Bibleline Radio Show – 2008-08-19

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Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Coming to you from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida declaring God’s love through radio and television, providing real answers to an ever-searching world. Got a question? Dial toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Now here’s the host of Bibleline. Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Well, good morning and welcome to Bibleline. Great to be with you today. Thanks for tuning in the broadcast. We look forward to being with you every day, Monday through Friday, as we come to you live from Tampa, Florida, from our studios right here at the Calvary Community Church.

We look forward to being with you every day and I hope you’ll tell your friends about the program and have them join us as well as they can hear us on the the Internet anywhere in the world. We have a lot of folks that have logged on and found our Internet site. We had 158 countries so far logged in. We have a quiz on the home page of our website called Am I Going to Heaven and so far 38,000 people have taken that quiz and failed at many of them coming back and passing it, learning how to have eternal life.

And we’re excited about what the website is doing. Tell everybody about it and you can go there and catch our program live right now as we stream to the internet and also you can go back in archives and catch it later. Good to be with you. It’s Tuesday. We’re having a good time. I hope you are. And we had a wonderful weekend and we had a great baptism. of the gentleman that was baptized his mother and some other family flew all the way in here from Memphis, Tennessee just to witness his baptism, isn’t that special?

And so that was exciting along with many of the things that happened and many people getting saved here. We are looking forward to being with you all week and if you have a question you’re welcome the dials at 1-800-576-3771, 1-800-576-3771. Give us a call and we’ll get you up in line here to go up on the air in a few minutes and we welcome all of you wherever you might be listening from. We have got a wonderful group of people in Huntington and in Charlotte, West Virginia that are listening, that are calling in and telling us how much they enjoy the program and people in now in Indiana that are listening and are enjoying the program.

We’re so glad to welcome all of you new folks to the Bibleline program as we come to you live out of Tampa, Florida every day from 10 to 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. By the way, our worship services are there on the internet. You can watch them and listen to them. And if you want to catch it live on Sunday morning, you can go to BibleLineMinistries.org, click on the camera and you’ll be able to connect right to the worship service if you do that at 11 a.m.

on Sunday morning. But you can go there any time of day or night during the week and catch all of the sermons for the past year. They’re all sitting there waiting for you to listen to. We have a trip to Israel plan for February 23 of 2009 and if you call in and give us your address we will be glad to mail you a brochure and if you can’t wait you can go to the internet right now and click on Bibleline news, Bibleline news on the home page and it will say Israel, Torah, brochure, click on that and you will be able to see the full brochure and put it out on your printer.

If you’d like to get a real nice copy from us, we’ll be glad to mail it to you. Free of charge, it’ll be trip number 16. What a trip it is going to be. I’ll tell you you’re learning the Bible all day long. And if you ever get a chance to go, it will dramatically change your life. I hope that you will do that. We’re going to get into the Bible for a few minutes and then we’ll be taking our callers.

Again, you can call and order a copy of this program, or you can go to the internet and download it for free in the mp3 format for your iPod or into your computer. And you can take advantage of a lot of things we have there on our website. But we will open our Bible stuff. You have your Bible there. Turn if you will to Titus. Chapter 3 Titus chapter 3 verse 5. Here it says, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.

What is amazing to me is that everywhere without violation, God is the one who saves us and that we simply receive that salvation. That there’s nothing that you or I can do. to contribute to that salvation. We can only receive it. Just like the hymn writer wrote, Just as I am I come without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. We can’t say that we deserve eternal life. We can’t earn eternal life. We can’t buy eternal life.

Eternal life is something that is given by God and only by trusting Jesus Christ as Savior who Here can it be received? Let me read the verse again. Titus 3.5 says, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. And then it talks here about the washing of regeneration. In regeneration is the new birth. That occurs at the moment you trust Christ as Savior. It’s irreversible. Once you trust Christ, you are born again and it is impossible for you to become unborn.

Not only is it impossible for you to become unborn spiritually, but think about it. Physically, how can you ever become unborn? Once you were born, you cannot undo that. You cannot become unborn. Once you become born again, once you trust Christ, you are cleansed of your sin in the process of being born again, which is an instantaneous thing that happens at the moment you trust Christ as your Savior, and you are washed of your sin and you are unable to undo that.

Isn’t that amazing? And of course, salvation is not a process. It is received by an act of faith at a point in time. So many people that go wrong seem to imply that salvation is some sort of a process where you keep on keeping on and that if you keep on keeping on till the end of your life, then you will then make it into heaven. The Bible doesn’t teach that anywhere. The verse that people oftentimes take out of context is Matthew 24, 13, where it says he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.

But is talking about a physical salvation there, and those who physically survived the tribulation period who are believers will then be saved to live into the thousand year reign of Christ. But is not talking about being saved to the heaven by enduring to the end. We are not saved by what we do. We are saved by what God has done for us. Noah is a picture of God’s salvation. You know, when Noah and his family entered into the ark, they had to do nothing but just stay inside the ark.

