Bibleline Radio Show – 2006-11-27

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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. Well, good morning and welcome to the Bible Eye and Great to Be with you today. Thanks for tuning into the broadcast. We’re coming to you live from Tampa, Florida, from our studios here at the Calvary Community Church where I am the pastor.

We look forward to meeting our listeners and if you ever get a chance to come by and visit our resource center or visit a worship service, we would love to have you come by and meet us. We’re open every day Monday through Friday, till about 4.30 in the afternoon, Eastern Standard time. Don’t forget you can go to the internet and catch our radio programs again and again and again anytime of day from anywhere in the world and that is exciting and our TV programs are there as well so give that a look and we want you to know that we’re leaving for Israel March 12th.

We’d love to have you go. It’s not too late. We want you to get your reservation in. Please call us about the Israel trip leaving March 12th of Monday coming back March 23rd of Friday. We’ll be baptizing in the Jordan River and we’ll be having the Lord suffered next to the hill of Calvary and next to the Tomb of Christ. We’re going to be teaching the Bible all day long at all the different sites and we’ll have a wonderful time.

It’ll be trip number 14 for me. I’d love to have you on board with me as we go visit the land where the Bible was written and where Christ gave his life for the world and all that would believe on him would not perish but have everlasting life. We would love to have you call us today. We have callers already waiting from Oklahoma, from northern Florida and off-air questions rolling in here. We’d love to hear from you. Call us at 1-800-576-3771.

1-800-576-3771. And of course, get your Bible out and get your pen and pencil and take notes and we’re going to get going here and we hope that you’ll enjoy the study. In Matthew 25, this comes up again and again, people are confused when they read about the unprofitable servant in Matthew 25 and how he is cast into outer darkness. Let me read the verse for you. It is Matthew 25 and this is in verse 30 where it says, “…cast ye the unprofitable servant in the outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Now some people say, isn’t this a saved person being lost? And the answer is no. It’s impossible for a person once saved to ever be lost. Let me give you a good cross-reference. We’ll take a look at the passage through the light of a clear passage. And then we’ll also look at the text here in Matthew chapter 25. But you’ll notice in John 637, Jesus says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise, I will in no wise cast out.

That means under no circumstances would Christ ever cast out a believer. So if somebody is cast out, they cannot be a believer because Christ makes a promise that he would under no circumstances ever cast out a believer. So if you’re a believer, if you’ve trusted Jesus Christ as your only means of reaching heaven by simply trusting in his death and shed blood, you are saved forever and Christ makes a promise in John 637 that he would in no wise or in no case or under no circumstance ever cast you out.

So therefore going to Matthew 2530 where it says cast you out the unprofitable servant, this has to be a person who is unsaved. But can we demonstrate that from the text of the passage? And the answer is yes. You’ll notice there are three different men here that are given talents. is given 5, 1 is given 2, 1 is given 1. And the first one, Jesus says to him in verse 21, well done thou good and faithful servant. Now, when it says good, Sir, that means this man is saved.

How do we know? Well earlier in Matthew in chapter 19 Jesus said to the rich young ruler, why did you call me good? There is none good. There is none good. There is none good but one and that is God. So we learn that no one in the human race is good. All have sinned. All have come short of the glory of God. And so if you are an unbeliever, you are a believer. According to the Bible, not good, not righteous, you are unrighteous and you are headed for hell.

But when a person puts their trust in Jesus Christ as Savior, the righteousness of God is credited to their account and the Bible calls the believer good. The Bible calls the believer righteous. Let me quote 2 Corinthians 5.21, one of my favorite verses where it tells us about what heaven at the cross, that God made Christ to be sin for us, Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

That’s not preached on very often, but in order to go to heaven, you have to have the righteousness of Christ. What happened at the cross was our sins were taken by God and laid upon Christ, and Christ was made to be sinned for us so that we on the other hand who received Christ by faith might be made the righteousness of God, we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So when you trust Christ you are then considered good or righteous.

Now as you interpret the Bible you’ll notice in verse 21 of Matthew 25 he says well done, thou good and faithful servant. So in one breath, he says that this man is saved. He is considered good because of his faith in Christ and the righteousness of God has been imputed to his account. And as a result, he is able to enter into heaven. But also, it says here he is a faithful servant. And as a result, he will be rewarded for that.

