Bibleline Radio Show – 2008-09-01

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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. I’m great to be with you today. Thanks for tuning in to the broadcast. We look forward to being with you each and 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’re up in the pastor. Thank you so much for tuning in and we look forward to being with you all this week. It’s Tuesday and we’ll be back here again tomorrow and Thursday and Friday and in the Tampa Bay area where on seven days a week and you can hear us throughout the weekend at 10 o’clock Eastern Center time seven days a week. So glad to hear from you and we love to hear from our listeners. We’ve had calls this morning from New York, from Massachusetts, from even Japan.

That’s right we have our missionary Brian in Japan. We call him our man in Japan and he called just to tell how much the Bibleline ministries has helped him even this past couple of weeks. He’s been listening to those Sunday sermons and he said it’s equipping him with exactly what he’s needed to lead Japanese people to Christ in Japan. Isn’t that exciting? And so pray for Brian and he’s got lots of folks over there tuning into Bibleline, listening to the radio programs and watching the Sermons which he says have really been equipping him as of lately God bless you Brian.

I know you’ll probably hear this Program later and thanks for tuning into Bible and in Japan and Tokyo we’re excited because we’re hearing from all over the world People that are listening to Bible and enjoying the program and I hope that you are as well Tell your friends. Maybe you have friends in other countries Maybe you have family in the military. Tell them how they can get to Bibleline and it might be a blessing to them as well. As you can go to the Spinning Globe on the home page and get the radio programs, you can go to the TV set, get the television programs, you can get to the camera and get the worship services.

And by the way, we have a years where the sermons sitting there waiting for you to look at and listen to. And also we have our online bookstore and we have so much for you to take a look at. That’s BibleLineMinistries.org. BibleLineMinistries.org and we hope that you’ll take a look and you can enjoy and pass that word along to your friends as well. Good to be on the air up there in West Virginia, in Indiana, in Evansville, in Salem, in Michigan, in North Adams, Massachusetts, and Utica in Albany, New York, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Richmond, Virginia, and all the different places we’re on here.

God bless all of you. And of course, we have lots of wonderful listeners down in Miami now. And we’re on in the Deland, Daytona Beach area. We’re on in Jacksonville, Florida. And we’re glad to be on the air with you here today in the Tampa Bay area. And thank you for tuning in today. Lots of exciting things are happening and we are planning if the Lord doesn’t come and snitch us out this year to go to Israel, February 23rd.

If you want that brochure to take a look, you can call and we’ll mail that right out to you and just call and give us your address and we’ll mail you the Israel brochure and it’s an incredible experience if the Lord allows us to go again. It’ll be trip number 16 for me. We studied the Bible all day long and it is really a life transforming experience. We’re going to fly with L.L. the safest airlines on the earth and they give you great service and it was just a wonderful trip this past year.

We hope that you will come and be a part of that trip. That’s Israel February of 2009 and the brochure is available if you call and and ask for that to be said. You can also find that on our website. We also have Bibleline Music for Children. It is so powerful. It’s on our website. Go to the online bookstore every page as a vertical banner that you click on and you can actually sample the music and you can actually sample it with your child or grandchild or nephew or nieces name in there.

I’ll never forget when I first shared this with my granddaughter two years old and she would hear in the CD her name repeated. 45 times and it begins by saying Isabel here’s special and God loves you Isabel and you know her world just stops when you play the CD to this very day because she hears her name and she knows that she’s special because God says she’s special. What a way to open up the door to your children. I have found that it opened up the door to talk to her about the Lord and she so freely He wants to talk about it, memorizes the songs, wants to sing them, and you can order them directly off of our website and give them as a gift.

But I wouldn’t even wait to give them as a gift because it’s such a powerful way to get the gospel to your children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces right now. And we’re going to have some new CDs there for Christmas as we come closer to that. So you might want to try that good or are. And by the way, if you don’t have a computer, call us. We have an 800 number where you can help you over the phone and sample it for you and give you advice and you can order it directly over the phone.

So check that out and I think you’ll like Bibleline music for children. Powerful, powerful tool. Online Bookster is filled with wonderful tools and you know, I have bought thousands of books. I have books all around me stacked up everywhere. I have a couple of rooms where I have four walls sealing the floor, all books. But most of the books I bought are worthless. There’s really only one book that I really love and that’s the Bible. But we have selected out books that are very, very good, very, very helpful in our resource center.

So when you look at our resource center and you order anything from it, you’re going I’m going to find that those are books that I recommend that are going to be worth what you pay for them and you’re going to benefit greatly by them. Plus, we have our CD’s Teachings of Mine. You can get our sermons. You can get my Teachings. I’ve done about 40 series, 10 hours, 12 hours of teaching on a particular topic. The longest one we did was the Gospel of John, 20 hours of teaching, but we have that package in two parts.

So you can get John Part 1 and at the behalf of the Gospel of John, you can get Part 2 and that would be the second half of John. We have many of these now in CB and DVDs so you can actually watch and listen if you’d like to get it in the DVD format. We’re excited about of course reaching out across the world with Bible I through the internet and I hope you’re helping us tell your friends about it.

