Discipleship is separate from and is in contrast with the doctrine of salvation. One believes on Jesus Christ to be saved, while one serves Jesus Christ to become a disciple. All believers are not disciples. All disciples are not believers.
Article Reference: Discipleship
Transcription:
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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. I’m great to be with you today. Thanks for tuning into the broadcast We look forward to being with you each and every day Monday through Friday’s we come to you live from Tampa, Florida From our studios here at the Calvary Community Church We’re on the pastor and we certainly welcome you to the program and look forward to bringing this program to you each and every day Hopefully you’ll listen as often as you can and of course if you cannot hear it during the broadcast hour You can catch this program on the internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at your leisure.
So if you wake up in the middle of the night, you can’t sleep, you can go to the internet, go to our website BibleLineMinistries.org or .com, and you’ll be able to click on that little TV set. That’s the best way to go. And then on the left side of the page that will come up, you can click on the television programs. On the right side you can click on the radio programs and you can download radio programs in MP3 format.
You can put them in your iPod and carry these programs around with you. And of course you can fast forward and you can back up and you can pause and all those kind of things to sit down and maybe take some notes about what we’ve said here on the Bible Eye and not radio program. We’re so excited about the events of this world. We believe Jesus is coming again soon. No doubt about it. The Bible says that you brethren are not in darkness that they should overtake you as a thief.
When the Bible talks about Christ coming as a thief and surprising the world, it’s not talking about us believers. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 4 says you brethren are not in darkness that they should overtake you as a thief. We’re children of the light and children of the day. Therefore, we are not to be surprised at all. But in fact, we should probably say, Lord, we have been waiting for this event. We have been looking forward to it. We were expecting you to come.
And certainly, it is exciting to live. Thinking about Christ could come very, very soon. And of course, we are not date-setters, but we are watching. And of course, the most reasonable day for Christ’s return is the Feast of Trumpets, whatever year he comes. And of course, that would be this September 22nd, which means we have a month from today. and out will go and meet the Lord in the air. The reason why we say that is in Leviticus 23 we have seven feast days and all of them are a prophetic picture of future events in the life of Christ.
The first coming, the first four feasts were fulfilled literally. Christ died as the Passover Lamb, 1 Corinthians 5, 7 says for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. And of course he died exactly when Israel was offering up the Lamb for Passover in Israel. He was buried during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The third feast, the Feast of First Fruits Christ rose from the dead. First Corinthians 15 tells us Christ is the first fruit of the resurrection. The fourth feast, the Feast of Pentecost, was exactly the day when the Holy Spirit came and this age began.
Acts 2 1 says, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all together in one court and then the Holy Spirit came to indwell the believers of this age that marked the beginning of this age. The fifth feast, which we believe is the next one, is going to end this age. The church age will be concluded when the feast of trumpets occurs this year. It’s September 22nd. Since the first four happened right on the day, we have every reason to believe that this rapture will happen right on that feast day and out we go.
We’re not saying Christ This is coming this year but he could and certainly we should be looking and always tease and tell people we ought to do some rapture practice, get out there in the yard and kind of rock back and forth on our toes and heels and kind of clap our arms a little bit. It’s a lot of fun to tease and have fun then. Think about the return of Christ. Last year I preached up in a church in Georgia in Athens, Georgia and I had everybody in parking lot after church and they were all rocking back and forth having fun doing rapture practice.
Of course, you don’t have to do any rapture practice to be raptured out if you’re a believer. You’re going to be snatched out to be with the Lord and you’ll be a part of a group that will never experience death. The Bible says it. Jesus said in John 11, 26, there’s a group that will be living that will never die. He says, whosoever liveth and believe it in me, that means you’re living when Christ returns, he says you’ll never die.
Never die. Can you imagine? Never being a part of all the normal experience that most people experience that they die and then they go to be with the Lord. will just simply be caught up alive and meet the Lord in the air. Did you know that Judas was a disciple, but Judas was never a believer? In other words, you can be a disciple of Christ and not be saved. It’s so amazing that people don’t really practice what the Bible teaches called rightly dividing the word of truth.
That means to set the truths of God’s Word in right order. There is a tremendous difference between being saved, which is what God has done for us at the cross, and in being in the disciple, which is what we do out of love and gratitude for Christ because He gave His life for us. But we are never saved by being in the disciples. We are never saved by following Christ. We are never saved by being a witness for Christ.
We are not saved by living the Christian life. We are saved by the finished work of Jesus at the cross. He fully, completely paid our sin debt at the cross, and when we trust Christ we become saved. But the point is, you can be actively living like a Christian and not be one. Judas was a disciple, and yet he never was a believer. Isn’t that incredible? So there are many, I’m sure, that might be even listening this morning to Bibleline, that maybe are not believers at all.