And it says, because you have been faithful over a few things, I will make the ruler over many things. So two things are going on here. The Christian life is separated here from salvation. This man is considered good because of his faith in Christ and is made righteous or good in the sight of the Lord based upon Christ, death and shed blood in his substitutionary payment. We find that because of that he is asked to enter into the joy of the Lord, he is invited to enter in the heaven.

But also we find here he is faithful in addition to being saved. And as a result because he says you have been faithful over a few things, I will make the ruler over many things. So here this man was saved and he was faithful. He was saved and therefore eligible to enter heaven. He was faithful therefore he received rewards based upon his good deeds. Verse 23, the second servant, same thing as said of him. Well done now good. He’s called good when the Bible says there’s none good, not one but God.

So as a believer, you are called good because of the righteousness of Christ credited to your account. He’s also called faithful because he’s good. He’s able to enter into the joy of the Lord because he’s faithful, he will be made a ruler over many things. So he will be rewarded for his faithfulness. When you get down to the last servant, it says in verse 26, his Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked, Thou wicked. He doesn’t call him good.

He says, Thou wicked. Now who are the wicked? According to the Bible, anybody that has not trusted Christ is considered wicked because is standing before God based upon their own righteousness, which is unrighteousness. There is none good the Bible says there is none righteous, no not one. So the unbeliever, and this is obviously a tip-off, this man is not a believer, he is called wicked. But not only that, he is in addition said to be slothful. So he is going to be rewarded in hell with a degree of punishment according to his works.

So he goes to hell because he is an unbeliever. He is wicked or not good, not saved, not righteous because he is not trusted Christ. So he is wicked or unsaved an unbeliever. But then because of his slothfulness he will also be assigned a degree of punishment in hell according to his works. It says in verse 30, cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Those in hell will weep and they will gnash their teeth forever and ever and ever and ever.

Amazing that the Bible is very clear about the fact there is an eternal help. And what people get confused on sometimes is because all three are called servants. That should not confuse you. Christ when He comes back is King, is King over all the earth. Everybody on the earth, whether saved or lost, are servants of the King. And here we have the first two in Matthew 25, are saved servants, and the last one is an unsaved servant. The last one is a wicked man, not saved, not having God’s righteousness, which comes by by faith, but as a result he is therefore cast into outer darkness or hell and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This is a lesson on how to interpret your Bible. You have to be able to slice and rightly divide the verses, the part that talks about salvation from the part that talks about the Christian life. This first servant was good, and then he was righteous, he was saved, he was a believer. Secondly, he was faithful, he was able to enter heaven because he was righteous or good because he trusted Christ, but he was rewarded according to his faithfulness. The last servant was not saved, he was called wicked, which is the case of every unbeliever.

And so unless you rightly divide the word, you’re going to be in confusion. Now again, we always interpret a difficult passage in the light of a clear one. And that is exactly how we started out. We went to a clear passage, John 637, where Christ promises He would not cast out anyone that has come to Him in faith, trusting Christ as Savior. He says that I will in no wise cast you out. And so, whenever somebody is cast out, they cannot, they cannot, they cannot be a believer because Christ makes a promise that he would never cast out a believer.

If you’re a believer, if you’ve trusted Jesus as your only hope of heaven, then you are eternally saved. You’re eternally secure. In fact, let me say it this way. If you’re not saved forever, then you’re not saved. If you’re not saved forever, then you’re not saved. I’m Dr. Englunds from This is my Blind. I hope you’ve trusted Christ as your Savior. We hope that you’ll enjoy Bibleline today as we come to you live from Tampa Ford. It’s Monday and we look forward to a great week being with you every day and we hope that you’ll tune us in every day and tell your friends about the program.

We’re going to go to Walrika, Oklahoma and we have Jim on the line and Jim, welcome to the Bibleline. You are on the air. Good morning, Dr. Nastam. Good morning, Jim. My question today is, it’s actually a two-part question, how long was it when Paul received the message and then how long was it before he preached it and during that time that he was preaching it, did peer and the other disciples continued to preach the gospel, the kingdom message and practice along until they died?

Now the answer is that in chapter 8 we see Saul introduced chapter 9 we see Saul interrupted on his journey there on the road to Damascus. It wasn’t until he got into Damascus, he was blind for three days that a man named Ananias leads Paul to Christ. And of course Paul is now saved and now he begins to preach Christ immediately. So it wasn’t very long after Pentecost that Saul became saved and he becomes the apostle that replaces Judas who had committed suicide, who was never a believer in what the hell because he never trusted Christ as his Savior.

