Bibleline Radio Show – 2006-06-15 – Discipleship

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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. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Now here’s the host of Bibleline, Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Good morning and welcome to Bibleline great to be with you today. Thanks for tuning into the broadcast. We appreciate each and every one of you and thank you for tuning into Bible and today.

We’re coming to you live from Tampa, Florida from our studios at the Calvary Community Church located right next to Tampa’s airport. We’d love to have you come by and visit with us sometime. You can visit our resource center, open every day till about four in the afternoon, Eastern Standard Time and take a look at all the different things we have to be able to help you grow and be able to witness and lead people to Christ including tracks, books on evangelism, the Scofield Bible that I recommend so highly which is the old Scofield Bible concordances and commentaries and books that will help you grow as a Christian.

Come on by and see us and also you’re welcome to come by on a Sunday. Sunday is Father’s Day. Happy Father’s Day to all of you dads out there and if you’re in driving distance you’re welcome to come this Father’s Day. We’re having a dinner to celebrate the dads and that will be right after the morning service. You can be my guest. Just come at 10.30 and stay for the worship and then as soon as we finish the worship service you’re welcome to come and join us for a wonderful dinner fellowship to honor all the dads that come on Sunday morning.

Right now we are streaming to the internet. You can go to my website, BibleLineMinistries.org.com. Tell your friends about that. Last month we had 10,300 people listening to Bibleline on the internet. Forgetting all of the broadcast stations, we had 10,300 listening on the internet. And then exciting and it’s growing. Every month we see that figure jumping up and up and up and up and we believe that Bibleline is being discovered and people are learning about it. Telling their friends and you can help us expand our audience.

Let your friends and relatives in this country and in other countries learn about the Bible line website because they can listen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from any place in the The world can you imagine any place on the planet Earth is available now through the internet and we’re reaching people in Australia, in Asia, the Pacific Islands, Africa, Central America, Europe, South America, and just everywhere. And we hope that you’ll pass that word along. You’re welcome to call us.

The phone number here is 1-800-576-3771, 1-800-576-3771. And we’re first going to talk about the Bible, then we’ll take live callers and also some off-air questions. If you would like to call and leave a question off here, you’re welcome to do that. Or if you call between 10 and 11 Eastern Standard Time, we can put you up live on the program. If you are listening on a station that plays the program later in the day, you will be able to hear yourself on the radio asking your question and I will answer it for you.

Give your Bible, get it out, dust it off and get it ready to go. We are going to talk about the scriptures and then we will start taking those colors. 1-800-576-3771. By the way, this is our television day. We were already on the dish this morning at 7am nationwide. We were on more television in the Tampa Bay Area, Channel 32. At 6.30 tonight, we’re on DirecTV nationwide, World Harvest Television Channel 3.21. And in the West Coast of Florida tonight, we’re on at 7.

And that’s from Fort Myers to Crystal River over to the middle of the state. We’re available. You can watch our program at 7.00 to 7.30 Eastern Standard Time. That is a disciple. Well, a disciple is one who makes a conscious decision to follow Christ in pursuit of becoming a fisher of men. In the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, as the Lord Jesus Christ was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Peter and Andrew. Peter and Andrew were already saved prior to this event as we find that related to us over in the Gospel of John chapter 1.

But now Jesus invites these two saved men. That’s important. Now Jesus invites these two saved men to enroll in his discipleship program. He lets them know the gold or objective of discipleship to be that of fishing for men. We cannot avoid this clear presentation of the pursuit of a disciple to be a fisher of men. Most books on discipleship seem to leave witnessing or fishing for men as an option, not the focus. But remember what Christ said, He said, Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men.

That is the focus. He didn’t hide it. He shared with them right up front what they were to be doing. The word disciple means a learner, a pupil, a scholar, one who comes to be taught. The idea of teaching and learning is preeminent in the word disciple. Tying this together with Matthew 4.19 we can come up with a good definition of a disciple. He said unto them, Matthew 4, 19, follow me, and I’ll make you a fisher of Ben.

Therefore, the definition of a disciple is one who makes a conscious decision to follow Christ in pursuit of becoming a fisher of Ben. A disciple comes to learn the art of winning people to Christ. Discipleship is separate from and in contrast with the doctrine of salvation. One who believes on Jesus Christ is saved, while one who serves Jesus Christ becomes a disciple. All believers are not disciples. All disciples are not believers. Being a disciple has absolutely nothing to do with a person’s salvation.

The classic example is that of Judas Iscariot. Judas, although a disciple of Jesus Christ, was never a believer, therefore he was never saved. Jesus tells us plainly in John 664, there are some of you that believed not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him. He spoke of Judas Ascariet, the son of Simon, for he it was that should betray him being What are the twelve? You can’t get any clearer than that.