You know, it wasn’t like they had to hold on to the outside of the ark and keep on holding on. And when the waves came in the storm and the wind blew, they didn’t have to struggle to hold on to the outside of the Ark to survive the flood, they were safely inside protected. You know, it’s a picture the Ark is as a picture of Christ and the Bible tells us that every believer is placed into Christ and therefore were safe and secure and can never be lost.

It says in Philippians 3-9, Be found in Him that is in Christ and it says in the last two words of that verse in Philippians 3-9 by faith. Be found in Him by faith. The moment you trust Christ, you are placed in the body of Christ, and according to the Bible you are going to be in heaven forever because of that one-time event that occurs at the moment you believe. It says, Be found in Him by faith, Philippians 3-9.

In 1 Corinthians 12-13 it says, By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, that body being the body of Christ. As a result, verse 27 of 1 Corinthians 12 says, Now you are the body of Christ and members in particular. So basically God says He places you into Christ’s body and therefore everything that happened to Christ’s body happened to you. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, you were nailed to the cross because God sees you in the body of Christ.

And so when Christ died, You died. The Bible says when he was buried, you were buried. The Bible says when he rose from the dead, you rose from the dead because God sees you in Christ’s body and everything that happened to Christ’s body happens to you. The Bible says when Christ rose from the dead, you rose from the dead. When he ascended to heaven, you ascended to heaven. And one of the neatest verses, I believe, is Ephesians 2, 6, where it says he’s raised us up together with Christ.

and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ right now is seated in the heavenlies. And the Bible says that we are seated there with Him because we are in Christ. So positionally God sees us crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended, and now seated in heaven right now. To be lost would mean that positionally you’d have to be ripped out of Christ’s body, which is impossible because you become an integral part of his body at the moment you believe.

When you believe you are placed in the body of Christ and it says in 1 Corinthians 1227 you become members of his body. Ephesians makes it even more clear where it says in Ephesians 5.30 for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. In other words, to be lost once you become saved would mean that somebody would have to sever a part of the body of Christ. It would have to take a sore and ax and chop off a part of Christ’s body for you to be lost Because you become, it says in Ephesians 5.30, I’m reading it here from my Bible, where we are members of his body and of his flesh and of his bones.

Wow! I’ll never forget the story. I heard a lady that believed you could never be lost. Attended a church where the pastor taught you could lose your salvation. And as she was leaving the church, they had a little conversation. She and the pastor, and she said how glad that she was safely held in the hand of Jesus. You know it says that in Matthew, rather in John’s Gospel chapter 10 verse 28, where it says, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.

Neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.” She said, I’m safely in the hand of Christ. He being a clever pastor said, be careful you don’t slip out between the fingers. She could lose her salvation by slipping out between the fingers of Christ. Guess what? She came back with a great reply. She said, that’s impossible, Pastor, because I am the fingers. You know, we’re an integral part of the body of Christ, remembers of his body and of his flesh and of his bones.

And so in order to be lost, Christ’s finger would have to be cut off or his hand or some other part of his body for you and I to be lost. It can happen. Can Christians stray away? Yes indeed they can. Did you know that a Christian can actually forget that he was ever saved? That’s right. It says over in 2 Peter that there are those who lack the things that they ought to have in their Christian life. They lack serving the Lord and they are therefore barren and unfruitful in their knowledge of Christ.

And it says in verse 9 of 2 Peter chapter He that lack of these things is blind and cannot see a far off. And it says here in my Bible, and has forgotten, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Isn’t that amazing? A Christian can get away from the Lord, and a Christian can get away to the point that he even forgets that he was ever saved? Wow! Amazing, isn’t it? And of course Peter warns that the person who does that will suffer the loss of reward in heaven and obviously in Kuregud’s chastisement in their life, but they will never be lost.

They are still saved. They simply can get away and forget that they ever were saved at all. Wow! As a believer, we need to be in the Word of God and to be reminded that our salvation is secure and that we can never be lost. Jesus says, I will never leave you. And I will never forsake you. Once you trust Christ, you’re stuck. You have to go to heaven whether you like it or not. Jesus said, I will never leave you.

What does that mean? Let’s just say you could be lost. Let’s say you did wind up in hell. Well guess what? That would mean that Jesus would have to go to hell with you. This is never going to happen. Never, ever going to happen. Jesus said, I will never leave you. So if you wound up in hell, Christ would have to go to hell with you. He says, I’ll never forsake you. So as a believer, you’re eternally saved. And it’s the best news anyone is ever going to hear.

going to hear is the good news of John 3 16 for God’s soul of the world. That means you that he gave his only begotten son, that’s Jesus Christ, that whosoever would believe or trust is the better word in Christ would not perish but have everlasting life. Boy, I understood that in 18 finally, even though I had been raised in church, I was confirmed, baptized, homogenized, pasteurized, capsized, Simonized, you name it, I went through it, but I wasn’t saved.