We We hear wonderful stories of people getting saved and growing in a knowledge of Christ from everywhere that are benefiting. We get wonderful notes. I have one in my hand right now and it says, Good Morning Pastor. Just a little note to tell you how we appreciate your straight, honest, disappical teaching and would that people could see what a special teacher you are. Well, thank you so much for that nice note. We have so many that write in and tell us that the Bible has made such a difference.

I talked to two ladies the other day and they are both in their 70s and they told me that they learned more from the Bibleline than they have from all the pastors that they have ever sat under in their whole lifetime. Wow, how humbling is that? And we are just grateful that we are actually getting people excited about the Bible and people even in their seventies coming alive and excited about the word of god i hope you are excited about the bible i am and i hope uh…

you’ll catch that excitement really well go to the bible if you have a question you can call in the media that phone number one eight hundred five seven six three seven seven one one eight hundred five seven six three seven seven one gives a call and get lined up here to go up on the air. And we’re first going to go go to the Bible, to the Word of God, and we’ll come back and catch our callers today. We’re going to go back to the book of Isaiah.

And you know, Isaiah. It’s an incredible book. It’s 66 chapters and somebody has said it is the Bible in miniature. That’s right. Did you know how many chapters in Isaiah 66? Well, how many books are in the Bible? 66? That’s right. And guess what? Isaiah divides into two parts and the first part is 39 chapters. Guess how many books are in the Old Testament? 39 books. The second half of Isaiah is 27 chapters. How many chapters in the New Testament?

27 you’re right and you know it’s amazing how the first half of Isaiah compares to the first half of the Bible and the second half of Isaiah compares to the New Testament and When you turn to Isaiah chapter 40, which is the beginning book of the second half equivalent to the book of Matthew in the New Testament, it begins by telling us the story of John the Baptist. That’s right. Oh my goodness and we should not excite you. When you read your book of Isaiah and realize, wow, this really truly is the Bible and miniature.

We just got back from Israel. If you go to the shrine of the book, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls it was found was the Isaiah’s scroll in its entirety is displayed right in the center of the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem and any school child can come and they do by the way they take field trips like we do in this country and they come to see the scrolls that’s their history and any school child can read it because the Jewish people have revived the ancient Hebrew that even Isaiah the scroll is written in in that amazing Zephaniah the Prophet told that when the Jewish people would return to the land they would revive the ancient pure language amazing, you know Hebrew became lost over the past 2000 years and the Jewish people begin to speak slang in Europe Yiddish and so on and

Just like Latin had died out, the founders of the state of Israel went back to the site and they wanted to renew the very original language, the Old Language of the Old Testament, and that’s exactly what the scrolls were written in. And guess what? That’s what’s happened. miracle and predicted in the prophet Zephaniah. We are living in amazing times. By the way, there has to be a third temple rebuilt and we have Gershan Solomon, the man who has been cutting the stones for the third temple, coming right here to Tampa and he will be here at Bible on headquarters.

He will be here on September 11th. You might want to Remember that by 9-11 he will be here on 9-11 of this year, 2008. Gershan Salah will be here at 7 o’clock. You will want to hear him as he talks about the building of the third temple. You know Jesus will come back to a standing temple. He will come back perhaps to this temple we’re talking about right now. And it could be that you’ll be listening to hearing shaking hands with the very man that God is going to use to build the temple that Christ will return to and establish his rule over the earth.

That’s exciting, isn’t it? Think about it. And if you can’t be here, we’re going to be videotaping that. We’ll make that available probably on a DVD or a CD or both so that you can get it. And we won’t be webcasting it, but we will be maybe later webcasting that. We won’t be doing it live that evening. September 11th, 7 o’clock come if you’re in the area and here Gerson Solomon as he brings us up to speed on what is happening in the Middle East.

We’re gonna turn to Isaiah chapter 45 if you have your Bible open and in Isaiah chapter 45 God God says here in verse 5, to whom will you liken me and make me equal? He says here, and compare me that we may be like. I was amazed in college. They had classes called comparative religions where they would take all the different religions and you’d have Buddhism and Hinduism and Shintoism and everything. and then Christianity would be thrown right into the mix, and it was called a comparative religion class.

Well, it’s interesting. The Bible says, I don’t fit there, God says. There’s nobody like me. He says, I am God and there is none else. He says, I am God and there is none like me. He says, who are you going to liken me to? Who are you going to make me equal with? In these comparative religion classes, they make them all equal. There’s all the world religions, and they’re all on the same level. And who will you compare me with?

Let me read the verse again here in Isaiah 45, 5. It says, to whom will you liken me and make me equal and compare me that we may be like? God says, there’s nobody like me. You read a little bit further down. He says in verse 9, I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like me. You can’t compare me with anybody. What is interesting is that all the religions of the world are on the same level.