Jesus tells us He knew from the beginning that Judas was not a believer and that He would betray Him. Now joy, testimony, effectiveness, power, rewards are among many blessings associated with discipleship. The hymn writer wrote, Trust and Obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus. Now think about this hymn. We trust Christ to be saved, but we trust and obey to be happy. Many Christians are miserable because they have never known the joy of serving the Lord.

The decision of choosing to be a disciple is essential for joy, for power, for rewards, for effectiveness, and so on in the Christian life. A believer has to learn how to rightly divide the word of truth as it tells us in 2 Timothy 2.15 or live in confusion. The Bible is not a book of confusion or contradictions. It’s in perfect harmony. Well, you know, it’s interesting. The terms that we use for salvation are different than the terms that we would use for the discipleship and we’re not to mix them up.

I just heard a radio preacher just a few minutes ago before I came on the air saying that unless you are willing to completely surrender your life to Jesus Christ, you will not walk the streets of heaven. Well that’s terrible because they’re mixing up the Christian life and discipleship as a condition for salvation and that is not true. That’s works. If you close your eyes, and this is what I call the grace test, when you have any doubts about the message you are hearing, just close your eyes and ask yourself, am I being tugged to do something or not do something that would determine whether I make heaven or not?

If you are, then that’s works. The Bible tells us there’s nothing we can do. Ephesians 2.8 says it’s none of ourselves. It’s the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast or brag. Wow, God says salvation is a gift. It was purchased by God at a great expense, the life of Jesus Christ. His death and shed blood purchased our salvation. When you trusted Him, God freed His Son. gives you everlasting life as a gift. I hear it wrong so often, and I wonder, won’t it ever get straightened out?

Do preachers ever think about what they’re saying? Does anybody connect the dots? Does anybody go back to check the Bible to see if they’re on target or not? In 2 Corinthians 13 and 5, it says, examine yourself whether you be in the faith. That phrase, the faith occurs 43 times in the New Testament, and there it tells us where to constantly go back and check ourselves against the standard, the Word of God. The book that God has given to us to correct us and to instruct us and to equip us to be able to do the job that God wants us to do.

And unless we continually go back to the Bible and check out what we’re saying, what we’re We are going to get ourselves in trouble every time. James tells us in chapter 2, so speaky and so do ye as those that will be judged by the law of liberty. We have liberty and we can make choices. We can choose not to serve the Lord, but we can choose to serve the Lord. But we are going to be judged in either way, in either direction we go as to what we have done with Christ since we have been saved.

What has to do with rewards? Not our salvation. Our salvation is not of works. It is by simply trusting Christ as Savior. Salvation divides the world into two groups, those that believe in those that believe not. John 3, 18 says, he the believer on Christ is not condemned. But he the believer not is condemned already. Why? because because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. A person is either saved or lost. There is no middle ground.

You are not in the process of being saved. You are either saved or you are lost. You have either trusted Christ or you haven’t. And the difference being whether you have believed or not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. John 3. Human works have nothing to do with salvation. Salvation is by faith without works according to Romans 4, 5, Romans 3, 28, Romans 5, 1, and dozens and dozens of verses where the Bible says that works have zero to do with our salvation.

I trusted Christ at 18. about a year later I dedicated my life to become a disciple. I right up front dedicated my life to tell people about Jesus. That path that I chose to be a witness for Christ led me to where I am now. I never dreamed I would ever be a pastor. I never dreamed that I’d ever be on the radio. I never dreamed that I’d ever be on television. I never dreamed that any of the things that have happened in my life have happened.

have happened, but you know, God directed my path once I got going in the direction he wants us to go. Once you make your decision to become a fisher of men and you pursue that by following after Christ learning and being equipped by the Lord to do that, God will direct your path into what area of service he wants to use you. I’m Dr. Englinsstrom and Salvation is a gift. I hope you’ve received it and we’re going to take some live callers here in just one second.

Again the phone number is 1-800-576-3771. We’re coming to you from Tampa, Florida. From the studios here we have in Calvary Community Church where I’m the pastor and this is the month that I have now been the pastor here for 40 years. Some people say well you’re not old enough to do that. Well I somehow have managed to do it. But it’s 40 years this month that I became pastor of Calvary Community Church. In any case, we’re going to take the calls now and if you would like to call in, please feel free to dial us at 1-800-576-3771.

We’re now going to go to Jeff down in Venice, Florida and Jeff, welcome to Bible Good morning Dr. Hank, thank you for taking my call. First Corinthians 6, 9 through 11. I’m sorry? Go ahead. On righteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. And then, and he mentioned homosexuals and adulterers and things such of that nature. And then, and verse 11. We’re some of you. But you’re lost and you’re sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

God. Now was Paul relaying the fact that some of those people were still in those sins or was he just using as an example? No, he’s really telling us about our position in Christ and how that although we are saved and saved forever and nothing can undo that, it’s not a smart thing to continue to live in those sins because we now belong to the Lord and we owe our lives to Him and we’re going to give an account as to how we live our lives after we become saved.