Nobody ever made it clear to me. I finally discovered how to have eternal life in 18. I trusted Jesus Christ as my savior, and from that moment on, I’ve known that I have eternal life, that my sins are forgiven, but I’m on my way to heaven, and God says in 1 John 5, 13, he’s written this to me so that I can know KNOW that I have HAVE, present tense, I have eternal life. I’m Dr. Englund from Mrs. Bibleline.

We’re going to go to the phone lines. You’re welcome to call us. The number is 1-800-576-3771, 1-800-576-3771. and we’re going to go now to Jean in St. Petersburg and Jean welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air. Hi. Good morning, Dr. Leustron. Good morning. I’m a person and I told him I listened to your radio station and he immediately told us in a day I’ll let him listen to you tonight when he gets off. Which talk about what the Catholics believe and also he asked me what my zodiac sign was and he was saying how he knows if he meets like a verbal or a tarsen Capricorn.

He said he knows that one of those three signs in him would, you know, I guess be married forever. And I told him I said I don’t, you know, the Bible says, I was hoping he would talk night on. Wonderful. Thank you, Dr. Leustron. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. You know, we are not to practice astrology. Now, astronomy is a legitimate science. We’ve said it in the heavens. But to practice astrology, the Bible forbids that. Isaiah 47, 13 tells us that we’re not to practice anything in that area, the occult astrology, or the horoscope, or those that can so-called particularly the future, psychics and so on.

All of that is forbidden territory. And the Bible says that not only can they not help you, but they will not be able to help themselves, it says they will not be able to deliver themselves from the power of the flame. They’ll be cast into hell and they will not be able to help you or themselves. They’ll not be able to deliver themselves from the power of the flame of hell. Obviously, that’s terrible. Well the Roman Catholic Church, you know when Christianity began, when the Bible tells us that Christ sent out us as believers from Pentecost on as His witnesses into this world, we’re to preach the wonderful gospel of Christ.

And it spread and went out. And we know that the early Christians were greatly persecuted. In the 4th century, Constantine declared the world to be Christian, and at that time the church was headed up in Istanbul or Constantinople named for Constantine. Then later the church split into two main groups. The western church ended up in Rome and the Greek church or the eastern church Headed up in Constantinople. And those two branches still exist and both are claiming that they are the universal church.

There’s the Eastern Catholic Church, the word Catholic means universal. And then there’s the Western Catholic Church and Catholic meaning universal, the one that is called the Roman Catholic Church. And yet at one time they were divided in really not until about the sixth century that Catholicism really developed as we know it today. They can’t claim any real pope. Of course they claim Peter, but Peter was not a pope and there is not any succession of popes taught in the Bible at all.

But it was not until Pope Gregory of 585 AD that they could really start tracing some popes. And this whole thing is of course not biblical. The Bible teaches us that every believer has the same access to the Lord as an un-believer, that every one of us can pray directly to God, that every one of us can read the scriptures and have God illuminate our understanding as to what the Bible says. But the main difference between what the Bible teaches and Roman Catholicism is that Roman Ephesians says it’s not done yet.

That you have to keep on keeping on. It’s basically works based for salvation. Whereas the Bible teaches it’s done. It’s finished. Jesus paid our sin debt. The sin debt of every man, woman, and child that would ever live in full at the cross. It says in 1st, Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 14, by one offering he had perfected forever them that are saying to find. One offering at the cross was sufficient to pay for all the sins of all the people that would ever live in all of time.

And when we by faith trust in that finished work of Christ on the cross, we become saved eternally. And we simply are saved through Christ, not an organization or denomination. And yet the Roman Catholic Church teaches that the Church saves you and that through the sacraments and through following the teachings of the Church you can earn salvation which is completely contrary to the Bible. And that’s unfortunate. The Bible tells us that who so ever believeth in Christ, that means that trust in Christ would not perish but have everlasting life.

I had a lady call me from Illinois early this morning and she said, what is this thing about head belief versus heart belief. And I said, you know, it’s a way of explaining, although it really causes more problems than it solves, the difference between mental ascent to the historical facts of the life of Christ and the actual trust of Christ as your Savior. In other words, you can believe all about the life of Christ, but yet never trust Him.

And you won’t be saved unless you trust Christ as your Savior. I like to say it this way. Christ died. That’s history. But Christ died. For me, that’s salvation. When you personally trust Christ as the one who died for you. But there are those who say there’s 18 inches between heaven and hell. the distance between your head and your heart. And you can believe with your head, but unless you believe with your heart, you won’t be saved. That is really craziness.