They all teach salvation by works. The word religion comes from two Latin words, re and lego, and it means to do something of self to bind back to God. And the common denominator of all the world religions is that they all teach you have to work your way to heaven. That’s right. And even the counterfeit of Christianity teaches that. You have to work your way to heaven. But when you read the Bible, the Bible says that our works are filthy rags, that there’s nothing that we have to offer God, and that God does for man what man could not do for himself, that God provides a Savior, and that he’s the one who saves us.

We can’t save ourselves. But the religions of the world have us saving ourselves, that we’re the Saviors, as we We work to try to earn our way to heaven. Amazing God says, you can’t compare me. God does for men what men could not do for himself. It’s not what you do for God that saves you. That’s what religion teaches. It’s what God does for you in Christ at the cross. And his finished work by the death and shed blood of Christ that purchased your salvation.

Verse 9 says in Isaiah 45, remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is none else, I am God and there is none like me.” Verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done. What is unique about the Bible? What is unique about God? As He tells the future and He tells it accurately, wow, we are right now reading headlines that reflect what the Bible taught through the prophets thousands of years ago.

It makes the hair stand up on my arm. We’re living in an incredible time. I think Christians especially are aware that the coming of Jesus Christ has to be soon. It has to be soon. We don’t set dates. We don’t know exactly when He’s coming, but it’s got to be soon. Christ is coming. Even one of the founders of Israel, Theodore Herzl, said, if you listen carefully, you can hear the footsteps of the Messiah. I believe that his footsteps are beginning to be heard as we see the prophecies fulfilled and the Messiah is coming.

And in the Bible in Zachariah, Jesus says prophetically, for low eye come. He’s coming and the coming of Christ, his second coming and his first coming are foretold throughout the Bible and it happens exactly like God said that it would. I hope you’ve trusted Christ. If you haven’t, my friend, you’re not going to make heaven. There’s only one way to heaven that’s Jesus and unless you trust Him, you will never see heaven’s streets. You’ll never be in the presence of God.

You’ll be separated from God for all eternity in hell. But if you’d like to go to heaven, the Bible says, whosoever, believeth or trusted than Christ should not perish but have everlasting life. You can have eternal life right now. Before this program is over by simply saying, Lord, I am a sinner, but I trust Jesus as my Savior. I trust that He died and paid my sin dead and full by His death and shed blood was buried and rose again from the dead.

I trust Jesus is my only hope for heaven and God will save you. I am Dr. Englund from this Bibleline and we want to go down to the phone lines. If you’d like to call us, the phone number is 1-800-576-3771. Give us a call 1-800-576-3771. You have Jonathan in Tampa. He leaves this question off here. He says, can you explain the meaning in this verse? Thus were both daughters of lot with child by their father. Well, we know that lot was a believer, even though he wasn’t living the Christian life.

What an interesting illustration in the face of so much Bible teaching today that says that if your life isn’t improving and getting better, that you’re not saved, that you’ve gotta have these good works that demonstrate that you’re a believer. God knew who the believers were in Sodom. God sent two angels there to destroy Sodom. They went right to the house of Lot and they evacuated Lot and his wife and his two daughters because they were believers and then they rained fire on the Sodom Valley and destroyed all those people that live there.

Well, his testimony wasn’t very good, I think, throughout his life. And his two daughters, when they were in a camp, even so are as they fled away from the destruction and they were in this cave. The two daughters said, how will we have children? How will you carry on the inheritance of our family? And they got their father drunk. And one went in one night and the other went in the next night. And they both had children by their father.

They committed incest. Obviously, Lot’s life really wasn’t a great testimony for God or Christ, but they both had children. One of those was called Moab. The other was called Ammon. And those names are still around with us today. The children of Ammon, you know, the capital of the country of Jordan today is Ammon. I’ve stayed in Ammon many times. And Ammon is named after, of course, one of the daughters of Lot. And Moab, that’s right, another one. And that whole region south of Oman, Jordan, is all named for the other child of one of Lot’s daughters.

Hope that answers your question for you. We now have Kayle, and Miami, Florida. Welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air. Thanks for calling you. Is it Kayle or Kyle? Kayle, I’m sorry. Thank you. Welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air. Do you have a question? Yes. In 1st of Somonians 4, it says the dead will rise in the second coming. Now is when we die, when we die, when we stay, and when we stay in our grave until the second coming, do we automatically go to Heaven or Hell?

That’s a great question. And the answer is that you go immediately to be with the Lord, 2 Corinthians 5, 8, absent from the body present with the Lord, but your body, not your soul, your body, not your soul, is spoken of as resting or sleeping in the dust of the earth until Christ returns. And at that point, your new body will rise up from the planet earth and be reunited with your soul, and you will be then a soul and body with the Lord forever and ever and ever.

So it’s talking not about your soul, but about your body. So right now, if you were to die, you’d be absent from in the body present with the Lord second Corinthians five eight but your body would be laid to rest or cremated or whatever might happen to you but your new body would be given to you when Christ comes back and then you’ll be reunited soul body together forever. Hope that helps. Okay. Thank you. You’re welcome and thank you for calling in Kaila from Miami Florida.