But we also note here that the Gospel of the Kingdom really ceased to be preached even before Pentecost. That was the message about the Kingdom that would have been established had Christ been received as King by the Jewish nation, but because they rejected him, that was withdrawn. And Christ went back to heaven and peace on earth and the Kingdom that he promised has been postponed until he comes again the Second Coming. So all of them preached the Gospel of the grace of God.

Let me quote to you, Acts 15, Peter is very clear here and he says in Acts 15, 11, He says, we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. What a great verse. Peter tells us that in Acts 15 in verse 11, let me read it again. We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. That’s Jewish people, even as they, the Gentiles. And so Peter was very clear about what message he was preaching.

No, he did not preach the gospel of the kingdom. I believe that message was withdrawn when Christ on the Mount of Olives in Matthew 23 says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not. Therefore your temple, the house, the sanctuary of Jerusalem would be left desolate and he He says, I’m leaving and you will not see me again until the Jewish people will say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of Yeshua or Jesus.

That will happen during the tribulation period when the gospel of the kingdom will be preached once again. So, Jim, I hope that helps. It did, Dr. Lynch. It did help very much. Thank you. You’re so welcome and that is from Oklahoma. We now have Betty in Beverly Hills, Florida and Betty, welcome to Bibleline. Yes, good morning, brother Hank. I’m so grateful to hear your voice this morning. I see that you’re down with a bug apparently the same type that I have.

So my husband and I were grateful to be able to partake of your morning message yesterday. Thank you for your ministry. You’re welcome. My comment is I would like first to just quote one John chapter four, the first verse that says, beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets. Being a novice on the internet, on the computer brother, Lindstrom, as you know I am just a novice. I am getting more and more emails from those of whom I really believe are truly born again, which are deacons and so forth.

And just recently I got one called an interview with God. The pictures were gorgeous. The platitudes were sweet. But I investigated more behind the scenes, if you will, right from that website. And I see that many of the comments have been made by, in the past, and were made by Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, neither or which I believe, or I know for sure we’re not Bible believing Christians. Admission was to pass this on to many and make it go worldwide.

And this concerns me a great deal. Do you believe that I’m being petty, Brother Lyncham, or that we should have a little more stuff, as we would say, in the Edith, that we have a little more discernment and be careful as to just pushing the send button and irregardless of what the doctrinal heresy is or whatever. Could you please address this brother Lynch Trump? Sure can. And Betty and I agree with you. I don’t know if you’re not being petty.

This is serious I think when we are promoting a false message and any way, shape or form. Second John verse 11 says we become partaker of that evil message if we promote it or bid those who preach at God’s speed. So I think we have to be discerning and we have to say, I’m not going to forward this to anybody and I get tons of those two and I don’t send them anywhere. They just dump off my computer because although these people are well-meaning and they sound nice, the message is not there.

And it’s amazing how blind that people can be. The Greaten is the God of this world and blinds the minds of people. We have to really have God help us open our eyes to see the truths of God’s Word. This is a wonderful book, but it’s spiritually discerned. Spiritual enlightenment or spiritual light on God’s Word comes by God opening our understanding. I think we need to pray. Like David did in the 119th Psalm, he said, open my eyes that I may see these wonderful truths out of your law.

And obviously God can open our eyes to see the truth and to be clear, which we need to be. Because if we’re not clear, as it says in Corinthians 14, if we give an uncertain sound, who’s you’ll prepare yourself to battle? Nobody will know. What to do unless we’re giving clear instruction and as believers were to be a clear sounding messenger of the gospel of Jesus Christ and this world and I think you’re right on the right track. Just delete all those and don’t for them.

Yes, I’ve been criticized as a doctrineist and I sort of I believe that I do have the gift of discernment and I believe that I should be investigating. I’m not going to take anymore of your time. We are truly holding you up before the throne of grace, but to the one who has the ability you and I are, let’s say, lying bodies if you understand what I mean health-wise and our treatments of the pain and just give all men.

Thank you. And apparently you watched our morning service on the internet. Wonderful. Yes, I did. And I was, we were, I coughed my way with you through the service, but we thank you for your faithfulness. I plead with the folks to just enable you to have some rest that are around you. I would love you proud. Take care and thank you for you. Thank you Betty and God bless and Betty is right on. You know, this thing of a gift of discernment, so many people are thinking they are discerning when they go by their feelings.