There’s nothing like that in the Bible. We actually not only think with our minds and our brain, but we trust Christ in our mind as well. And our heart is a pumping organ, it has nothing to do with it. But I think what they’re trying to say is that you can ascend to the facts of Christ and be lost, but you must trust Christ to be saved. And I think you just need to say it that way. And that’s, of course, what?

Saves a person when they put their trust in what Christ did for them. A lot of people, in fact, most people say they believe in Christ because they recognize He was a historical figure that actually lived here on the earth, but that doesn’t bring them salvation. They must personally trust that Christ died to pay for their sins in order to be saved. Thank you Jean and I hope that answers your question and I hope your friend will be listening tonight and I hope he’ll trust Jesus as his Savior and receive the gift of eternal life.

Joyce in Charlottesville, Virginia, calls in and she says, during the thousand year reign, will there be animal sacrifices? And the answer is yes and they will be memorial in nature. In other words, they won’t save anybody as the sacrifices never have. They always pictured and reminded us of what Christ did at the cross and they will do the same during the millennium and they will offer animal sacrifices at that time. I’m Dr. Hank Lindstrom and we’re getting close to the end of this first half of the program.

It’s hard to believe how quickly it goes, but we’re glad that we’re able to bring the program to you, and I hope you’re enjoying. This is August and we need some help. We’re running short here during the summer, and we could really use your help. If you would give a gift to Bibleline, it would really be helpful. and i hope that uh… you would call maybe and give a gift by credit card over the phone or call it ask for an envelope and send a gift in by mail but uh…

your gifts are what keep this for one year when i think it is god bless all of you give all of you who pray because you make it possible for us to be on the air again we don’t pay any salaries all the money’s that come in go to pay all the bills and keep us on the radio stations where we are and on the internet and all the ways that we reach out. I’m Dr. Englester, we’re gonna take a short break.

We’ll come back and do a second half hour of Bibleline. So keep you ready to write where it is, and I’ll be right back after the short break, and we’ll do the second half hour of Bibleline. Don’t go away, Bibleline, we’ll be back in a moment. Give us a call at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Well I’m Dr. Englinschman, it’s great to be with you today and we thank you for listening to the program and I hope this will help you.

You know, a lot of people are members of churches and yet are not saved. I was raised in a church and for 18 years I was active in that church as a child and yet I never knew how to go to heaven. And I’m afraid that so many people have that similar experience where they’re raised in church and never learned anything. I had two ladies a couple of weeks ago tell me that they were in their 70s and they said they have learned more through Bibleline than they have in sitting under all the pastors that they’ve said under in all of their life.

Here they are in their 70s and they’re learning more right now through Bibleline than they’ve ever learn in their whole life about the Bible. Boy, we’re so glad to be hearing those comments. To know that we’re helping people understand the Bible, that it’s becoming clear to them. Things are coming into focus and they can understand what the Bible has to say. Because it’s amazing how many churches don’t really deal with the issues and don’t really answer the questions. And we try to give you a straight answer right from the Bible at the moment you call, if we can, we’ll give you a scripture and give you an answer from the Bible.

And we hope that you’re enjoying all of that. Again, we do need your help. It’s August and it’s summer and it’s been a little bit of a lean summer. We need your help. And if you could help us, your gift would be greatly appreciated. Just call us and give a gift by credit card over the phone, or if you’d prefer to call an S for an envelope and we’ll mail you an envelope with our address on it. You could mail your gift in not to buy the line.

It would really help us. We’re going to, of course, keep on going as long as we can. We believe that Christ is returning soon, and so we’re trying to just extend ourselves out as far as we can go, reach as many as we can, because we believe he could even come this year. I don’t know when the Lord is going to come. I know He’s coming soon and you could see it in the headlines. The things that we’re seeing happening today are truly signs of the return of Christ.

But we’re pushing hard because what if He did come this year? I would never forgive myself if I didn’t push as hard as I could to reach out to touch as many lives as we can with this program until He does come back. Hope you’ll pray for us. I hope you’ll help us that if you could call and give a gift to Bibleline, that would be so appreciated. We’re going to rejoin the stations that have been on break and come back now and do a second half hour of Bibleline.

So keep your radio tuned right where it is and we’re going to do the second half hour right now. Would you like to call Bibleline and ask Dr. Lynch from a question? You can. Pick up your phone and dial 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Now here again is Dr. Hank Lindstrom. All right, we’re back from that break and this is Bible and it’s great to be with you. We’re coming to you live from Tampa, Florida for most videos. Here at the Calvary Community Church where I’m the pastor and we look forward to being with you each and every day Monday through Friday as we come to you live from our studios here in Tampa.