So you’ll notice verse 12, he continues then to tell him that all things are lawful unto me. What he’s saying is, once you’ve been tried for a crime and the crime has been paid for, let’s say that somebody commits a crime, the judge sentencing three years in jail, he spends the three years in jail, he comes out, somebody sees him walking down the street and says, that thief and they report him to the police. Well, the police say, well, he’s already paid his time.

There’s nothing we can do. He’s been tried and found guilty and assigned the punishment and he’s paid that punishment and he’s free. Well, Jesus paid for every sin that you and I would ever commit past, present and future. And so we’ve already been judged. Our sins were paid for at the cross 2,000 years ago. And now we’re set free. Really what it’s saying here is that I could do anything. I mean that scares people when you say that, but I could do anything and it would not affect my salvation.

All things are lawful unto me. My sins, past sins, and future have already been judged and paid for at the cross. So I could do anything and it would not affect what I go to heaven or not. But then you’ll notice what Paul says as he continues that phrase there. He says all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. He’s really saying it’s not a smart thing to do even though you could do anything and you’d still go to heaven.

It’s not smart because you’re going to be held accountable. Then he says that a second time, all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. So he didn’t want himself to be put under the power of sin in his life, but wanted to live for Christ. And then he reminds us and he says in verse 19, what don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own for your bought with a price.

Therefore what? Glorify God in your body and in your spirit with your God’s. So he purchased you with me. We really don’t belong to ourselves. And as a Christian, we ought to live for the Lord. He’s telling us that although we were condemned, Christ made the full payment at the cross and now all things are lawful because I can’t be judged twice for the same crime. So you can’t take me back to court and condemn me because the Bible says in Romans 8 there is no condemnation to those which are in Christ Jesus.

We are not condemned and there is no condemnation that can be brought against us and it doesn’t that are what we might do and I know that scares people to hear me say that but the Bible teaches it but it doesn’t give us a license to sin. It gives us great reason to rejoice and say wow I’m safe forever and I can’t ever be lost no matter what I do but I can be chasing the award and I will be brought into account at the Judge and City of Christ and I can suffer the loss of reward for all eternity.

So Paul goes on here to explain although you are safe forever, you once were this, but now you are justified. That means legally declared righteous in God’s court of law. You are sanctified, which means you made pure and holy in the sight of God by the Spirit of God, and you’re washed or cleansed of your sin. All of them past, present, and teacher, you could really do anything and you would never go to hell, but God is going to hold you accountable as far as blessings and rewards here and also an attorney.

Oh yeah, thank you very much. I appreciate it. If you don’t mind me asking one more question, what’s your idea of an election? Election God elects to save all that would believe. The non-elect of those that don’t believe. So John 3 16 has it. It’s a simple form for God’s to love the whole human race, the world. That Greek word there means mankind, not the planet itself. But it says he so loved all of mankind that he gave his only being out in the sun that whosoever believe it should not perish but have everlasting life.

So he’s elected to say those that would believe. But the negative is also true that if you will not believe, then you will be able to believe that. Parish and you’ll not have everlasting life. So God has already determined How it works out there based on his son if you believe on Christ you’ll not perish if you don’t believe on Christ You will perish the reason I asked if I was reading some stuff this weekend on our last weekend I’m Calvinism and I believe it was their fifth point that only certain people are elected and It just it makes sense to know I reject Calvinism and I think there are are the people say there’s the position of universalism which says everybody goes to heaven which basically Catholicism and Says that as long as you’re sincere in whatever God you believe in you’re gonna make heaven anyway.

There’s no Real chance unless you deliberately say God. I’m gonna go to hell You won’t go to hell and then there’s the position of Armenianism which is extreme free will that you can jump in and out of salvation every day And then there’s Calvinism it says you’re supposedly fairly secure But I think there’s a fourth position. That’s what the Bible teaches Yes, but just don’t get caught up in any of those little clicks and you’re good to go basically.

That’s right be careful about that You have to read carefully when you read books the Bible is the only book you can really trust them and you can relax as you read it Thank you very much, Dr. Hank. I’ll buy you. Thank you, Jeff and this Jeff then in Venice, Florida. We have ace calling in from Mobile, Alabama and Ace welcome to Bibleline Hey, how you doing today? I’m fine. You? Good. I’m glad you called in. I got a dial tone.

What happened? We lost this. Down here? Well, okay. We got a… Oh, there we got rid of that dial tone. That was my problem. Sorry about that. How can we help you today? Thanks, are you still there? Let’s see. Ace? Yes. Okay. We had a little bit of a fun problem here. I’ll see you there. The question was, got away from reading my pen. away from reading my Bible and I’m getting back into it now and I’ll never forget it covered and it talks about anything of that nature and my profession is a plea.