What I mean by believer is not that you don’t acknowledge the fact that Christ lived and died and so on, but according to the Bible the word believe means to trust That you have not trusted Christ now what I mean by that is you have to trust Christ alone In other words if you’re trusting in Christ plus something else you’ve never really understood what it is to trust Christ Let me go to my little illustration if you’re on a dock You’re going to step off onto a small boat.
Are you trusting that boat to hold your weight if you only have one foot on the boat and one foot on the dock? The answer is no. Let’s say that you put both feet on the boat, but you still have both hands on the dock. Are you trusting that boat to hold your weight? No, you’re not. And you know, a lot of people are like that. They’ve trusted Christ, they say, and yet they really have their hand on baptism, church membership, live in the Christian life, and other things are holding on to assure their salvation.
Obviously, my friend, you’re not saved if you’re adding anything to what Christ did for you at the cross. What if you’re putting both feet on the boat and you have one hand you’ve let go of the dock but you still have one hand holding on to the dock? Are you trusting that little boat to hold you? No, you’re not. You’re not. Let’s say you take both feet on the boat and you have both hands off the dock but you’re You’re holding a rope that’s tied to the dock.
Are you trusting that boat? No, you’re not. As long as you’re attached to that dock in any way, you’ve never really trusted the boat to hold your way. I’m saying that if you have not cut all strings to everything and anything other than Jesus alone as your Savior, you’re not saved. That’s right. If you’re trusting in anything that you’re doing or anything you’re not doing or anything that your church tells you that you must do or not do, and you are holding on to those things in addition to faith in Christ.
My friend, let me be honest with you, you are not saved. Because you have never really trusted the boat, you have never really taken your hands off the dock, you are still trusting in something else, and you have never really completely committed your weight to the boat. You have never really trusted Christ as the one who fully paid your sin debt. This is so important and many people are blinded and don’t see it. Let me remind you that Judas, the disciple, was never a believer and Judas went to hell because he never trusted Christ.
Let me quote a verse. Jesus makes it very clear in John 647, he that believeth on me has everlasting life. Then he goes on in John 6 and says in verse 64, but there are some of you that believe not. Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him. And of course he spake of Judas the scariest, the son of Simon, for he it was that should betray him being one of the twelve.
Judas an unbeliever among the twelve. Judas the one that would be the betrayer of Christ. But he didn’t go to hell because he betrayed Christ. He didn’t go to hell because he committed suicide. He went to hell because he never trusted Christ as his Savior. Are you believing it? Certainly he believed in the existence of Christ. He was one of the disciples. He was there, but he never never trusted Jesus as the only means by which he would enter heaven.
I’m warning you that if you have not trusted Jesus alone, then you are certainly not saved. And that’s scary because the Bible says in Matthew chapter 7 verse 22, many will stand before the Lord at the Great White Throne Judgment and they’ll say, Lord, Lord, Lord, thinking that they were Christians thinking they were going to heaven and they said look at what we’ve done why we’ve Preached in your name and we’ve healed in your name and we’ve done many wonderful works in your name And Christ will say in Matthew 7 23 I never knew you I Never not I once knew you in all ostean now think about that Some people say this verse is saying you can lose your salvation.
He says I never knew you that mean you were never saved Judas was never saved. Judas never was a believer. Judas went to hell because he never trusted Christ, yet he was a disciple. Maybe you’re trying to live the Christian life. Maybe you’re trying to be a disciple. But if you’re doing that to get yourself into heaven, my friend, you’ll go to hell. You must trust Christ alone as the only means by which you will enter heaven. And I am passionate about this because I don’t want you to go to hell.
And the Bible is very clear that we must rightly divide the word of truth. Or we will be as workmen, that is you and I who are trying to live for Christ, will be workmen that will be ashamed because we’re not presenting it correctly. We’re not doing it like God said, we should do it. It says in 2 Timothy 2, 15, study, study to show that self-approved under God as a work by you. Talk about being approved at the Judge of the State of Christ when God will give approval to our service for rewards.
Those who are approved will not be ashamed, but those who have not served the Lord will be ashamed and suffer the loss of reward, but they won’t lose their salvation. It tells us that we are to rightly divide the word of truth. That really means to set the truths of God’s Word in right order. I recommend the Schofield Bible and in the hardback edition that we offer here at our Resource Center, it has the entire booklet by Dr. C.I.
Schofield called Rightly Dividing the Word, and he has about ten chapters there that give illustrations about how to interpret the Bible and how to rightly divide and how to separate between the first coming and the second coming, how to separate between being saved and being a disciple, how to separate between your standing before Christ and your actual state, and how to separate between the judgments and the the resurrection and so on and so on. Wow, that is worth the price of the Bible all by itself.
We have this Bible, the Schofield Bible, in that edition for a gift of $20. It’s worth its weight and gold because of the entire booklet by Dr. C.I. Schofield there in its entirety in that book. Guess what? We also have Dr. C.I. Schofield’s rightly divided into the Truth on my website. And there you can read it or download it for free. How do you like that? Bibleline Ministries. BibleLineMinistries.org.com Go there and you will find the rightly divided word of truth by Dr.