We are not to be discerning by our feelings or by our emotions. It says here clearly in 1 John 4 1, Beloved, Believe Not Every Spirit. What does that mean? In other words, when you hear what they have to say, you examine what they say in the light of God’s Word, and if what they say doesn’t square up with the Scripture, then you reject it. And it’s not based on feeling, it’s not based on emotion, it’s not based upon the fact that you like the way they looked or the way they sound, it’s based upon what they’re saying and is it in line with God’s Word?

I like Isaiah 8.20. It says, if they speak not according to this Word, the Word of God, it is because there is no light in them. Write that one down. Isaiah 8.20, if they speak not, if they speak not according to this Word, the Word of God, It is because there is no light in them. And that is how we discern. We check out what we’re hearing against the Word of God. If it doesn’t square up, then you don’t listen to them.

You turn them off and you reject their false message. Again, we have lots of colors out here. We have Dave in Plant City, Florida. And Dave, welcome to Bibleline your own there. Good morning, Dr. Hank, how are you today? Good. I’m glad to hear that you’re doing good, and I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I did indeed. I ate too much turkey, but otherwise I did fine. Well, that’s great. Another thing, last time I called, I used the wrong word when I made a comment to you.

I said something about you, side-stepped the question, and I should have said you misunderstood it, and I apologize for that. And my question today, in the Bible, it don’t seem to give us any last names like of Jesus or King David or Abraham, but it does, if I’m correct Judas, the scariest, Mary Magdalene. Do you have any idea why and do we know Jesus’ last name by any chance? I’ll hang up and hear your answer. Thank you. All right.

Well, you know, it’s really not necessary. If you read the scriptures, it usually tells you who the dad is. It was Simon Barr Jonah, or Simon who became Peter was the son of a man named Jonah, not the Jonah that was swallowed by the fish, but another fellow. And we know that usually we find each of these people identified by who their dad was. And then it pours down through time, I guess, like if you were John’s son, your last name might be called Johnson and so on.

And so these different things that we have in our society help us. But today it helps us to have three names, I guess, to identify us because we have so many people. that has been a population explosion as of late. The world population in the 1800s was less than 200 million, and now we have six and a half billion. It’s just going up off the charts. I don’t think we have to worry about it because we know that Armageddon is coming.

He was in the Bible and he was in the Bible. Millions, in fact billions, are going to be killed. And so the playing field will be leveled in a sense. And I believe the world population will be reduced to the time of what it was when Christ was here the first time somewhere around 100 million. So I believe that probably almost 6 billion people will die in the tribulation period. period. And that’s a lot of people. And it’s scary out there.

If you heard some of the comments by Netanyahu this past week, he said, we’re three to five years from Armageddon. And that is if this madman and Iran gets the nuclear bomb, he will proliferate throughout the entire Middle East. And we’ll have a real serious problem on our hands. This is by the way, we’re going to go to break and it will come back and do the second half. We sure do enjoy being with you today and I hope you’ll call it if you have a question.

We have lots of callers sitting online. We’ll have to get to them after the break. But whole type, don’t go away. Keep your radio dial tuned right where it is and we’ll be right back after this break. Don’t 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 am Dr. Hinglisterman. This is Bibleline and we’re excited about being able to be with you. We have so many things going on. We’re excited about we are on in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Welcome to the program. Also in Nashville, Tennessee. Welcome to Bibleline. And we’re excited about the new areas where Bibleline is venturing out. We’re broadcast in Honduras. And we’re reaching the capital to Guzigalpa and other cities across Honduras. Our television Bibleline program is being aired in Mongolia. How exciting the Lord is open great doors and with the internet we have thousands and thousands around 13,000 people listen every month to Bibleline on the internet and a hundred 46 countries are represented from around the world.

Maybe you’d like to help Bibleline. We would like to clear out this year having all of our bills paid, and we could use your help, and we are lesser supported. We’re not trying to get your money, but we do want to see Bibleline continue to expand and grow. We would like to make sure that all of our bills are paid, and we could use your generous gift to Bibleline at this time. You can also mail that gift to Bible.

Just call our operators on the 800 number. They’ll be glad to give you the address and or send you an envelope with our address already printed on it. We hope you’ll tell your friends about the program and help us grow our audience. We hope you’ll tell them about the Internet and how they can be able to catch these programs any time of day, Any place in the world any Time of the month. This is just round the clock 24 7 you can catch our Information on the internet.