That’s a very good question. I believe that when the Bible talks about not judging, it’s talking about areas where we really are not capable of judging. They’re motives, they’re inner thoughts and things that we really have no knowledge of. So many times people do that. They’ll judge somebody and they’ll say, well, he came to church today just to show off that brand new suit that he bought. And it might be true, but we’re not to make this kind of judgment.

So unless the guy said, you know, I’ve been to church for three months, but I wanted to show off my brand new suit. And if he tells you that, then you know he’s guilty of it. But you know, if somebody breaks the law and you catch them in the act, obviously, you can make a judgment. This guy’s broken the law. Or if a person tells me that that they’re trying to get to heaven by their works. I can say, you’re not saved because if you’re trying to be saved by your works, then you’re not really trusting Christ, and therefore you will not make heaven.

So there are areas where we are allowed to judge. But the ones that we can’t, and I’m going to give you a verse that I like in Corinthians, chapter four is one of those passages where it says, in verse four, I know nothing against myself yet I am not here by justified, but he that judges me as the Lord therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart.

So notice the areas that he talks here about that we are not the judge. That is the hidden things of darkness, the things that we don’t know about. We can accuse somebody falsely and say, well boy you don’t know what that person is doing in the dark, you know, or will make manifest the counsel of the hearts, which is what is their true motivation and what is then going on inside their mind and what are they thinking that I can’t tell you and we’re not to judge somebody like that.

And it happens all the time I see it among Christians that they’ll say that person really did that because they wanted to do, you know, gain this advantage or that or whatever. They’re judging in areas where they can’t, they can’t really know the answer to it. Otherwise you’re okay. Okay. Also one more quick question and I’ll jot it down as you tell me because it’s kind of important to I’m newly married. Yes. And she still has a real heart.

I know that it’ll let go and you know. Well, absolutely. You know, I think was her husband a believer? Did he go to heaven? Do you believe her? She’s he went to heaven? Yeah, then you know, it’s I like someone 16 15. Psalm 116, 15, it says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. So the Lord looks upon it as a homecoming for the believer. Like you said you would rejoice after the departure of a loved one because you know they’re in heaven now and I think that’s one of the great passages where you see God’s side of the picture.

We saw or we grieve and that grieving process will gone for a long, long time. But yet at the same time we could put it behind us and rejoice that they’re with the Lord and that the Lord is really excited that they’ve come home to be with Him. And so ultimately we’re all going to go there and He prepares us sometimes when others go before us to face that ourselves. We’ve got to go to break and we’ll be back after this short break.

Go away Bibleline will be back in a moment. Give us a call at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. I’m Dr. England Striman. This is Thursday and our television programs are on today. And tonight at 630 Eastern Standard Time you can catch us on Direct TV, Channel 321 World Harvest Television. And we hope that you’ll watch our television program this evening and on the west coast of Florida we’re on CTN at seven o’clock which is on cable from Fort Myers to Crystal River and over to Orlando.

Take advantage of our TV programs and watch them as well as listen to the radio. We’re proud to announce we just learned that Our internet now had last month 10,300 listeners to Bibleline on the internet. Isn’t that exciting? We’re just tickled to death and it’s growing. We’re getting more. We’ve watched this go from just a couple of hundred to five thousand and now leaping all the way up to 10,300 internet listeners. And we’re talking about all over the world.

exciting to see how this is a wonderful way to get the gospel out. My sister lives in Ohio and she doesn’t get the program on a broadcast station because we are in Cincinnati but she can’t hear the Cincinnati station where she lives so she gets us daily on the internet and so many across the world. Central America, South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the Far East, Australia, Asia and so on are hearing Bibleline on the Internet. That’s exciting.

Pray for us. We’re excited about what God is doing. We’re now on in a live broadcast down in Honduras and we are thankful that God is opening great doors of opportunity. Our television program, Bibleline, is now on the air in Mongolia. Isn’t that exciting? In any case, maybe you’d like to help Bibleline. We need your prayers and we also need your financial help. I don’t get paid to be on the radio. Our staff doesn’t get paid. We don’t have a reserve account, a piggy bank.

We don’t have subscribers. We don’t have pledges. We just simply trust God. And what an exciting adventure this is to see how God has opened doors and expanded this ministry. And he uses ordinary people just like you that are listening right now and your gifts keep this program going. If you feel that this is a worthwhile program, you can certainly be a part of it by praying for us. but also giving the Bibleline. We’re about ready now to rejoin the stations that have been on break.

If your station doesn’t carry the second half you can go to the internet and catch the full program. You can call the 800 number and give a gift to Bibleline and God bless you. We’ll see you tomorrow if you’re going away now. Would you like to call Bibleline and ask Dr. Linz from a question? You can. Just pick up your phone and dial 1-800-576-37 That’s 1-800-576-3771. Now here again is Dr. Hank Lindstrom. All right, we’re back from that break, and this is by the line, and we’re coming to you live from Tampa, Florida, from our studios at the Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida.