C. I. Schofield. You can read it or you can download portions or all of it and that’s for free. I’m not going to mention this Bibleline. I hope you’ve trusted Christ as your only means of salvation, or my friend, you will not make heaven. Only those that have trusted Christ as their only means of salvation, cutting all ties, all strings to everything else that you might possibly trust in and say, Jesus, I trust you alone as my only means of reaching heaven.
The moment you do that, God saves you. We’re going to the phone lines, we have all fair questions, we have people calling in, we’d love to have you calling in at 1-800-576-3771, 1-800-576-3771, welcome to all of you listening on the internet, we have 13,045 listeners on the internet last month. That’s right, just the internet, forgetting all the broadcast stations, 13,045 listeners on the internet welcome to all of you and welcome to all of you that are listening via the radio wherever you might be listening from.
So I went to take some offer questions here and we have offer John from Utica New York calls in just now. He says, what does the Bible say about a one world government globalization? So on and so on. Well, John the Bible tells us in the last days that there will be a one world government attempt by Satan and there will be a one world religion attempt by Satan. We’re going to go back to what happened at the Tower of Babel in Genesis.
You might read in Genesis 11 how that they had one political system, one religious system and one world language. And the Bible tells us that at the end of the day, we’re going to go back to the end of the day. of time, we come back to the Tower of Babel, and Revelation 17 describes the One World Church called Babylon and describes the One World government in Chapter 18 of Revelation called Babylon, and both will be destroyed by Jesus when he comes back as Christ will defeat the armies of this world and establish His Kingdom on the Earth.
I recommend my series on CD of the book of Revelation. You will find that really enlightening in answering these questions, John, you just asked. And that is the Revelation series, 12 CDs covering every verse in the book of Revelation. And we go through quite thoroughly, chapter 17 and 18 of the book of Revelation that talks about the One World Church and the One World Government that will come together as we see it happening right now and we believe that we are in the end times.
Thank you for that call. We now have John and Port Charlotte, Florida, and John welcome to Bibleline you’re on the earth. Yes, hi. I just heard the part about the rapture and the dates of September. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that. It’s very fascinating. I’ve wanted to see what was the chapters in the Bible. Yes, hi. Look. Leviticus chapter 23 names all seven feast days that God gave to Israel which were holy convocations. Every one of them considered a Sabbath and the Jews, people still observe them and all of them were a prophetic picture.
the first four of the first coming of Christ, the latter three of the second coming of Christ events, and the first four were fulfilled literally on the day. So we have every reason to expect that the last three will be fulfilled literally on the day. And if that be the case and if the Feast of Trump is represents the Rapture, which I believe it does, we’re going out. Whatever year he comes back, I’m not saying he’s coming this year.
But if it were this year, we’ve got one month. Now is that on September? Every year? Every year, but it slides back and forth with the lunar calendar. And so you can’t count on it being September 22 next year. I have a calendar somewhere close here, but I could probably look up what it would be next year, but it’ll be close within a week or so. Oh man, that’s awesome. It is something. And so get on your team. my wife and I just got saved on June 23rd.
Wonderful. And so we’re just starting our walk now. If my father used to be at Baptist preacher for the Marines in South Carolina and I grew up in it and I just, you know, turned away from it and just recently I’m 28 years old and I just decided well, you know, it’s time to do the right thing and luckily my wife and I both did this. So it’s, I’m kind of relearning everything even though I’ve heard it in life, but now it’s making more sense to me and I’m taking everything to heart.
So that’s, when I heard that this morning, I just never heard that they can’t it’s it’s up lifting but in a way i kind of what the rapture to stay away a while so i can get up and leave the soul but uh… if it comes and that would be great so i don’t want to have to buy it but that’s that i just appreciate your uh… your radio book i’m so glad you found my blind and uh… keep telling your friends about it i absolutely will thank you and have a great day all right you too that was done in port charlotte newly saved and discovering here some wonderful things about the rapture in the words return we’re going to go to mike and he’s in lakeland florida and mike welcome to my one year mike hello hello here uh…
for the man i i enjoy all your program you have every day and i listen to a lot of people talking and i want to go come in on something i hear the guy x a few weeks ago okay on joty mary ron uh… he asked the question a couple weeks ago about all agent and get old and everything is on account and he asked the question where he said that uh… jesus got all of them a little bit of a bit of the thirty three years old and he said how you got that way if he didn’t have no sense so i was walking away from morning and the guy was i had another pictures talking he was talking about the fact that seen on the come three way to the flesh and through their eyes and through the pride of life so when he said that
they are flesh they let down on me that uh… that what he actually that they came back to me and he was saying and proud alive in the flesh and i thought about everything a mother she was a femmer So even though Jesus’ father was God and everything, he still came through Mary and he said he had experienced everything, everything a man experienced. So they had to experience the flesh. You know what I’m trying to say, that came back to you.