You’re welcome to come by and visit us. Our resource centers open every day till about 430. And if you live in the driving distance radius, please come by and see us. And if you live in another state, another place, you can visit our resource center on the internet. You can also visit our worship services on the internet, listen to our radio programs on the internet. You can do that by going to BibleLineMinistries.org. Talking about a trip to Israel in February, it’ll be trip number 16 for me.

I believe that this would be a life-changing event for you. You know, one of the things I enjoy about going is seeing the people that go with me change over the time that were there. Every day we’re in the Bible all day long at the very places where the events took place and you can’t help but be changed by the word as you are seeing the very places where events take place and to have a full dose of the Bible.

Somebody once said it was equivalent to a year of Bible college, just a trip over there. As you become familiar with customs and the geography and the events that took place in the Bible and actually stand where they took place and read the Scriptures and see it happen. It’s exciting. I hope you’ll go if you will call us and give us your name and address will mail you a brochure and you can make your decision or you can go online and on the front page or home page of the website Bible you’ll see it will say Israel tour brochure if you click on that you can read it right on the website you can also print it out on your printer but if you want to realize professionally We do need to have you make your reservation that is leave it deposit by October 1st because

the airlines may not hold the seats beyond that time. So you got about six weeks to make sure that we have a spot for you and of course then you have time before the trip to pay off the balance. But you did need to make a choice here and by October 1st we hope you’ll say I’ll leave a deposit and I’m planning to go. We’re going to go back to the phone lines here. We have Cindy in Largo, Florida and Cindy, welcome to my blind.

You’re on the air. Cindy, I’m here. Hiya. Okay, you’re there. So, thank you for taking my call. You’re welcome. I wanted to, if you could make a comment on a pastor that is on a TV program, would you be able to say whether he’s biblically correct or not? Or do you prefer not to comment on him? I don’t know. Who is it? Andrew Womack. I’m not familiar with him, but I’ll have to, I could do some homework for you if you want to call me after the show.

I can go on the internet and find out usually what they believe real quick and give you an opinion. so that it can take you soon okay thank you you don’t have gary and gary is in uh… perkin indiana uh… gary welcome to my one year on the air one and i’ve got a lot good to have you on the air with us i uh… with your program a while back and uh… you said that once you were saved you were always safe that’s correct I have a hypothetical situation that my dog in law left my son and pursued her own lust.

She thinks she’s still safe. I was never taught that. Well if she was indeed saved and here’s that I don’t keep the lands like a wife I don’t know but there are a lot of people who claim that they’re Christian and are not and obviously that will be exposed one day in Matthew chapter 7 verse 22. It says, many will say unto me, Lord, Lord, and these people obviously seem to be dedicated. They say, Lord, we preached in your name and healed in your name and did many wonderful works in your name.

Christ says to them, I never knew you. Their problem was that they had never trusted in the death and the shed blood and the burial and the resurrection of Christ. They were boasting and bragging about the things that they had done for Christ that would save them. At the same time, we have people like Lot who was Abraham’s nephew. He lived in Sodom and he lived in a very wicked city and God destroyed the city. But Lot was spared out of that city.

And yet we find that he and his daughters were saved. God spared those that were saved. It took them out. And his daughters, as they were living there in Zor in a cave, got him drunk. One at a time they had sex with their father and became pregnant by their father. They committed incest. So we have people that do bad things that are Christians and yet they’re still saved. I just tell you this, that if you are truly a believer, you really cannot live as you please.

And if she appears to be living as she pleases and God is not interfering in her life, then it would expose the fact that she’s not a believer. Let me give you Hebrews chapter 12 verse 6 where it says, for whom the Lord loves, he chases, or the modern word would be disciplines, every son or daughter whom he receives. Verse 8 says, if you be without chastisement or discipline, where of all God’s children are partakers, it says you’re a bastard and not a son.

In other words, you’d be illegitimately claiming to be a Christian If you could live as you please and God did not chase and or interfere in your life. And so you’re not going to get away with it. In fact, in some cases, God will take the person home to heaven early if they continue to willfully sin against the Lord. 1 Corinthians 5 talks about a man living in a fornication with his mother, probably a stepmother. And he was proud.

He continued in doing that. He was a believer, and it says in verse 5, to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. So the man would be saved, but he was turned over to Satan so Satan could take his body. You know, Satan would love to kill every one of us as believers. But God has a hedge of protection around every one of us.