We’re on the pastor. We are right next to Tampa’s airport. We invite you to drop by if you ever come into town, or if you live in driving distance to visit us at our resource center, and also to come by on a worship day, If you like, and we are right next to the airport. We’re kind of nestled in on the west side, right next to the main north south runway. I feel like we’re so close sometimes I can reach out and slap the airplane.

So what I’m telling you is, if you get more than a block or so away from the airport, you are going off in a direction where you won’t find us. Stay close to the airport. We’re right on the west side of Block West and we’re on George Road, which runs north South and parallels that mean North South Runway. It’s not the perimeter road which is Eisenhower Boulevard, but the next road further west running north and south is where we are located at 4811 George Road.

We’re so excited about what God is doing through Bible and we just learned that last month we had 10,300 people listen to Bible and on the internet. Isn’t that exciting? And we’ve just grown from just a handful of people to now over 10,000 and It’s growing every day and we’re being heard by people all over the world through the internet in addition to our broadcast stations Isn’t that amazing it is amazing to me and by the way you can download our programs for free In the mp3 format you can also now discover on the radio page and a Podcasting button you can punch and if you register there you can have all of the radio programs without you searching the internet to find a program automatically cast out to you called podcasting.

All brand new technology all the time and it makes it easy for you to have these programs come into you right from the internet automatically. So why not give that a shot and if you have any questions you can just follow what you see on the screen and I’m sure you’ll just do fine. The Bible land is growing and expanding and we’re on the air now and of course, on the radio and now on in Mongolia with our television program.

And tonight we have two more television presentations at 6.30 PM Eastern Standard Time. We’ll be nationwide on World Harvest Television Channel 321. And then at 7 o’clock on the Christian television network all up and down on the West Coast of Florida from Fort Myers Crystal River over to Orlando. You can catch our television program tonight at 7. So I hope you’ll take advantage of all that. And of course we want to thank all of you who give the Bible and pray for Bible and we have a wonderful family of believers out there that listen to this program who help us.

And really there’s no gift too small. And we appreciate every gift. to multiply the loaves and the fishes, takes your gift and uses it to the max through Bible line. It’s absolutely amazing to watch what God has done and how your gift is a real part of that. I believe you’re going to share in the fruit of this ministry when you get to heaven. That’s right. Paul spoke about that in Philippians 4 when he talked to the Philippians about giving.

He says, not that I desire a gift. He’s really saying, I’m not trying to get your money. I don’t want your money. He says, I desire fruit that may abound to your account. Now think about that. Paul was saying, as they gave, he wasn’t trying to get their money. As they gave whatever fruit the ministry bore here in this world would accrue to their account in heaven and they would have treasures in heaven. Have you ever thought about investing in eternity and you know I think there’s such a thing as negative investing.

If you give to a ministry that’s unsound, it’s not clear on the gospel, then it’s a negative. In 2 John verse 11 it says, if you bid them Godspeed, if you participate, you support, you give to a ministry that’s a false gospel or a bad message. Then it says God will hold you accountable as a partaker of their evil deeds. So if you’re not a wise investor and you give it to just wherever, you might be giving where you’ll get a negative when you get to heaven.

It talks about in just a couple of verses prior to that, it says that we need to be careful that we lose not those things which we have worked for. You can throw away your investment by not giving where it needs to go. The Bible says that we are not to support those that are doctrinally unsound, but we are to have sound doctrine and promote those that do. So just a word there to the wise. Somebody once said, do you giving while you’re living so you’re knowing where it’s going?

Make sure you know where you’re sending your money. And Bibleline, I believe, is a ministry that honors the Word of God. That’s why I think God has blessed Bibleline. We cook the scriptures, we promote the scriptures, and you know God in the Psalms said he exalts his word even above his name. Wow! So how does God feel about his word? He exalts it even above his name. So when we exalt his word, obviously God is going to bless it.

I thought about hymns and why some hymns are precious and have lasted and stood the test of time. It’s because they honor the truths of God’s Word. So many songs are written and disappeared off the charts real quickly and are gone. Think about the old rugged cross. We use that as our theme song here on Bibleline. It talks about Jesus and dying on the cross and how that one day we’re going to meet and heaven. What a wonderful, wonderful hymn about how God’s plan of salvation is through Christ.

And that hymn is one of the best loved by Christians for such a long period of time now. It’s because of the words and because it honors God. And I think if you want to write a song that’s going to hang around a long time, you need to write it about scriptural themes because the word of God live in a bideth forever. Anyway, I’m excited about what God is doing and I want to thank all of you who pray for us and those that give to us because you’re the heroes in here making this possible for us to bring this program to you.