We now have Joanne in Venice, Florida and Joanne, welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air. Hi Joanne. Hello. Hi. You’re on the air. Go ahead. Do you have a question? Okay, yes I do. Thank you very much. You’re welcome. Hi. Yes, I just have a question about, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Love and clear. Go ahead. You’re on the air. Okay. Don’t listen to the radio. It’ll confuse you. There’s a delay. Okay. The question I have about is how many people say men and brother what shall we do to be saved?

And a lot of the teachings I hear from people is that they believe all they have to do is believe in Jesus Christ as the personal Savior and they can go to heaven. And according to Peter’s command in verse 38 of Act 2, he says, we can’t and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. You know, and I have a problem because when It says believe and end of the conjunction and I believe a Christian should be baptized in order.

Okay. Well actually Peter is talking about changing your mind. The word repent means to change your mind. They obviously had crucified Christ because they didn’t believe he was the Messiah and they had to change your mind about that and realize that he wasn’t need the Savior and then be baptized. But notice it doesn’t talk about water there. 10 different baptisms taught in the New Testament. This one says, Be baptized in the name, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You receive two consequences, the forgiveness of your sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, the baptism in the name is a cleansing of washing. The word baptize means the cleanser to wash. It’s a cleansing of washing of you of your sin based upon the name or the authority that Christ has as God who came and took on you in flesh, that he would save or cleanse everybody that becomes saved. In 1 Corinthians 6 you should find a similar verse where he talks about people that have committed different crimes and he says in such were some of you, but you are washed in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

So we’re cleansed by his authority and it says in the Bible, whosoever believeth in him in his name will receive the remission of their sins. So it’s not talking about water there. I truly believe in water. I’ve baptized tons of people all the time. We just had a large baptism this about a week ago. And we had a wonderful, excited group. But we didn’t do that because they needed to do it to be saved because it’s something that Christ wants us to do as an act of obedience as a believer.

I’m at the end of this first half hour. I hope you’re enjoying Bible. Hold on, John. We’ll come back here if you want. If you haven’t helped Bible. line up. This is a critical week for us. We’re finishing in August and we really need your help to come out on our feet. We are behind and we could use your help if you’d like to call and give a gift to Bibleline. It would sure be appreciated. And I want to thank you in advance for your gifts and your prayers.

You can also call and ask for an envelope to be sent and mail your gift in. But God bless all of you who give and pray for Bibleline because we have no other means of support and you are the ones that keep us going. Would you call today, just call and tell the operator I’d like to give a gift to Bible. God bless you. Some people have already done that this morning before the program and I’m encouraged that God is going to take care of our needs through God’s people.

And we’re going to take a break and we’ll come right back. I’m Dr. Englunds from we’ll come right back after the break and do a second half hour. Boy, Bibleline will be back in a moment. Give us a call at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Well, I’m Dr. Ang Linstren, and it’s great to be with you today. It’s Tuesday. We’re having fun here at Bible Island, and I hope you’re having fun enjoying listening to the program. And you know, you can go back and hear this program again.

You can hear other programs again. Go to the Internet site, BibleLineMinistries.org. Click on the home page on the Spinning Globe, and you’ll be able to get today’s program later today. you’ll be able to get yesterday’s program, the program last week, all of them, and back for a year or two. And the nice thing is that when you get on the Internet site you can back me up, you can fast forward, you can pause, you can sit with your Bible and really go slowly and take it all in and really enjoy.

So check that out and tell your friends and by the way you can download the programs in the MB3 format absolutely free for your iPod or put them into your computer, listen to it, your pleasure, and all of that is free. I hope you’ll take advantage of that. And we have people downloading from all over the world. I mean all over the world. We just have the stats in our computer and it’s amazing that you name the country and we’ve got people listening to the Bible and downloading programs and enjoying the programs and It is truly exciting.

We certainly could use your help. This is August and we’re finishing out the month and we’re not where we need to be. And so we have a few more days and you could help us greatly. If you would call and maybe tell the operator you’d like to give a gift to my line, you could do that by credit card. And you could also, of course, ask for an envelope to be sent to you with our address and mail that gift in.

But thank you in advance. God bless you. All of you who give, all of you who pray, are really our partners in a real sense because without your partnership, without your prayers, without your gifts, we could not be on the air. So please consider that. And also, don’t forget we are looking forward to a trip in February of 2009 to Israel. And we want you to get that brochure and make a decision soon. You really need to have you make a deposit and say yes I’m going by the first of October.

Why? Because the airlines will not guarantee those seats to be held without a deposit. Dr. Hank Lindstrom, we’re going to take and go back down to the stations that have been on break. We’re going to do the second half hour Bibleline. I hope you’re excited and keep your radio tuned. We’re going to do the second half hour Bible. I hope you’re excited and keep your radio tuned right where it is as we now return to those stations. Would you like to call Bibleline and ask Dr.