But if we sin, God can take away that protection and allow Satan to get at us. We know that Job had done nothing wrong, but God took away that hedge. Satan complained. Yeah, Job, he’s a wonderful guy, but that’s because you have blessed him and you have a hedge of protection about it, so I can’t get any. And God took away that protection and said, okay, with certain limits you can do these things to Job. You remember he took away all of his family all of his possessions and even at that job did not curse the Lord so I Believe I would Treat her as though she was unsafe Because you want to make sure that she is saved But if she truly is saved God is going to deal with her and she will not get away with living as she pleases She might have the

Lord bring some real serious tragedies into her life to get her attention I hope that helps Gary. I don’t know what to tell you, but I have a question of Revelation number two. I’ll give it a shot here. Revelation chapter two is talking about the church at Ephesus and that of course is Ephesus which is in Turkey today and we find that it is a prophetic picture of the first century church. That is the early church of the first century when Christ died for that next hundred years or so.

This was the picture of the dynamic church of Christ that would be doctrinally sound and out there witnessing. It says here In verse 2 I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and how thou cannot bear them which are evil and has tried them which say their apostles that are not and has found them to be liars. They were doctrinally sound and they were very hard working and so on. But it says nevertheless, verse 4 I have somewhat against thee because I was left thy first love.

And notice as time goes along instead of still being in love with Christ and serving because Because of their love for Christ, they apparently did it for other reasons. Sometimes people serve the Lord for… He says, remember, from the windside, fall and repent. The word repent means to change your mind and do the first works, or else I’ll come into the quickly and remove that candlestick out of thy place, or out of his place except you repent. Now it’s not talking about loss of salvation which is impossible.

It’s talking about this church and us as Christians being lights in this world. The candlestick or the Lord. Lampsan is a representation of the fact this church was a light in the world and that you and I as Christians are to be lights in this world and we can lose our Testimony our effectiveness are our privilege of being able to be a light here in this world and God can take away Then those privileges and even take away our life But it’s not talking about loss of salvation Christ says in John 6 37 27 him that comeeth the me I will in no wise cast out There’s no exception if you come to Christ and trust him as your Savior He says him that comeeth the me I will in no wise cast out That means for no reason or no circumstance would he ever cast you out as a believer

Even better than that is verse 39 of John 6 where Jesus said this is the father’s will which has sent me That of all of which you have given me I should lose none So Christ said he would not lose one person who ever had come to him. So if one person in all of history were ever lost after they became saved, God would be a liar. Christ would be a liar. The Bible would be wrong and of course that will never happen.

So this is really talking about loss of service or loss of opportunity to be a witness or a lamp in this dark world but not a loss of salvation. And obviously it has time progressed. This church age ended and the next church age began which is pictured by the church at Smyrna and so on all the way down to the church of Laodicea which I believe is a prophetic picture of the church of right now The time in which we’re living in right this minute Thank you very much for taking my call We put the same to you Gary and keep listening and we’ll cover more of these topics for you as we go along that’s Gary and and we’re now going to go to Danny in St.

Petersburg and Danny, welcome to Bibleline. You’re on the air. Good morning. Good morning Danny. Good morning Dr. Ristro. Thank you for taking my call. My wife and I recently, you know, quite a few months back, we recently saved and we’re disagreeing with something but we’ve learned now that rather than proving somebody right I’m sorry the sensitivity to nature of this, but um, holidays, Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy and things like that were, you know, a lot of people still, it’s just a little white lie.

We’re struggling with the fact that, you know, one of us doesn’t feel it’s right, the other one says, well that’s just, you know, the way things are. I mean, it’s a lie, you know, relying through our son, telling him that these things are, you know, that’s a lie. people or fictitious people exist and uh… and and later on in life we’re going to try to teach him a total truth as a whole point of the later on like for some of them well we’ll be faced with it the fact that having to tell him that no this is a true that there is a static laws or isn’t a true for it and so it’s kind of a double standard and we were just wanting your input on that and i can probably answer it probably a self-answering question but I’ll be happy to you know

I agree with you and And I remember being terribly hurt myself as a child because the people I loved that I trusted taught me about Santa Claus. And I had a lot of trust in these people. When I finally discovered on my own that it was a lie, I really said, well I guess church is probably also a lie. And I figured that they’re not going to catch me on this next one. I became very skeptical and I was very hurt that I had been lied to.

But I don’t think you have to lie. I think if you want to do the Santa Claus thing, which I don’t like to do at all, you can tell them it’s make-believe. You know, the kids can understand Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and all those things that make-believe. And I think you can just be honest and say Santa Claus is make-believe, but Jesus is real. And they can still enjoy all the things about the Christmas holiday if you want to include Santa Claus in that.

But I think that you just need to be honest with them because it does come back to sting me later. Yes, it just took this. Kids understand make believe and they make believe all the time and from a very young age and I think that if you tell them that’s make believe that Jesus is real and it makes all the difference in the world. Well, thank you very much, Dr. Lindstrom. If not, I will share the news with her that that’s definitely a new option for us.