We’re going to hear the phone lines and we have another caller in Mobile, Alabama. This is Mobile, Alabama Day as we’re on there every day at this time in the morning and we have Ricky just now calling in from Mobile, Alabama and Ricky welcome to Bibleline make sure you turn your radio down. Ricky here we are on there. How are you doing? Good. I’m a strong believer in the elect and on Romans 9 God is fairly so Jacob have our love he saw us hated and it does not defend our man runs are with I think long with nine is being left out of the gospel completely I mean I got two sons I got two sons right now that are lost right okay and I beg God every day to save them I don’t beg God to say Lord I hope they choose you

I say God please forgive my sons and save them please have mercy Lord Jesus on my son and open our eyes to your truth because they do not deserve your mercy to deserve your wrath. And I think every body to praise any other way, you know, I don’t say how did you pray, you know, how did you pray any other way, but God please have mercy on my kids and babies. Well, I understand your compassion to ruin your sons to Christ, but you’re misreading the context here in Romans 9.

1st, 13, when it says, Jacob of Allah, I love the Esau have a hated. That quote comes from the book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. It’s written hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years later after the descendants of Jacob and Esau had lived out their lives and many generations followed. And he’s saying here that Jacob was the one who walked in the paths of the Lord and Esau and his descendants did not. And so this is not a foreordination or a statement that God made prior to their birth.

He had children and grandchildren and grandchildren and later at the end as he summarizes the two men and their lineage that has come on down through time that he hated the Esaupady love Jacob. But it nowhere tells us that he made a choice for salvation for Jacob and then condemned he saw to go to hell all it says here is that God chose Jacob to be the one through whom the Messiah would come if you read the context of chapter 9 here tells us Started with Abraham and God made a promise that he would have a son and And through that sun the Messiah would come one day and then that son of course being Isaac The Bible says here in Romans chapter 9 that it would be through Isaac verse 7 that the Messiah would come and then of course down a little bit later he chooses

Jacob over Esau to be the one through him the Messiah would come and He’s talking here about how his plan would be worked out that all that would believe on his son would be saved If you notice verse 8, it says, if you’re just a child of the flesh, you’re not a child of God, but the promise was Christ would come and pay for sin, the ones who believe on Christ, they’re counted for the seed. And the Bible says we become those sons when we believe or trust Christ as Savior.

So I think you’re missing and putting a lot of emphasis here in the wrong place. Your sons need to trust Christ as Savior, and God has not made their choice for them, but they have a choice to accept or reject Christ. I would, in a loving way, witness to them and tell them of their need to trust Christ. Okay. What it says is that God, it does not depend on God, but on God who shows mercy, I will harden you my own heart, and I will save you I will save you so it does not therefore depend on man that on God who shows mercy.

Well, if you read the context though, he has mercy on those that believe. For example, he goes further down here and he says, what shall we say then? In verse 30, the Gentiles, which didn’t follow after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness, which is of faith. So God said, I’m going to have mercy on those that would have faith in trust Christ. But then verse 31, but Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, have not attained of the law of righteousness.

Why or wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith. They were attempting to be saved by works. So God did not have mercy on them because they rejected Christ. So God has mercy on all those that believe and he does not have mercy on those who reject Christ. And it’s really that simple. And I know that Romans 9 gets people all twisted around, but this is a, if you read the whole context, he’s telling us that he has mercy on the ones who believe and he doesn’t have mercy on those who don’t believe.

Thank you. Thank you, Ricky. And it’s a tough subject. No doubt about it. And my series on the book of Romans, I just finished 10 hours of teaching on that. It’s on CD covers all these difficult passages. And we go at it verse by verse, but Romans 9 is not telling us that God has made your choice for you as far as salvation. my buddy in the hollywood florida is waiting on the line and i can’t wait to talk to herald and i think uh…

will bring him up right now herald uh… welcome to bible on but thank you sure how is my pastor today i’m doing better every day i think god for everybody’s prayers because i believe that i’m just about through my healing process i’ve gotten a staff infection and my uh… i’ve been with you with that i appreciate that and uh… my uh… surgeon will see me this afternoon i think he’s going to totally dismiss me and say goodbye and your life and no no no not goodbye we don’t want to not goodbye not a real goodbye but i mean at least i’m uh…

he’s going to be out to you when i see you i don’t have to come back to his office at least unless i get some new problem can i respond to a couple of things sure i heard last week absolutely and i’m not going to tell you i know there’s a lot of believers on their here’s an atheist non-believer question Why was Jesus Jewish? Alright, good question. And that is that God, way back there at the Tower of Babel, shows an individual.

And in Genesis 12, he lays out an outline about how he would use Abraham. He said that all the nations Gentiles included would be blessed through this descendant of Abraham which would be the Messiah. Okay. which we, of course, accept that Jesus Christ is that fulfillment and is that Messiah. We’ll see you then. We’ll see you then.