Christ was never a sinner. He never committed any acts of sin. But he came through Mary and by Mary being a sinner, he was tempted through the flesh as well as men. Did that right or wrong? He was tempted and all things he was trying to find tells us that yet he was without sin. Clearly everywhere tells us that Christ never ever committed a single act of sin. But basically Christ is God, but he took on human flesh and he became a man and submitted himself to the cross and yes he grew up and became that man.
started off as a baby and grew right on up and became a man and went to die to pay for your sins in mind. So what do we need to solve here? I don’t know what is the question. What I was trying to find out was the reason he got old and everything on the count of Mary’s mother on the count of the flesh that ain’t coming through Mary. Well, every human being obviously is going to grow up even from Adam and Eve on.
They were of course created as adults, but their children were all going to age. But because of men’s sin, death came and obviously men would have lived forever apparently without dying if it had not been for the sin back in the garden. Surety, thank you for the call. I’m Mike in Lakeland, Florida and we are now going to go to Mr. Anonymous in Pensacola, Florida. And we’re up there at the same time we’re on the air here in Pensacola, Florida.
to Bible and good morning. I missus. I didn’t realize I have a female on the line. I know you’ve talked about this, but I just need to I just need to clear it up about eternal security. Sure. I my son told me that he did invite Jesus into his heart in the seventh grade. Now, only God knows if that was sincere, right? Go ahead, no? Okay, okay, now he’s living the homosexual lifestyle and it says in the Bible, homosexual will not inherit the kingdom of God.
So I just need some reassurance from you or something. All right, well, first of all, I pray that he’s trusted Christ. I know I was raised without inviting Christ in your heart and you must trust him. And hopefully he did trust the Lord, even though sometimes those terms are used, people just simply trust the Lord. And if he was ever saved, then he’s still saved, even though he might be practicing the homosexual lifestyle.
God doesn’t approve of it, it’s an abomination, and the Lord will deal with him as a father would a delinquent son if he is going to pursue that. But if he’s not a believer, then obviously he’s in deep trouble because any sin, even one lie, would be enough to send him to hell. And I hope that maybe I’d like to have you give him the CD that I’ve produced called How Permanent is Your Salvation and have him listen to that.
And if you can talk to my operators here, we have found such a great success of people, If they were saved, getting insurance and understanding what is really taking place as a powerful impact on their life or if they’re lost, if they weren’t saved, generally they get saved once they hear this. So I’m going to have our operator pick up and get your address and we’ll send that to you and let us know what happens because I think, you know, I know the prayers of a a mother very powerful and I know you want to have your son in heaven.
Oh, it’s the only thing that matters. I know. And we’re going to be praying for him too. And we’ll attest that God maybe might use this CD to reach him. Okay. God bless you and thanks for calling me. All right. So we’re going to take care of that and pray for Mrs Anonymous as he’s so concerned about her son and you can be homosexual and become saved. Obviously God is the love of the world including everyone no matter how how he and your sins might be in God’s sight.
God can certainly bring you salvation. We’re going to go to an off the air question and I think we just have a little bit of time. a Christian where pants mark in Brandon calls in with this question and the issue is not whether a Christian can wear pants or not. The issue is that there should be a difference between men and women. In many make a big deal about pants, whether women should wear pants when men wear pants. But in difficult days, they would wear more like a robe.
So, in a sense, men wore dresses back in biblical days. So that’s not the point. The point is there should be distinction between the sexes. God intended men to be men, women to be women. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 14 it talks about men should have short hair. hair. It’s a shape. It’s a shame for men to have long here. It says 1 Corinthians 11, 14. And for women to have longer here is a glory to them and obviously it makes the distinction between the sexes.
Hopefully that helps a little bit, Mark. We’re going up on our break here and we’ll come back and do Bibon Part 2 in just a moment. So don’t go away. Keep you radioed out to and right where it is and we’ll come right back with more of Bible Life. Don’t go away. Bible Life will be back in a moment. us a call at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Right, we have been having fun here today with Bible Eye. I hope you’ve enjoyed it.
And I also want you to know that you can hear these programs again and again and again on the internet. Check out my website. It’s full of things that will, I think, excite you. In particular, you can watch our Bible on television programs and you can also listen to our radio programs and go back to the archive and catch past programs and so on. You can download them and we have podcasting so you can set it up so it will automatically send these programs right to your computer or to your iPod.
It’s exciting. Pray for Bibleline. We certainly need your prayers every day that seems like the devil doesn’t like Bibleline and we have obviously things that seem to try to hinder us all the time but we trust that God will continue to bless us and also financial needs as we are listeners supported and to assure the continuance of this program in your area and the fact that we can expand we depend upon our listeners to be able to help us out.
