christ said, I am the way. John 14, 6. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me. Well, it says it’d been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them. Same as verse 1. They deny the Lord that bought them. They don’t trust Christ as the only means of their salvation, that his death alone could wash away their sins, his blood alone could wash away their sins, and therefore they’re lost and they bring upon themselves swift destruction.

Amazing. Well, it’s amazing how many people work real hard to find verses in the Bible to somewhat support the fact that you could lose your salvation. But there are not any verses that say that. Once you get saved, as I said before, you’re stuck. In John 10, 28, Christ says, I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish and neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. That’s pretty conclusive, isn’t it? He gives us eternal life. The fact it’s eternal means you’re going to have it forever.

In other words, if you have eternal life right now, and according to the Bible you receive it at the moment you believe and possess it forever thereafter, if you actually possess presently everlasting life, which the Bible says you do if you trust Christ, John 3 16 tells us that. If you have everlasting life today, what kind of life will you have tomorrow? Don’t be bashful. The answer is everlasting life. If you have everlasting life What kind of life will you have next week?

Don’t be bashful speak up You’re right. That’s right. It’s everlasting life if you have everlasting life today. What kind of life would you have a year from now? Well, it would still be everlasting, wouldn’t it? How about 10 years now? How about a hundred years enough? You know if you have everlasting life today, you’re gonna have everlasting life tomorrow next week next year 10 years from now 100 years now a Million years from now a billion years from now a trillion million a trillion years from now you’ll have it forever and ever Salvation is forever.

Salvation is not a process and yet I’m seeing so many today that are teaching that salvation is the end of some sort of a process. Jesus said at the moment you believe you’re passed from death into life. At the moment you believe you receive everlasting life. At the moment you believe you’re promised you’ll never in the future ever come into condemnation. Where does it say that in the Bible? I’m quoting Jesus John chapter 5 verse 24. Jesus says, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me, has everlasting life.

Secondly, shall not come into condemnation. Thirdly, is passed from death unto life. That happens in an instant in time and has irreversible consequences. You cannot reverse what takes place at the new birth, at the moment of salvation. And God the Holy Spirit comes to involve the believer’s body and seals the believer until the day of redemption when the believer is safely in heaven on heaven’s shore. The Holy Spirit, S-E-A-L-S seals. S-E-A-L-S seals. The believer as God’s very own possession.

I’m Dr. Englund, this is by and blind, it’s great to be with you. We’re going to go to the phone lines. I’m going to jump to a couple of offer questions real quick here. We have Julie in Michigan calls in and she leaves this question. She says she was a Mormon until recently and she wonders how a church can get so big and be so wrong. Well, it’s interesting, isn’t it, how, you know, I always think of the story of Noah and you think about how could so many people be so wrong.

Apparently nobody believed there was a flood coming except for eight people Noah and his family and yet God gave them 120 years to preach the message of the coming flood and apparently nobody believed it They just didn’t believe it all the top meteorologists and all the weather channels back in those days was not we’re not forecasting rain or Forecasting a flood and they were all wrong weren’t they of course? I’m teasing a little bit here, but you know, they just didn’t get it.

Nobody did. And so the majority is not always right. In fact, many times the majority is wrong. And in the Old Testament it says, don’t follow the majority to do wrong. Sometimes we have to stand out and do what’s right, whether anybody else believes it or not. And we have to go by what the Scriptures teach, whether anybody else believes it or not. You know, the Bible doesn’t have to be believed to be truth. Truth doesn’t have to be believed to be truth.

If no one believed the Bible, it would still be truth. And even the book of Romans tells us in the third chapter, let every man be found a liar, but God be true. Everybody can reject the Bible, but it wouldn’t change the truth of it. The Bible is true and is a book that, by the way, if you’re skeptical, will prove or demonstrate that it’s true. God never fails in this wonderful book. It’s a marvelous book. I have a great CD that you might want to give to a person who’s a skeptic on the Bible being the Word of God.

It’s pretty convincing, pretty powerful. And so if you have a skeptic in your family, if you can get them to listen to that CD I have on the Bible Proving or demonstrating to be the Word of God, you’ll find that very, very helpful. Thank you, Julie. There are many groups that are pretty large today. The cults really have come out of the woodwork and grown quite rapidly over the last hundred years or so. And the Bible says, of course, in the last days, there would be many false teachers and we see that.

The Mormons, by the way, by their own writings, claim that they are aliens. Did you know they all claim that they came from the planet Kola and have migrated here. Did you know that? Most people don’t tell you all the stuff about Mormonism, but Mormonism is not even Christian, not even close. They are aliens supposedly here coming to the planet Earth to take on bodies formed by the Adam God, Jesus, and absolutely crazy stuff. It is so wrong and not even close to Christianity.