Okay. Thanks for joining us. We’ll see you there. And thirdly, He’d bring about the Scriptures and obviously the Bible was written by Jewish Okay. Bye. Bye. Bye. You have a great weekend. prophets in the Old Testament at least. It’s been a while. Thank you. Bye. And so those three major things are outlined there and of course that He would give them Bye.

Go ahead. Thank you. Good night. We’ll see you again later. Bye. that land in the Middle East, which they’re now back sitting on that land again for the Bye. Bye. Bye. You have a great weekend. Thank you. first time in 2000 years. You’re welcome. You’ve been a great weekend. And we can see God really fulfilled his promises. Abraham would also live a long life and die natural death. And he did live a long, fulfilling life. And he died in peace, a natural death.

And God made many promises to Abraham, which tells us that Jesus had to be of that lineage. And so he came through his son Isaac, through Jacob. And then Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, his 12 sons. One of those was chosen in the line to bring about the Messiah, that would be Judah. And the Bible tells us that Jesus came out of the tribe of Judah. And in Revelation, he’s called the lion of the tribe of Judah. So that might be a little bit of a quick summary.

Well, the reason I’m asking that. I had a call, a call in, and he said something like, it’s because of, like, tradition, the mother, brainwash, the grandmother, or so forth. And That’s what he said, but Jewish, and I know you know this, wasn’t born of Jewish mother like me is Jewish. Of course, that’s the way it’s always been. And I think it comes from the biblical tradition that it would be like in Genesis the seed of the woman. And so I think the Jewish people had picked up on that the rabbis have from Genesis 3 that the lineage has passed through the woman because of that promise that the Messiah would come of a woman.

Okay, so that would take care of a peacefulist thing, nice man, that it isn’t a brand tradition where you know you’re brainwashed from the mother and so forth. Okay, second question that I heard about converts. I heard a very nice gentleman call in and he said you’ve never heard of anybody converting to Judaism or Christianity. Well, that’s certainly not true either, is it? That’s right. There’s a lot of people that convert to Judaism every day. And by the way, I want you to know, Pastor, I have three female teammates who are Christian, and now some time ago they converted to Judaism.

I know that there’s one used to sing in the choir up here in the coral ridge. Press the church? Yes. Seven years. She’s more Jewish than I’ll ever be. same with the others so that takes care of that question and by the way they want to see a real convert he can turn into a fox news uh… bob novak born jewish and the expression we use for him is a self-hating jew but he’s now and when he was interviewed he’s converted to catholicism why that they ask him and that was the interview he says he’s more spiritual so that takes care of another one that he can look at it you must have seen them on he’s on all the stations yet okay and it’s very well you’re still in all the misconceptions here they certainly we have that they’re kind of the other was wrong

okay now uh… as far as the uh… one gentleman called in he says i shouldn’t be worried about uh… the thieving broadcasting network that’s t b n about each i shouldn’t be worried about the money making but my salvation that wasn’t the point i was making the point i was making into more of the tp and nonsense their main objective is to keep bible talk and people like you i know it they can’t help their station you know how Lindsay was on their and uh…

i guess uh… uh… when paul became a little bit ill his wife uh… took the reins of the thing in just all of a sudden announced that how Lindsay you’re off our station kicking off uh… and and and the reason why we use it was to pro-israel as versus pro arab in that interesting that that uh… would have to take place on a station as christians we need obviously to love the jewell we call the other two they need to know the messiah but uh…

uh… This anti-Semitism that is rising in some of these networks and some of the churches is just absolutely appalling to me. Well, us Jews, we really call anti-Semitism as a hating Jews more than necessary, but we have a good sense of humor. But that’s the reason why it wasn’t the monetary thing. It was the fact I want to keep Bible talk on the air. I’m a Jewish atheist and I will continue to donate to you. There’s no question about that.

And The fact of the matter is I wish all these people let you explain things to it, everything. They say thank you, Pastor, thank you. I would want to hear. Thank you, Dr. Hank. What is your address? I would like to send you a donation. That’s my request. And my last question. All the believers, what are they doing that I’m not? But I don’t want to hear the answer that I’m not believing. I want to hear something. What am I doing?

No, what are they doing? That I’m not. That’s a good question and hopefully they’ll ponder that. Okay, and I appreciate your time and I’ll say this for everybody here. I will continue to donate a check, whatever it is, to Dr. Hank because I believe in what he’s saying and I don’t want Bible talk to get off the air in a thieving broadcasting network and uh… robinson that’s a bad product that’s what they’re trying to do i have to agree with you okay appreciate it so long so long as we say in french so long and stay healthy i think you harold have a great day take care harold and i had a held i don’t think you know this but i got a letter to the lady told me that i needed to be quite frank with you and tell you that you needed to trust in your

Messiah Jesus in order to go to heaven and that you wanted to make sure I said that to you. So there I have fulfilled her wish. And that’s true. We believe that Jesus is the way, the truth of life, and that no man can come to the Father except by Christ. And she said, I don’t think you’re making that clear. But I think we’ve made it clear numerous times, but I’m just saying it again. For her benefit. We’re now going to Don in Sarasota, Florida Don welcome to Bibleline and I was just wondering Was you a believer?