So maybe you might want to be a Bible and partner. Maybe you’d like to send a gift to Bible and to help us continue this program in your area and to expand. And we’re not trying to get your money. We really are trying to get the gospel out because I don’t get paid. Our staff doesn’t get paid. And we simply trust gone to supply these needs and they’re pretty good. They’re pretty great. My church could not afford to pay for Bible on.
So Bible on is bigger than my church. And so some people say, well doesn’t your church support Bible on? Well, to the best they can. But obviously, if my church were the only supporter, I would go off the air because it’s much more expensive than that. So that gives you a little bit of an idea. But we, I don’t get paid our staff as you can pay. We really are the leanest, cleanest, meanest, I guess, or whatever you want to say, ministry out there as far as the most for the dollar that’s invested.
And you can give a gift by credit card over the phone. You can also ask our operators to recite the address to you or send you an offer with our address on it and send a gift in by mail. But in any case, anything you can do would be helpful. And if you could also remember to pray for us, we would appreciate that very much. We’re about ready to do Bibleline Part 2 the second half of Bibleline, and if you don’t get that on your radio station, you can go to the internet and catch the full program.
I hope you will. BibleLineMinistries.org. BibleLineMinistries.org. Otherwise, stay tuned right here. I’m Dr. Hank Linschruin. We’re going to rejoin the stations that have been on break, and we’re about ready to do the second half hour of Bible and so stay tuned right where you are. Would you like to call Bible 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 break and this is Bible and it’s a great give.
It’s enjoy to bring with you every day and thank you for listening. It’s so exciting to get to meet some of you and to shake your hands and get to know who you are. We had several folks come across from the East Coast this past week to visit with us from Fort Lauderdale, from Pompano. From other areas coming to actually visit Calvary Community Church and sit in on the Bibleline radio program as we do it live. That’s exciting. We just love to meet our listeners and you’re always welcome to drop by.
Our Resource Center is open every day, Monday through Friday till about 4.30 in the afternoon eastern time. And also you can always come by on a worship day and we would love to have you. By the way, we’re getting ready to webcast our morning worship service. And so if you have the internet, you’ll be able to join us for our Sunday morning worship service from Calvary Community Church. By the way, our Sunday morning messages are recorded on CD and you can dip back into the past and catch programs from the or the sermons for the past year.
And or you can subscribe and get the monthly sermons on CD sent to your home. a lot of people do that and enjoy and feel like they’re sitting right here in the congregation of Calvary Community Church. And so maybe you might want to consider that it’s not that expensive and it’s a way that you can really be taught the Word of God. Many people are telling us that they can’t find a good sound Bible teaching church where they can really learn God’s Word.
And so in response to that, while you are looking and hopefully we’ll find one because we believe it’s nothing like attending a church of local Christians where the Word of God is taught and Christ is preached and people are getting saved and things are happening exciting for God. But if you can’t, we will be offering our worship service shortly, maybe in the next month. We’ll know exactly when it comes online, but we’ll be broadcasting our church service on the internet.
Go to my website and there will be a special page that you could be coming up in the next This month where you go there and click on it and you’ll be able to touch the morning worship here at Calvary and join our worship service. But anyway, we are so thankful to what God is doing. 142 countries have logged on to our website. We had 13,045 listeners last month to the radio program on the internet. Our TV audience is rapidly growing.
We’re excited about people being able to watch our Bible and television programs on the internet and you’re actually able to see probably in advance the program that will air on the dish network or direct TV or the many other outlets where we’re on television and hopefully you can alert your friends to a good program you’d like to have them see and they can you can really grow as a Christian as a result. In any case, we are just delighted to be a part of your life as we bring the Word of God to you through Bibleline, but we need your help.
We need your prayers, and again we need your financial help because it is expensive. Several people said, well doesn’t your church support Bibleline? Yes, but it’s bigger than my church. It really is. If my church were the only one supporting Bibleline, we’d go off the air most everywhere because it’s much bigger than that. So obviously we need your help and God is raising up people just like you. We’re not trying to get your money. I like that verse in Philippians 4 17 where it says Paul says to the Philippians about giving the believers at Philippi, he says, not that I desire a gift.
Basically he’s saying, I’m not trying to get your money. I’m not trying to, I don’t desire your gift, but I desire fruit that may abound your account. And so in any case, whatever fruit this program reaps out there will be credited to your account in heaven as you pray for and give to this ministry. So I believe that as you give to a ministry where things are happening, I wish I could be alive in Paul’s name and give to Paul’s ministry.
Wow, I would love to have a part of his fruit accruing to my account and heaven no doubt about it. He once said, do your giving while you’re living so you’re knowing where it’s going, and to be wise investors and believers in eternal things is very, very important. In fact, it’s a negative. If you give to a ministry where the gospel is false, I believe you’ll lose reward. That’s right. It says in 2nd John verse 11 that if you bid them Godspeed, if you support and endorse a ministry where the gospel is false, it says you will be held accountable as a partaker of their evil deeds.