Lindstrom a question? You can. Just 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 breaking. This is Bible and great to be with you We’re excited about being with you every day and this is Tuesday and we’ll be back again tomorrow Wednesday Thursday Friday and At every day of the week and we look forward to that and a lot of people tell me they listen every day We have people who’d tell us that they get their coffee.

They get their Bibles They they get all situated and they wait for Bible and to come on the air every day That’s exciting to me and we’re glad that we’re able to Minister to you we have people that are out there working and if they’re working outdoors If they’re in construction or other things they say that they have that radio on the construction site blaring and all the all the guys Are hearing the program and we have people tell me especially if there’s a Christian boss in a Christian business They have it on in their offices so that all the employees can listen to Bibleline.

And we are all kinds of wonderful stories of people listening to Bibleline in their homes, in their cars, in their workplace out on the construction site. And we hope that maybe you’ll share with us sometime your story about how or where you listen to Bibleline. But in many cases, we’re glad that we’re ministering and reaching out. As I said earlier, we got a call this morning from Japan. And our missionary, Brian, in Japan, we call him our man in Japan, said how much the Sunday sermons have really helped him with exactly what he needed to share with people in Japan, lead them to Christ and how it’s equipping him.

Isn’t that amazing? And he was just outside. He said, I just had to call you 11-hour time difference. 11 hours later over there in Japan, but he’s got a bunch of people in Japan watching and listening to Bible. And on the internet, isn’t that amazing? Amazing. If they want to catch it live, they have to do it 11 hours later on their clock. It’s actually the same time here. I don’t want to get confused now, but we’re live right now.

But to listen live right now, it’s 11 hours later over there in Japan. But we’re thrilled that God is using us all around the world to bring the gospel, to bring the word to people, and the website we have is so full of things. If you go to the home page, you click on the camera, you get the worship services, you click on the TV set, you get television programs, if you click on the spinning globe, you’ll get the radio, if you click on the online bookstore, you have our resource center, and We have so much more, but I mean, there’s everything’s right there.

And you can just get everything you need right there off of our website BibleLineMinistries.org. BibleLineMinistries.org. I hope you’ll take advantage of that. We had Joanne on just a moment ago from Venice, Florida. We were talking about Acts 2.38. And Acts 2, 3 is not talking about water. Joanne, if you’re still listening, and I know you’re not on the air right now, but you know, a lot of people that are taught wrong that you have to be water baptized to be saved.

First of all, remember the dying thief never was water baptized. Usually those who still insist upon it say, well, he died in the Old Testament. No, he didn’t. The thieves died after Jesus. Did you know that Jesus died first when the soldiers came to break the legs of those that were being crucified, to speed up the crucifixion process. They came to Jesus and they found him already dead. They broke the legs of the two thieves and so they died after Christ.

So they both died in this New Testament age and they were not water baptized. And yet Christ said to the one that believed today, That, shall be with me in paradise. Well they say that you have to be water baptized, Or you can’t receive the remission of your sins, Or you can’t receive the Holy Spirit. You know what I like to do Joanne? I like to say if I could show you a verse where people received the Holy Spirit Before they were water baptized would you possibly change your mind?

Oh, yes, yes, yes Yes, I would change my mind if you can show me a verse like that. Well, guess what I could do that if you had asked chapter 10 verse 47 We have the people at Cornelius’s house Hear the gospel whosesoever would believe in his name would receive the remission of their sins the Holy Spirit came on Him in verse 44 after they heard the gospel explained in verse 43 and Then Peter says in verse 47 can any man forbid water?

Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized with water? which have received the Holy Spirit as well as we. So notice they’d already gotten saved. They already received the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, but they were not yet water baptized. Notice they got saved and received the Holy Spirit before water baptism. And actually verse Acts chapter 10 is a compliment of chapter 2 and explains what’s going on there. The same thing as happening in Acts chapter 2 where it says repent and be baptized.

Repent means change your mind and be cleansed how in the authority of Christ’s name. When you trust that Jesus died for you, he gave authority that all that would believe on his name would be cleansed of their sin and so you’re cleansed in his name, not water and you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and you receive the remission of your sins and then later it tells us that that group was water baptized, but they weren’t water baptized to become saved.

They got saved first, and then water baptism was a testimony of how they were tensed or sinned. Come back at me, Joanna, if you still have another verse or two that you don’t quite understand, but water baptism has nothing to do with salvation. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, 14, I thank God I baptized none of you. but just a couple of families there. Why? Because the division was caused. But really if it were necessary for salvation, Paul would be saying, I think God that none of you are saved.

You could never imagine that. Paul had a passion for souls and would never say that. But water baptism is not on the same level of importance as salvation, and water baptism is one of two ordinances that the Lord gave. We now have George in Tarpon Springs, Florida, and George, we want to welcome you to the Bible and program you are on the air. Hey, Dr. Hank, my question is in the Bible it states that the moment that Jesus died that the tapestry in the temple was torn into and also that the dead awoke and walked out of their tombs and walked into the city.