We have a number of other questions. Tim and Clearwater is talking about the emerging church movement. That’s a dangerous movement including all kinds of beliefs. It’s like merging. All kinds of liberal theology with Christianity. It’s really a rebellion against the established church. And I would stay away from it. It’s not a denomination or organization. It’s a theological philosophy. You don’t want to get involved with anything related to the emerging church. Thank you, Tim. We have another offer here. James in Tampa, Florida says your opening comments yesterday were awesome with Galatians 5 17.

Could it be that people are having so much difficulty with their flesh because they’re not spending any time with the Lord in prayer Reading the word and assembling with true believers and not growing up spiritually Please expound and you’re absolutely right your spiritual health is dependent upon your Doing those things which God says we ought to do which are the foundations of our Christian life And we sometimes call them the four talks or there’s expressed sometimes as the four walks.

The four talks are, God talks to us through the Bible. So we need to read the Bible to allow God to talk to us. If your Bible is zipped up and on the shelf, you’re not allowing God to speak to you. And so you need to open that book regularly. Jesus says in Matthew 4, 4, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The second talk is prayer. That’s when we talk to God.

And obviously prayer, conversation with the Lord is something that is encouraged in the Bible. We’re told to pray without ceasing. I believe that means we kind of keep the line open and we can just resume our conversation at any moment as we go out, go throughout the day. And certainly I don’t have to re-dial up the Lord as a believer. I just kind of keep keep him on the line and we talk throughout the day. And prayer is essential.

So the first talk is where God talks to us and that’s through his word. The second talk is where we talk to him through prayer. The third talk is when we fellowship with other believers and that’s a very essential thing. In Hebrews 10, 25 it says we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but even so much the more we should encourage one another to fellowship come together as a body of believers to worship and study his word in order that we might be strengthened and encouraged.

And it says so much the more as you see the day approaching. So as we see Christ coming, getting closer, more and more, we ought to be attending church where believers are gathered and be strengthened by the fellowship and so on and so on. Just had a couple tell me just the other day that they get all pumped up on Sunday and Monday they’re still pumped up and Tuesday begins to wane and by the middle of the week they kind of slack off.

And of course that’s why I have a midweek service to try to bump us back up again as believers when we come together really receive great encouragement from one another and the singing of the hymns and the getting together in fellowship with other believers and studying his word has a powerful impact upon the Christian and we really need to do that regularly. So that’s important. The fourth one of course is the fourth talk which is witnessing to the lost.

That’s telling the lost how they can be saved. So the first talk is God speaking to us through the Bible as we read the Bible. He talks to us. Talk number two, we talk to him through prayer. The third talk is fellowship where we talk to other believers and gain strength by the mutual faith of each other. And then the fourth talk is talking to the lost where we share the gospel with the unsaved. And you know, I think that’s one of the most important because if you do number four, you’ll be actually driven to do the other three.

I find that if you’re witnessing the people, you’ll have to study the Bible to be able to answer their questions. So you’ll do the first talk. I find that if you are witnessing that you will also be driven to prayer, you’ll have to say, Lord, I need help in leading this person to Christ. And so absolutely all of that is necessary. And then of course when you lead people to Christ, you’ll wind up fellowshipping with them and that’s also very, very important.

And so I think when you do the last one, all of them come together. In any case, I hope that answers your question. And certainly, Galatians 5 17 says, our flesh lusts against the Spirit. And if we are going to be successful as a Christian, we have to walk in the Spirit, Galatians 5 16, and will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So the flesh will always be there, but we need to be catering to our Spirit nature.

walking in the direction led to us by the Spirit of God. We have Mike in Brookville.Increase Brooke Field, Wisconsin. Mike, welcome to Bibleline. You’re on the air. Hi. That’s after. How are you doing? Good. Good to hear from you. I’m calling from Wisconsin. Yes, sir? And I was in… And it’s cold up there, huh? Yeah, it’s about 90 degrees, I think. Whoa. Yeah, and a wind chill of about 20 below, I guess. Whoa. Okay. I have a question for you this morning.

Okay, I was reading at work on my break time and I was reading in the book of Jude. And it says in verse 9, it says, yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses, does not bring against him a railing accusation but said the Lord reviewed thee. I can’t find it anywhere in the Bible. Well, that’s the only place you’re going to find it, and it has to do apparently with the fact that Moses’ body has been preserved so that he can come back during the tribulation period.

We believe in Revelation 11 when it talks about the two prophets that will come back right after the rapture and crank up the evangelism of the tribulation period that The two prophets there are Moses and Elijah now. Elijah never died, so no problem about him. But with Moses he did die. And apparently Satan is calling foul on God here for preserving that body so Moses can come back. And obviously Michael doesn’t get into a physical knockdown, drag out fight with Satan but simply the Lord rebuked thee because Satan was arguing over that.

But apparently that dispute over his body is in view of the fact that he’s gonna come back. I think it’s an appropriate part in the Bible though, the book of Jude kind of bridges the gap between the rest of the Bible, the previous 64 books and the final book, the book of Revelation where we read about Moses coming back. So it’s kind of interesting. And something that’s kind of fascinating when you think about Moses coming back in preaching again here on this earth that he will.