That’s 2nd John, verse 11. You don’t want to do that. So where you give your money is important. If you give it to a church where the gospel is wrong, you’re going to be getting a negative in heaven. You’ll lose out. But if you’re giving it where it’s doing something, where it really is the right message, God is going to bless you for that. Well, we have a number of offer questions and a lot of questions. We’ll try to get to them at this time.
By the way, if you want to give a gift, you can give it my credit card over the phone or you can call or even a number and our operators will be glad to send you an envelope with our address on it or you can just get them to recite the address and get that address and just mail in a gift to Bible on. But God bless you. Thank you. All of you who do give because you’re the ones who keep this program going.
We’re going to go to John in Valrico, Florida and John, welcome to Bibleline You’re On Near. John? Yes. You’re on Near. John, you’re on Near. Dr. Lynch, come on. Yes, you have a question because you’re on the air. One, one, and Genesis one, two. All right. I was reading Scofield notes, and I read it over and over and over again, and I heard you explain it, and it’s very interesting to me. Could you explain? Could you explain that again so I can really…
Sure, John, we had to do that. In Genesis 1-1, it says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That was in the dateless countless past. We don’t know how far back in history that was, but perhaps maybe even billions of years ago. Then in verse 2, it talks about the earth becoming without form and void. We believe that was the result of a judgment upon the original earth. It appears from other scriptures that the earth when it was originally created was created perfect and inhabitant plants, animals, dinosaurs and, guess what, angelic life.
And Lucifer, who became Satan, was in charge of this world and to this day is called the the God of this world, 2 Corinthians 4, 4. So we find in Isaiah 45, 18 that God said that when he created the earth, he created it not vain or not void. The very word in Isaiah 45, 18 that’s used in Genesis 1, 2. He didn’t create it the way we find it in Genesis 1, 2, but he created it inhabited and we believe all life on the planet was extinguished.
And Perhaps if NASA is right, that was 65 million years ago when an asteroid with a diameter of 125 miles struck in the area of the Yucatan Peninsula where you see that ground area there, you can see the shape of the crater. They say it threw up so much debris from the Earth’s surface that it brought it out the sun’s light. The Earth was in darkness, Genesis 1-2. that it kept the sun’s light for perhaps hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years, and that life on the planet was extinguished.
Then, it says later in Genesis 1-2, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. That may have happened as recently as 6,000 years ago. The Holy Spirit moved, and the word moved, and the Hebrew means to incubate or to brood upon. The same word used of a hen sitting on a nest of eggs and incubating those eggs, keeping the warm and getting them ready to hatch out. Well apparently the Holy Spirit thought out the earth that had been in darkness for so many millions of years and prepared it for the seven days of a recreative week.
And we believe that man has been on this planet only 6,000 years, but life has been on this planet long before that. And so we have the fossil remains of the original creation. Dinosaurs and others animal life are the fossil remains that we now use as oil or petroleum. Vegetable fossils are coal and so on. And obviously we’re burning fossil fuels today. We believe which are the result of the destruction of the original earth. It’s a brief summary, but I have CDEs that cover my teachings on this, and I believe the Bible clearly teaches an original earth that was created and destroyed.
Second Peter chapter 3, and if you look on the internet on my articles, I have an article there that talks about the earth, how old, and it goes through the fact that Peter talks about an original Earth that was destroyed, a present Earth that began in Genesis 1. The New Heavens in a New Earth. Hi, I’m Mike. And it talks about a future Earth, a new heavens and a new earth. And so Peter obviously gives us the complete picture there along with many of the passages that apply an original Earth, a present Earth and a future Earth.
And thanks for your call, John. I hope that helps. We have Cynthia, off air in clearwater, Florida, calling in, and she says that she has a person that is telling her that you are must in continually confess your sins to be saved. Please explain why somebody would say this. Well, obviously they’ve been taught wrong because not many churches teach confession of your sins as a condition of salvation. But nowhere in the Bible does it say that. Let me just go to a simple verse.
First of all, in John 647, Jesus said, barely, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, that means to trust on me, has everlasting life. Nothing there about confession, nothing about baptism, nothing about confirmation, nothing about the Christian life. Simply one condition for salvation that is the believer to trust on Christ as Savior. So that’s the key. And verse after verse after verse can be used to support the fact that the one condition that brings about salvation is trust in what Christ finished for us at the cross.
For example, the dying thief. Think about him as God’s example of how people are to be saved. Obviously there was only one thing that he did. Only one thing he could do. He was dying and he simply looked over to Christ and trusted Christ. And Jesus said today, that’s what made me in paradise. salvation happens at a moment of time or an instant of time at the moment of belief or trust. And obviously the dying thief didn’t have to continue confessing his sins.
I’m confessing my sins. I’m confessing my sins. I’m confessing my sins. No, the dying thief simply trusted Christ. And upon that Christ said right now you can know that when you die you’re going to meet me in paradise. be today with me in Paradise upon his death, he would join the Lord. Salvation is not based upon us continuing anything. It would be works. Confessing our sins would be a work. There is nothing forHarris to do but receive what Christ has already done.