Bye! Two things happen there. At the moment of his death, the veil, which was not just tapestry, it was made of animal skins and it was many layers thick. They say you could have taken horses, teams of horses, and they couldn’t have ripped the part. God ripped it from the top to the bottom so that the way was opened now into the holy of holy symbolizing that you and I now as believers because of Christ’s body being crucified on the cross, we can now interdirectly into the presence of God.

Hebrews 1019 tells us that. But then if you’re careful to read it says after his resurrection, many of those who slept in the graves came back and walked into Jerusalem. So the resurrection of the dead occurred three days later, but the renting of the veil in the temple happened immediately upon his death. That’s right. And there was a… Why is it only like two or three sentences for this? Is there anything else to add to this story? I think it would be pretty amazing if people that you actually knew that died and you buried them came back into the city and talked to you.

Why? Wouldn’t it be something? And you know the Bible only has it recorded in that one place, but it is an interesting event there. It is a fulfillment of the Feast of First Fruits, which was the day that Christ rose from the dead. week was always on a Sunday and it was a picture of harvest and resurrection and we find in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 20 through 22 that Jesus is the first fruit of the resurrection. He came back first and then he brought a sampling.

The Bible was a picture of how not only did he rise from the dead, but he had the power to give their bodies to others that were believers. It was just a sample, just a handful. We don’t know how many. But that’s the only passage that talks about it. Now if you read the resurrection chapter 1 Corinthians 15, we have it obviously included there I think in the type of Christ being the fulfillment of the feast of first fruits.

What they would do at harvest time is that they would go out in the fields and grab handfuls of grain, bring it before the priest and they would show the sampling of the harvest that was become. Christ gave the sampling of the harvest of souls by bringing some back with the resurrection bodies when he rose and that was a picture that we were going to end as clear in first graders 15. There it gives the order of the resurrections and how Christ came back in and he sampled or gave a sampling of the resurrection and then we know for sure that others are going to come back and he has the power to do it and demonstrate that when he died.

Thank you. George, thank you for calling and now we’re going to go to Juio in Miami and welcome to Bible and you’re on the air. Hey, Dr. Hank, this is Nick. I have a hard question for you. The Bible says that God is spirit. So my question is, since we have our God as a Triune God, Father Son of the Holy Spirit, between God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, if God is a spirit like, what is the Father?

And I’ll hang out with the throne just like this way. All right. There are three separate eternal persons within the Godhead yet here, one God. And it’s not addition as some of the cults try to get you to believe. One plus one plus one is three. It’s one times one times one is equal to one. If you do multiplication, you can understand that concept. One times one times one equals one. So here we have one God. He currently exists in three eternal separate persons.

And there’s the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all equal, all God, and yet three separate persons. Now God the Father is the decree maker, and Jesus is the one who is the God, part of the Godhead that carries out those decrees, and the Holy Spirit is God in his fullness and his power that energizes and gives the power to accomplish those decrees. So they each have a separate role and it can be further defined than that. We have some wonderful books in our Resource Center here.

I like Dr. Ryrie, Charles Ryrie. He has written quite a number of books and he’s got one on the Holy Spirit that does a great job in defining these roles. We also have John Wahlberg, a great writer and he also has one on the Holy Spirit and defines these roles of the Godhead. And we have some other books we could recommend as well, but I did a 12-hour series on the Godhead and on the Holy Spirit of particular that you might want to get that CD series of teaching that will be helpful for you as well.

Thank you for calling in and now I messed up on the last call. We have Julio in my ami. Welcome to Bibleline. Hi. Thanks a go. If it’s nice talking to you again, I have a question because a couple of days ago I heard a preacher in the radio that he said that when Christ come he church to go with him, he doesn’t want to go on the cloud. He’s a whoever it is committing seeing, you know, kind of thing.

It’s going to be in the tribulations. And for what I know is that, you know, whoever it says, is going to it’s going to go to heaven. But whoever it is coming to heaven. in many scenes or anything, you know, the rewards are going to be lost. But I want you to pray to me, please. Yeah, that’s totally wrong. Again, you know, it’s based on works and the rapture and whether you’re in the rapture is not based upon works If you read verse 14 of first Thessalonians 4 It says if we believe or trust that Jesus died and rose again, you’re gonna be in the rapture It’s just that simple and the partial rapture position is totally wrong I have a 10-hour teaching on the rapture and I go through all the different rapture positions the pre-tribbed, the post-tribbed, the mid-tribbed, the partial-tribbed, the pre-rath

pribbed. And there’s a whole bunch of them. But we point out what’s wrong with these other positions and what the correct position from the Bible is. Of course we believe we… The Bible is clear that everybody goes up. This fellow is obviously not reading his Bible for his Bible. He says, whether we wake or whether we sleep, whether we’re on the ball for the Lord and alert and awake or asleep of the switch and not living for Christ, in either case we’re going to be raptured.

So the Bible is clear. Everybody goes up. This fellow is obviously not reading his Bible for… He’s imagining these things. You know Jeremiah 23 recovered a couple of weeks ago and talks about preachers that preach the imagination of their own heart. They cannot show you a verse to show that. And it’s really again that works thing that creeps back in where people said, well, he’s not deserving of it because look at his works. works, the Bible says none of us are deserving of salvation or the rapture or any benefit from God.