Okay, because I looked everywhere. You were I could find out. I don’t know if that’s just in. I thought maybe he was just getting an app maybe from Jewish folklore or something. No, no, no, no. This is this is directly from the from God, the spirit of God directed Jude and writing with that book. And if you read verse three, he was going to write about salvation, but the Lord constrained him to write about contending for the faith, standing for the truth in these last days.

And if you read Deuteronomy 34, you see when God took Moses’ life, Moses was still full of physical strength. His eyesight was still 2020. He was in great physical shape. And so he’ll come back in that same body and he’s gonna be one tough cookie when he preaches during the tribulation period. Well Mike, thank you an awful lot. And God bless you and have a wonderful try to warm up out there. Thank you, Mike. I saw a t-shirt Saturday.

It got my attention. It said on there, I ain’t no saint. And I thought to myself, if the person only knew what the Bible taught about, St. Hood, they’re really saying that they’re going to go to hell. Did you know that every believer, every believer is a saint from the very moment they trust Christ? That’s right. I’m a saint, believe it or not. you are a saint if you’re a believer and in verse Corinthians chapter one it says in verse two as Paul writes to the Corinthian church he says under the church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus.

That word sanctified is a $10 word most people don’t know the meaning of it means to make pure and holy. By application it means to set apart because obviously anything that is holy is set apart from things that are not holy. And so every believer has been sanctified in Christ Jesus. And then it goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 1, 2, they were called saints. So by the way, the word sanctified as the verb form, the word saint is the noun form.

Every believer has been sanctified in Christ Jesus, made pure and holy, the Greek word for sanctified is to make pure and holy. And we have been made pure and holy, and therefore we, because we have been sanctified, are now called saints because we are holy in the view of God as positionally we Are seen by God as though we had never sinned. We’re holy in God’s sight. And so every believer is holy or righteous in God’s sight because we’ve been sanctified in Christ Jesus.

Now, there’s a second aspect of sanctification that is the practical aspect where we ought to be conforming our lives to Christ and living more God-like as we read God’s Word and allow the Word of God to shape and direct our lives as a Christian. Christian, but positionally, sanctification is a position that we hold before God that is based upon Christ’s death, that we have from the moment we believe, and from that moment that instant we become saints. And so here was a fellow who said, I ain’t no saint.

And my heart kind of went out to the fellow. I said, how sad? Because he’s publicly advertising that he’s going to hell. As you see, unless you have been sanctified in Christ, unless you are a saint, you will not enter heaven, and every believer is a saint. This thing about examining somebody’s life after they have lived and died and then having a committee vote on whether they become saints or not, that’s pure nonsense, and that is not taught in the Bible anywhere.

That is completely foreign to the Bible. The Bible here addresses the believers at Corinth, ordinary people just like you and me that had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, who therefore as a result were sanctified in Christ Jesus and then they were called as a result saints. Again sanctified is the verb form and saint is the noun form. And when you are sanctified by Christ, you at that instant become a saint and our position before Christ is that we are saints, that we are holy and righteous in the sight of God based upon Christ death.

It says over in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 10, by the will of God, we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Hebrews 10 10, that’s a great verse I’ll tell you. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Christ was offered one time for all people and we are sanctified through his death through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary.

Verse 14 of Hebrews chapter 10 says, by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. So we are perfected in God’s sight forever based upon the sacrifice that Christ made for us at Calvary. If you’ve never trusted Christ, you could do it where you might be right now and receive God’s wonderful gift of eternal life. The Bible says, whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. So if you would just say, Lord, I’m a sinner.

I don’t understand much about the Bible, but I do trust that Jesus Christ died for me, paid for my sins and full at the cross was buried and rose again from the dead God will save you. And you become a saint at the instant you believe. And it’s just absolutely mind-boggling, isn’t it that God would trade or take in trade for His righteousness, our sin, and pay for them at the cross and offer to us completely free His righteousness and His salvation by trusting Christ.

But it is the good news and that’s why it’s called good news because that is good news. No doubt about it. God bless you all. Thank you for tuning in today. I hope you keep looking up. Jesus is coming and I think He’s coming soon. I really do. So keep watching, keep looking, prices coming soon. Let’s live for him in the meantime. And we’ll be back tomorrow. God bless and have a great day. Thanks for listening to Bibleline with Dr.

Hank Lindstrom. We hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s program and that you are learning from it. It was Dr. Lindstrom’s ministry to spread the gospel of salvation by telling all who would listen about the shed blood, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, to pay the sin debt that we all owe but cannot pay for ourselves. If you have not yet trusted Jesus as your Savior, we encourage you to do so. Just visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org and watch Dr. Lynch from 7 minute video that will greet you there.

Until next time, this has been Tom Perry for Bibleline Ministries. We invite you to join us again for another edition of Bibleline and as Dr. Lynch from Some would say, keep looking up, Jesus is coming. 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.

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