Yes, he’s a believer. Yeah, the answer is absolutely yes second Corinthians 5 8 you need to write it down second Corinthians 5 8 says Absent from the body present with the Lord you can’t get any clearer than that so as soon as you die your soul and spirit leave your body which you know will be buried and return back to dust but you’re immediately present with the Lord so it’s instantaneous. Yeah. Yeah. That’s the Rapture. Now you don’t get your new body until the Rapture.

You don’t get your new body until the Rapture. You see your friend is in heaven but he’ll have to wait until Lord comes at the event of the Rapture to get his resurrection body. Okay. Okay. We have a wonderful book by Erwin Lutzer called One Minute After You Die and he does a wonderful job. He’s the pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago and in fact we have three books that are really good to comfort somebody who’s lost a loved one and explains the issues of what happens at the moment of death and this book is pretty powerful.

One minute after you die and a lot of people have found it helpful to give to somebody who’s suffered a loss of a loved one and those that are asking the kind of questions questions you’re asking, the book does a great job. Well, this wife and son preceded them. We’ll eat, be able to feed them. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. No doubt about it. We’ll be together with our loved ones that have gone before us or if they’re still living they’ll eventually join him if they also are believers.

Thank you very much. You’re very welcome. Thank you Don Don Don and Sarah. Florida and you’re welcome to call in 1-800-576-3771. We have Joyce who just called in from Charlottesville, New York. She says, does someone have to come to a remorseful point in their life to be able to receive salvation, answer is no. The night that I trusted Christ. It was almost just like a business deal. God said, I have a free gift for you, eternal life. And I said, that sounds like a good deal.

I’ll take you up on it. I trusted Christ and received eternal life. There was no remorse. There was no tears. There was nothing there but saying this is just a smart thing for me to do is to take God upon his gift to be eternal life. Of course, later as I digested what all this meant, it brought great joy and also So sometimes tears of joy that I think that God would love me. Not much that he would give his life for me.

I experienced emotion. But the night I trusted Christ, it was a matter of fact Jesus died for me. God loved me. He offered me eternal life. It was a great deal. I couldn’t pass it up. I trusted Christ. Number two, Joyce says, that someone need 100% personal belief before they can be saved without any reservation. the answer is no. Just the best you know how if you trust Christ you are saved. Faith is trust and like when you trust a chair once you rest your weight upon the chair you’ve trusted the chair and you don’t have to say well I wonder if I trusted the chair hard or softer or enough or whatever not just nonsense.

You’re either trusting the chair or you’re You either put your weight upon it or you’re not. And so once you trust Christ, it’s not the degree of your faith, but it is the object in which you place your faith in, which is Christ. The Bible talks about the faith of a mustard seed, being able to remove mountains. And so it’s not the amount of faith. The size of a mustard seed is infinitesimal. But all you need to do is place it in the right person, Jesus, who is the God of the universe who came to die for you.

And you’ll find that he’s fully capable of answering any prayer that you ask him. Joyce and Charlotteville, New York, thank you for calling in. We’ve got a wonderful group of people up in New York that are listening and that leads over into Connecticut, Massachusetts as well. We’ve got to go. 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 Bibleline from Calvary Community Church of Tampa, Florida. Well, I’m Dr. Englands. If you’d like to get a copy of today’s show, you can call our operators at 1-800-576-3771 and askogene for a copy of today’s show. We’ll send out a CD for a gift of $5 plus shipping and you’ll have today’s show. Now, if you go to the internet you can hear it again and again as often as you like for the next month.

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We’re probably at the lower end of the cable channels and you’ll find us at 7 till 7.30. And we hope that you’ll take advantage of that. By the way, that particular program is streamed to the internet. If you get on my website on the home page, there’s a link. If you do it exactly between 7 and 7.30, you can catch our television program on the internet. Again, we thank all of you who give and pray for Bibleline. Your gifts and prayers are indispensable.

And we believe that really this is a true partnership. We don’t believe that we would be as blessed as we have been if it had not been for your prayers asking God to bless this ministry. And we don’t believe we’d be on the air. And we know we wouldn’t if it hadn’t been for your gifts because your gifts are what is keeping us on the air. God bless you. I wish I could shake your hand and give you a hug because we do appreciate our listeners very, very much and realize how much.

You really do mean to this ministry. This is a very real partnership. We’re not just talking here. We’re talking about this is the real deal. And you are the ones who obviously make it possible for us to be on the air. We’ve got a run. We’re going to be back tomorrow. So join me at 10 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow or whatever time the station plays in your area. And until then keep looking up. Jesus is coming. You’ve been listening to Bibleline.

The presentation of Jesus. The 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 Church of Tampa, Florida.