Obviously, this person cannot support that belief with Scripture, but I would challenge them and I would say, show me chapter and verse please. This is where usually people go silent because they cannot support that. The Bible tells us the fact in Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, 4 by grace, grace meaning mercy, a narrative favor, are you saved through faith in Jesus Christ and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
So notice it says two There are a few things there. Salvation is not of yourself, which would mean there is nothing that you or I could do to gain our salvation, including confessing our sins. And secondly, it says it is not of works. Unless we should boast or brag and say that, hey, we did something to bring about this salvation. So we can’t brag, we can’t boast and say that we did anything. But we simply trusted in what Christ did for us.
If you are praying for this person, you will be praying for this person. If you share it with her, point out a couple of the simple verses, even John 3 16, for God still loves the world. All of mankind, that he gave his only begotten son, that who soever, and it doesn’t say confess your sins, or continually confess your sins, or it doesn’t list any other thing, But simply, whosoever believeth, that means the trusting Christ should not perish but have everlasting life.
Sidney will be praying that that person will trust the Lord and God will use you to bring the gospel to that person. Alright we have Tony down in Sarasota, Florida and Tony, welcome to Bible Emuya on the air. Thank you for taking my call. last caller tied in with your answers to what I wanted to ask. I’ve been confronting, been confronted with a lot of what’s falling away, what’s going on, all these things that we talked about on the radio and I don’t want to throw all those people and pastors out with the bath water.
But at the same time there’s a verse that says something and please help me with her. These pastors say this claim that Jesus came in the flesh meaning Jesus was God. They are not of the kingdom or do you know which verse I’m talking about? Yeah, it’s over in 1st John chapter 4 where the where to test the spirits and if people do not recognize that Jesus is God who came and took on you in flesh. Obviously then they are the spirit of antichrist.
That’s right. That’s right. Okay. And that’s where, okay, so we’re saying that Jesus did come in the flesh. He died for us. He was raised from the dead. Yet when they preach their gospel, it’s so watered down and it’s so this died for us. Are they? I don’t even know. Do you know what questions I’m asking? Yeah, I think I hear you. acknowledging that he came in the flesh, but at the same time when you look at so much of what else they’re doing, it just seems really watered down.
Well, or they’re preaching another gospel. For example, the Roman Catholic Church, and I probably get myself in trouble, but they believe that Jesus Christ is God and that he took on human flesh. And certainly we applaud them for getting that right and the fact that they believe in the the Trinity that God does exist as three separate eternal persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And yet they come right back around and preach a false gospel.
And in Galatians chapter 1 Paul says, though we are an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, then that which we have preached unto you, let him be a curse. So obviously we can’t pervert the gospel and the gospel is perverted as soon as you You add one human work to what Christ has done. And the Bible is very clear that there is no works to be done on our part to be saved. But after we’re saved, that’s when works come into play where we can then become a disciple of Christ and earn rewards by living for Christ as a believer.
But as an unbeliever, there’s nothing we can bring. I love that hymn just as I am I come without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me and I have been in church where they sing that but that’s not what they really preach. They really talk about it before they’ll sing that and then they’ll have the other song just as I am I come and you know. But in reality they’re really telling you there’s more to do than you have to do something But the Bible is right along with that hymn that there’s nothing we can bring.
We can’t have our hands have to be empty. So Lord, I have nothing to offer you. I’m a sinner, lost, condemned, headed for hell. And I need to simply trust in your finished work at the cross and your shed blood as the only means of my salvation. So I’m afraid the Roman Catholic Church has added the sacraments and a host of things that you must do. And you can never be assured of your salvation because you never can be assured of what you’ve done at all or have done it well enough.
And so there is no Roman Catholic that I know that can tell you eyeball the eyeball that I know I’m saved and I know I’m going to heaven when I die. Most of them will say I’m going to purgatory when I die and work off the last sins that I didn’t pay for here, which obviously tells us they have a corrupted concept of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I appreciate your ministry. We’re moving from Florida to West Virginia. Hopefully we can find you out there because I’ve missed you during our travels.
I’m in Florida so I’m with them. Well on the internet you can for sure so you have to get the internet. And Lord willing hopefully maybe you can be an instrument to help us get on the air in West Virginia. Do your homework and find the station and get in touch with us and we’ll talk about it. we can get us on the air up in your area wherever it will be. Alrighty, thank you. Thank you Tony. That was Tony down in Sarasota and moving to West Virginia.
We now have Ken in Clearwater Florida and Ken, you are on the air. Welcome to Bible Life. Thank you. It seems to be the theme of the day of trust and belief. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but the trust factor, I’m a little confused on that. Just on that. The society, I mean, trust is not something that’s an easy commodity. Well, you’re right. And let me just give you a brief illustration and we’ll go forward.