And obviously that’s why we have grace. Grace is unmerited favor. It’s mercy given not based upon any merit upon in us. God delivered Israel not because of anything good about them, but because of His mercy He delivered Israel out of Egypt and so on. And so salvation is a gift and so is the Rapture which is the in-phase event and if you’re a believer, you’re going up no matter what read. Again, the condition for the Rapture first thus alone is 414 and the fact in Chapter 5, verse 9, everybody whether they’re awake at the switch or asleep at the switch, they’re going to be raptured out.

Thank you, Hideo, in Miami for calling in and we’re now going to go to Mac in Miami and that welcome to bible and you’re on the air and i do it i was listening this morning on to dot the john mccothan he was saying uh… thirty it’s a repented of and then repentment that does yeah repented and be baptized and he was saying that bringing fruits he was telling them that they would they need to bring fruits uh… well it doesn’t say that next to you but in the next twenty six it does And the fruit is, you know, when John and Baptist baptized, for example, and the religious leaders came down and said, hey, we want you to baptize us.

Well John could read right through the fact that they were not believers. They did not accept Jesus as their Savior. And he refused to baptize them unless they could demonstrate that they were genuine believers. And that’s what he’s talking about there. And the same thing with me, I don’t baptize people just because they say, hey, baptize me, you have to be able to confess that you are saved through the blood of Christ and not by works, and obviously in every way you can to demonstrate that you are genuinely a believer.

But that has to do with the Christian life, but not to be saved. to try to make that a part of salvation is to add work to salvation and John is wrong if he does that. Okay. No, he was talking about in Matthew 3. Yeah, that’s the meat to repent it. Right. That’s John the Baptist. John the Baptist there, if you read the context, the Pharisees had come down to kind of check out what John was doing. And they said, hey, John, that’s us.

And John said, no way. You guys aren’t believers. And they weren’t. you read through the later chapters of Matthew, the Pharisees never did for the most part. There were some Pharisees, I believe, but in chapter 23, Jesus said to the Pharisees, WOWARD, judgment unto you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! He says, you’re not only not going to heaven yourself, but you’re forbidding others from going to heaven because you’re teaching everybody wrong. And so John said, I’m not going to baptize you unless you somehow demonstrate that you have forsaken your Phariseeism and have trusted Christ as your Savior.

And that had to do with being water baptized, which doesn’t save you, but it’s the Christian life. In other words, you’re saved by faith, but for example, if you want to join my church, I won’t let an unbeliever join my church. If you want to get married and you want to have me officiate, if you’re an unbeliever, I’m not going to marry you. I’ve told couples when they come that if you don’t know the Lord of your Savior, you might as well get a notary public or justice of the peace.

I said, you’re a hypocrite. Looks like Christ called the Pharisees. If you want to have a Christian ceremony, when you’re not a Christian, I said, what kind of hypocrisy is that? I said, I’m going to only do a Christian ceremony and a Christian ceremony is between to Christians and unless you can confess that you are genuinely a believer and want to have a Christian ceremony where I’m going to talk about Jesus in the wedding. Then you don’t want me.

You want to get a notary public and you don’t want to get me to do it. And so they were really messing with John and John said look I’m not gonna do it. Unless you can show me that you’re no longer a Pharisee, but you’re a believer in Christ. I’m not gonna bad cause you. Okay, I got one more question. He said that, um, metanoia, which means, um, change your mind in the Greek for repentance. He said that that means, um, more deeper than just changing your mind.

He said you can’t just change your mind to Christ and be safe. He said you’ve got to do, well if I’m not mistaken, more works in order to accept Christ, meaning your life has to be changed and all of this stuff. Well I think John is terribly wrong if that’s what he teaches, but let me just say this, that it’s not just changing your mind that saves you. You have to, as it says in Mark chapter 1, repent and believe the gospel.

So you change your mind about who Christ is and then you trust the gospel message that of the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. You cannot be saying, well, you trust that Jesus died and that He shed His blood and that He is the only means of your salvation. I like my little illustration of the little boat. If you’re on a dock and you’re about ready to step off on a little boat, tied to the dock. Are you trusting the boat to hold you up if you only have one foot on the dock and one foot on the boat?

The answer is no. You’re really still trusting the dock. What if you put both feet on the boat but you still have both hands on the dock? You’re not trusting the boat. And what if you have both feet on the boat and one hand on the dock and the other one is on the boat? You’re still not trusting the boat because you still have one hand on the dock. What if you don’t have any hands on the dock or both feet are on the boat but you’re holding onto a big thick rope tied to the dock.

You’re still not trusting the boat. So to be saved, you have to abandon everything else that you’re trusting in and trust Jesus alone to be saved. And that’s the way the dying thief was saved. He wasn’t trusting in anything because he had nothing to trust in. He was dying. And he simply looked over at Christ and he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said, today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. So I’m afraid John steps over the line and adds works to salvation that’s wrong, but to be saved you simply have to change your mind and then you do have to trust.