Okay, Danny. Thanks a lot. Danny in St. Petersburg and we’re now going to go to Lou in Tampa, Florida. Lou, welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air. Well, good morning, Dr. Hank. How are you? Good. Good morning, Lou. Good. Listen, Dr. Hank, we’ve discussed this before, but I’ve got several close friends, believers in Christ, Christ, older people my age, and they listen to your show and they absolutely love it. The teaching is simple to understand. It’s overly simple. However, they have a tendency from time to time.

There was several of them that listened to John MacArthur yesterday morning. And he was on the easy-believeism thing. And Dr. Hank, I’ve got to tell you, he and no shortage of scriptures, Dr. Hank. And there’s when they come to me and go, you know, misinterpretation, somebody’s got to be right and somebody’s got to be wrong. Well, the whole gist of it was yesterday, he said the majority of the evangelism movement today is to try to just get people saved no matter what.

And he was saying, he pretty much said in no short way, If you don’t make Jesus’ Lord of your life, if you’re not a disciple, if you think it’s the second step, it’s almost like he was talking about you and not mentioning names. He said, you’re lost. He said, that’s the biggest lie and he’s giving all these scriptures and it was just, it’s everything contradictory to what you’re saying in the scriptures that you were using. So I’m going to hang up and listen and maybe I’ve got several people that are going to be listening to you.

See if the devil at work trying to rob us of our joy or our assurance or whatever, but honestly, somebody’s got to be right and somebody’s got to be wrong. And like I said, see if you can help us out with this lordship salvation with this second step process of discipleship where he’s pretty much saying if you’re not that, then you’re not saved. So I’m going to hang up and listen. Okay, Dr. Hank. Okay. Yeah, that makes salvation by works.

the Lordship doctrine is false. Christ is obviously wanting us to live for him and submit to his Lordship, but that doesn’t bring about salvation nor does it mean that you’re not a Christian if you don’t become obedient to serving. In fact, most of the New Testament was written to believers who were not living for Christ and especially the Corinthian letters were written to correct problems in their Christian life because they were not serving the Lord. But if you go to Matthew 722, there you have Lordship.

Jesus says, there many will come to me in that day, which is the great white throne judgment, and they will say, Lord, Lord, notice they acknowledge the Lordship of Christ. Then they also acknowledge and boast about their obedience to the Lordship of Christ, and they brag in three areas. They say, we preached in your name, we healed in your name, and we did many wonderful works in your name. So here are people who are committed to Lordship, Lord, Lord, and look at how they were obedient to that Lordship, why we preached in your name, healed in your name, did many wonderful works in your name.

Then you read verse 23 and Jesus says, I say unto you, I never knew you. I never knew. Not I once knew you and I lost you. He said, I never knew you. This crowd, what was the problem? They didn’t mention it all across the death, the shed blood, the barrel, the resurrection of Christ. Notice, they bypassed the cross and you don’t get into heaven by your works. And these people were trusting in their works and their obedience to the Lordship of Christ to get them to heaven.

And Christ says, as a result, I never knew you. You were never saved. I never knew you. I didn’t lose you. I never knew you. And he says, Depart from me, you that work in equity. And what is interesting? He’s calling those things that they were bragging about in equity because if you think you’re preaching for Christ or witnessing through Christ, we’ll get you to heaven. That’s sin. If you think that you’re doing many wonderful works in the name of Christ is going to get you to heaven, that’s a sin because you’re really slapping Jesus in the face and saying that his work at the cross was not sufficient to save you.

It’s his death and his shed blood that purchased our salvation and to try to say that you did something that could save you is to reject Christ and to reject what he did at the cross and make light of it. So Christ says, I never knew you. There are so many verses where you have people that in the New Testament are trying to work their way to heaven and they never become saved. They’re not saved at all. Now Peter was saved in John chapter 1 when Andrew led him to Christ, but it was later by the Sea of Galilee when he was fishing with his brothers that Christ invited him to become a disciple.

And he said, follow me and I’ll make you a fisher of men. But Peter was already saved at that point. He was saved by simply coming to Christ. The Bible does make that distinction. I was saved by what Christ did for me, not by what I do for him. And then later I chose to serve him because I was grateful. I was really thankful that I was not going to go to hell and that Jesus would love me enough to die for me.

I wanted to let other people know about this and I chose to make that second decision. to preach Lordship for Salvation is I believe doctrinal error and is wrong and it makes salvation by works. And obviously if you’re trying to be saved by your works the Bible is quite clear, Lou, that you will not be saved. Thank you Lou for that call and I hope that helps. We’re going to Nathaniel down in Belgrade, Florida. Nathaniel, welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air.