It’s just like I’m sitting in a chair right now, and I am trusting this chair to hold me off the floor. And my trust is built upon… Facts about chairs. I know chairs are designed to hold people and so I didn’t come in and test my chair before I sat in it. Maybe I should have, but I simply rested my weight upon it. I committed my body’s weight to a trusting that is going to hold me from not falling onto the floor.
And when you completely put your confidence in that chair to hold you up, you’ve placed your faith in that chair. And that’s what it is with Christ. When you trust or put your weight upon Christ, there’s no way you can do it. the only means of your salvation that you are resting in him is the only means of your entrance into heaven God saves you. And so it’s just a matter of putting your confidence in him, resting your weight upon him, putting your trust that he is going to do what he said he would do, take you from earth to heaven whenever you die and upon you’re trusting him at that moment he gives you eternal life and you’re saved forever.
Do you think? You think they certainly are yes in fact the Greek word is Distuel it’s hard believe that you get special a Wonderful gift of going to heaven for eternity because it’s not your acts is not your works, but just but that’s you’re gonna go to heaven It’s like that’s almost too good to be true. Well, that’s why it’s called good news That’s why it’s called that’s why it’s called good news. We’re gospel means good news It is good news and you see the Bible tells us that our works are all corrupted by sin The Bible says in Isaiah 64-6 that our best righteous deeds are filthy rags.
So if you were to offer God anything, I don’t care the most wonderful religious things that you’ve done. God says, why are you giving me this pile of filthy rags? We would be insulting God. God loved us and He gave His life at the cross of Calvary. And He’s saying that I paid your sin debt in full. And I want to give this to you because I love you. You know, at Christmastime, when they would hand out gifts, when my dad, he’d be the one to do it when we were small children, he never said to me, here’s a gift with your name on it.
Now before you can open it, you’re going to have to pay me $19.95 plus tax. If I had to contribute anything, it would no longer be a gift. But somebody, maybe it was my dad giving me that gift, but he purchased it at whatever price he paid and he’s offering it to be free because he loves me. That’s what a gift is all about. And the gift of God is eternal life. God loved us so much that he was willing to die to pay for it and purchase it.
And if we were to try to say, well, Dad, thank you for this gift, but here’s five dollars. Maybe that’ll kind of offset whatever expenses you had. That’d be an insult because we can’t offer anything. But after we’re saved, We can say, Lord, I want to live my life for you because I love you and I am grateful that you are willing to give your life for me. And that’s the key to the Christian life after your save. It’s one that’s done out of love.
The Bible says it’s the love of Christ that constrains us to serve Him after we become saved. And I’m not serving God to be saved. I’m already saved. And we’ll be whether I serve or don’t serve. But I want to serve because I’m so excited about what He did for me that I want to tell of this about it. So I can’t help that helps. And people stumble over that. They say, well, I just can’t accept that. That’s too simple.
No, because I’m a sinner and I try home. And we always will. Yeah, I know. And it’s so hard to believe that he’s just going to have to. Well, I’ll tell you what, it brought tears to my eyes and I said, Lord, I’m going to live for you because if you were willing to die for me, the least I can do is open up my mouth and tell somebody else about you. The ministry is wonderful. I listen to you every day.
Thank you. Thank you Ken. Have a good day. Appreciate the call. We have a ton of callers here and the clock is just running right up against us. And I’ll just take this off her question from Richmond, Virginia Francis calls in. She says the Bible says try the spirits. That’s 1 John chapter 4 verses 1 through 4. What does that mean? The word try means to test or prove. What you have to do is hear what people are saying compared to the Bible and see if it’s an agreement.
It says in 1 John 4 1, don’t be gullible, don’t believe every spirit, don’t believe everybody that comes along because there’s many false teachers that are out there. So you have to listen to what they say, compare what they say to the Bible, if they line up with the Bible, then they’re teaching the truth. But if what they’re saying does not line up with the Bible, then they’re a false teacher. And so it’s really telling you how to do that.
You test them against the standard, which is God’s Word. And it says in Isaiah a twenty, a favorite verse of mine, if they speak not according to this word, the Bible, then it is because there is no light in them. No light in them. Wow. Thank you, Francis, in Richmond, Virginia. We have so many questions. We didn’t get too. We’ll try to get to them tomorrow. And I hope that you will call in and leave your question off here.
If you didn’t get on the air and you would like to have us try to answer that we will. If you haven’t trusted Christ, just whisper a prayer. Right now, God, I’m a sinner, but I believe Jesus died for me. I trust him right now as my Savior, but I only hope of heaven and God will save you. Then make that second decision. to be the disciple where the joy of the Christian life comes into play as you live for Christ, not to be saved, but because you are saved.
Hope you’ll join me again. Tomorrow, 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. 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. Thanks for tuning in to Bibleline today. I’m Dr. England Sherman. This has been Bibleline and we’ve enjoyed bringing it to you.
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