D-R-U-S-T, the Greek word for believe means trust. So it’s not just mental assent to facts. It is a trust that Jesus is the only way to heaven that he fully paid your sin debt was buried and rose again from the dead. And when you change your mind, repent and trust Christ, you become saved. But works have no part in it at all. The Bible is so clear, salvation is not a works. It’s the gift of God, it’s not of yourself in Ephesians to eight and tons of other verses.

Okay, but now once you trust God and the Holy Spirit dwells in you to lead you and to guy doing the whole truth. Wouldn’t that Holy Spirit direct you into obeying God? Absolutely he does. But guess what? We talked about it earlier. One of the first questions was about Lot. Lot deliberately chose to live inside him. And his life was one of disobedience even though he was saved. And the question was about Lot and his daughters, they committed incest with him and what a miserable way for him to die.

I don’t know any person that is named their little baby boy, Lot. Do you? Nobody wants to have a child like Lot. Lot was saved, but he lived in a negative direction and yet the Bible says he was saved. He was the righteous man based upon faith in Christ and guess what? If you’re saved and I’m saved and we’re going to be shaking hands with Lot and he’ll be there even though he didn’t live the Christian life. Thank you Max for calling in.

Great questions. And this is a great discussion. There’s a lot of confusion, but works have nothing to do with salvation. And if you don’t live the Christian life, as Lot didn’t live the Christian life, you’ll still go to heaven. But Lot’s life ended in a terrible way. Who wants to be like Lot? I think he’s going to be embarrassed for eternity over the fact that he chose to live in that terrible environment and was not a a witness for Christ when he should have been and i think many Christians are going to be ashamed and regretful of the fact they didn’t live for Christ.

The yet-to-be-say because of the the grace of God by which we are saved. We’re at the end of the program. I have so many other questions and callers here. I don’t think I have time to do it. We’re in the month of August and let me just say I hate to talk about money But we are coming in this month and we really… are behind and we have to get everything taken care about hate to cut any station where we’re on the air.

It’s expensive to be on the air and most people don’t believe how much it costs. But we don’t pay any salaries so we are efficient as far as the money and your gift will go to make sure that we’re staying on the air. Would you help us? Would you maybe call today and just say, I’d like to give a gift to my blend. A lady called me from up in Pittsburgh and she said, I can only give a f*** five dollars would that help I said yes ma’am it would boy if everybody would give five dollars would that be great and so she gave us five dollars on her debit card you know praise God for people like that she’s like the widow’s might and if you could give anything to help Bible on this week it would sure be great greatfully accepted I want to thank

you in advance for your prayers for your gifts we have so many wonderful listeners who have carried us through and this is a difficult summer and we could use your help would you consider that or mail to gifted you can call and ask for an envelope to be sent with our address on and mail it in but we do need this week to come out on top and we need your help to do that. God bless you have a wonderful day and join us again tomorrow.

If you go to the internet Bibleline Ministries dot org you can catch this program later and repeat it as often as you like. I gotta run, on Dr. England, from saying goodbye, but we’ll be back again tomorrow until then, keep looking up. Jesus is coming. 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 My Deline from Calvary Community Church of Tampa, Florida. Well, I’m not trying to convince you and it really has been a joy to be with you again today. And we really get the hard questions I think on this show. And we try not to hedge. We give you a clear answer from the Bible. And you know, you just have to choose the Bible over what you’re hearing from different Bible teachers.

I remember when I got saved, I saw in the Bible that salvation was not of works. And I’ll never forget. I said to myself, somebody’s wrong, somebody’s wrong, because my church taught we had to work our way to heaven. And I saw in the Bible clearly that it was not of works. And I said, either my church is right and the Bible is wrong, or the Bible is right and my church is wrong, I had to make a choice.

I chose the Bible over my church. You might have to choose the Bible over your favorite Bible teacher. You might have to choose the Bible over what your church teaches. You might have to choose the Bible over what your family believes. I mean, God’s Word is the final authority. And what God says in His Word is quite plain. He painted it all. We simply receive it. It’s a gift. What a wonderful story the gospel message is. And yet today we have the perversion of that message where it is Christ plus something.

And the Bible says in Galatians 1 that’s an accursed message. And obviously I’m going to continue to stand for what the Bible teaches even though soon as I feel like I’m the lone ranger. Pray for me, pray for the Bibleline ministry, pray that we can continue to reach out and even reach out further. And thank God that we’re touching people’s lives in Japan and in Korea and in Africa and all around the world where people are listening to the Bibleline program.

Your gifts and your prayers will keep this program going. Would you call today an offer to give a gift to Bibleline by credit card? We don’t pay any salaries. We’re not trying to get your money. We want to be out there with the gospel. And the only way we can do that is to have your help. Dr. Englund’s got a run. We’ll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, keep looking up. Jesus is coming.

You’ve been listening to Bibleline, the 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 4081 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 Church of Tampa, Florida.