Never. I don’t know if you watch the after-programmed on CNN about Dr. I mean about Capitol or Rick Warner, but McCain was saying that when he was in prison, that I was the one that got that and kept it all across on the ground when it’s feet. So by him drawing across on them, I guess where the sign of that, you were the Christian? Is the sign, is all we the sign of a Christian by across? Well, it certainly can be and there’s nothing wrong with that and…

Anyway, you can identify yourself the early Christians had the sign of the fish where they would identify themselves as believers to one another, but The cross is a good symbol. Obviously, we don’t worship the cross. We worship the one who died on the cross who paid our sin debt and full by his death, but we don’t I don’t wish it to cross itself, but it’s a great symbol. And most churches have a cross that remind us of what Jesus did for us on that cross 2000 years ago as he paid our sin debt and full by his death and shed blood on that cross.

So I hope that helps, Nathaniel. It’s a good symbol. Thank you, Nathaniel. We now have Anonymous in somewhere in Florida calling in Anonymous. Welcome to ByBlind. You’re on the air. Good morning. Hi. I’m just calling in response to what was the college just called in concerning the Dominic author. Yes, I was listening to him and I’m just going to share my testimony when I was saved. When I was born again, I would pinch it. I mean I turned from the way that I was going and turned towards God.

I turned my heart. He was dealing with the heart before I became born again. And when I became born again, he turned me towards him. So therefore I was tempted. I turned him away from the way that I was going, and I turned towards God. And my life changed. I started living in accordance to what his word says. I loved him. It wasn’t worth. It was fruit. It was the fruit of having the Holy Spirit within me. I believe that what John McArthur is saying is truth.

What he was saying yesterday was that people say a simple prayer, just the state of prayer, repeat after me and you’re saying that requires no fruit, requires no change in your life. And it is a lot. The Bible says that the devil’s good believes, but there’s no change in their life. They haven’t repented. A good example of repentance is the prodigal son. When he was in the hog can, he thought to himself. He was talking about what he had and what he had left.

And he made up his mind to go back to his father. But he could have, if he had stayed in there in the paulkent, that wasn’t a true sign of repentance. He sat up and went back home to his father. And that showed that he had truly repented. According to the word of God, when you’re truly born again. He wasn’t just because we were almost out of time. That son was still a son no matter what he did. Whether he came back or he didn’t come back, he was still the son of the father.

And of course the father was pleased when he came back. But repentance is a change of mind and it’s a change of mind really for salvation about how we become saved. I wish we had more time but we are out of time and we’ll have to pick it up tomorrow. Please call back tomorrow and we’ll deal with this again. But thanks again for listening today. I’m Dr. Englister Manning to say goodbye. Again, if you could help Bibleline out, call and give a gift by credit card or mail your gift in.

And we’ll be back again tomorrow. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a presentation of Bibleline Ministries of Tampa, Florida. Your donation to Bibleline makes it possible for this ministry to continue in your area. Bibleline’s address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 336-34. or visit Bibleline Online at BibleLineMinistries.com. Be sure to tune in for another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church of Tampa, Florida. I’m Dr. Englund Sermann. We’ve had fun today. I hope you’ve enjoyed the program. And obviously lots of different issues out there to dig into the Bible and find out the answers.

And obviously the Bible is the authority, not me or any other man or organization or group of men or denomination, it is the Word of God, this the final authority. And the Bible makes it very clear that if you believe or trust on the Lord Jesus Christ that you’ll be saved. If you haven’t done that, wherever you might be, if you just say, Lord, I trust you as my Savior. And you come just like you are. The hymn writer got it right when he said, just as I am I come without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me.

When you simply come to Christ and trust Him, God saves you, then you have the choice to live for Him and have His blessings and rewards as the consequence, or you can not live for Him and suffer the loss of reward and incur God’s discipline upon your life as He will judge you for those sins that you commit willfully after you are saved. The salvation is a wonderful gift and that’s the good news that we try to share. You want everybody to know that whosoever, believe it or trusteth in Christ should not perish but have everlasting life.

There are no other conditions but to simply trust Christ and God saves you. We hope that you listen every day, go to the internet and you’ll be able to hear this program and other programs over again. That’s BibleLineMinistries.org. BibleLineMinistries.org. Click on that spinning globe. You’ll get the radio. Click on the camera and you’ll get our TV programs. And by the way, if you’re interested in going to Israel Call and gives your name and address we’ll send you the brochure because you need to be thinking now because we really need to have a deposit saying that you wouldn’t want to go by October 1st or the airlines may not hold the seats we have reserved for the trip.

So start moving ahead. You don’t have to pay for it all by October 1st but you do need to decide whether you’re going to go or not. I’m Dr. Englinson saying goodbye. We’ll be back tomorrow. Keep looking up. Jesus is coming and we look forward to being with you tomorrow. Have a great day. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a presentation of Bibleline Ministries of Tampa, Florida. Your donation to Bibleline makes it possible for this ministry to continue in your area.

Bibleline’s address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Or visit Bibleline online at BiblelineMinistries.com. Be sure to tune in for another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community. of the University Church of Tampa, Florida.