I want you to go to Israel with me. I’ll be leaving March 12th and that’s a Monday coming back on March 23rd of Friday It’ll be trip number 14 for me. We’ll be baptizing in the Jordan River will be having the Lord suffer right next to the hill of Calvary looking over at the tomb of Christ and we’ll be Looking at all the sites where Jesus walked and taught and where the prophets walked and it’s gonna make the Bible come Alive for you I guarantee you in any case call and Make sure you get the information sent to you and make your decision and sign up soon so we can get you on board for this trip that will leave on March 12, 2007.

We’re going to be joining the stations that have been on break and do Bible in Part 2, so keep your radio tuned right where it is. Don’t change that dial and sit back and enjoy the second half of Bible on. Would you like to call Bibleline and ask Dr. Lynch from a question? You can. Pick up your phone and dial 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Now here again is Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Alright, this is Bible Eye. We’re through the break and we’re into Bible Eye in Part 2, the second half and we hope you’re enjoying Bible Eye in today.

Thank you for listening and thank you for being a partners with us. We certainly covet your prayers as we heard Benny up in… Beverly Hills Florida saying that she and her husband were praying for Bibleline and for me as I have this cold that you probably can detect in my voice today. And hopefully I can get this behind me and we appreciate your prayers very, very much because we believe God does answer prayer. And I believe sometimes the devil really tries to hinder Bible.

And you know we had a lightning strike here just a week ago. And it took out in our church facility here three water heaters, three or four of our computers, all of our routers and internet equipment, our phone equipment, and even affected our church organ. We are discovering more things and hopefully we can get all of these restored and back online. I believe our insurance will take care of it. But my goodness, it’s like the devil sometimes gives you challenges.

As you read through the epistles of Paul, he will say numerous times how Satan hindered him, how he hindered the gospel. I believe that because Bibleline is focusing in on the things that really matter. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and the accuracy of giving out the Bible in a correct way. That the devil definitely wants to give us our challenge. So pray for us as we get all of our things repaired. It took out our tell us, which is a unit that allows us to make the phone calls.

We’ve got a loner and we’re getting all these things repaired, but wow, all of a sudden a lightning strike and the next thing we know we’re dead in the water. Pray for us. We really do covet your prayers and I just shared that story with you because it’s real. We’re in a warfare. We’re in a battle and a lot of it is unseen as Satan works to prevent the gospel message from going forth. We also need your financial help.

We would like to finish out December with all of our bills paid and we could use your help to be able to clear out our bills from the year 2006. Would you consider giving a special gift here at Christmas time to Bibleline? Would you consider investing in Bibleline and the message of the gospel going out to the world? This is a time that we need to step up and do something as I watched Netanyahu last week on an interview saying, we’re three to five years from Armageddon.

I mean, that should raise the hair on your arm and create an alarm in our country that we have irresponsible people like the head of Iran who is openly telling us what he He wants to do. And that is he wants the nuclear bomb and he wants to destroy Israel and he wants to destroy America and Europe. And if they get the bomb, you better believe they will use it. And I think we’re running out of time. I am looking forward to being raptured out before the worst takes place.

But when Netanyahu said we’re three to five years from Armageddon, I think we ought to really take note and ask ourselves, are we that close and the potential is absolutely we are? We need to get on the ball for Jesus Christ while we can do it. Your gifts are vital for us to continue and to be able to expand and to be able to reach the world with the gospel of Christ. We couldn’t do it without you. If I could, I would.

But it’s God’s plan that we partner together because you get to share in the blessings of this program and the fruit that it bears. Paul said in Philippians 4 17, not that I desire your gift, but as he appealed for money, he says I desire fruit that may abound your account. Wow, that changed my attitude toward giving forever when I read that verse because I realized I’m the loser when I don’t give. When I invest in things that are eternal, I am going to be having fruit I’m going to be richer in heaven one day.

Jesus said lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. He says, thieves don’t break through and steal them and rust doesn’t corrupt them and moths don’t eat them up. You can count on the fact that these treasures that you send ahead by investing in eternity are going to be there forever for you in heaven. So we thank you in advance. God bless all of you who pray for and give divine a line. You are the heroes that keep this program going.

And we thank God for you.cms. We’re now going to Lloyd in Tampa, Florida. He is on the line and then patiently waiting. Lloyd, thank you for waiting. Hey, Dr. How are you? Good. I was calling in regards, I was listening to the program a while back and a man had called about tattoos and asked that that was a sin and you were referred to Levitic….” where it speaks about tattoos.” And my wife had got a tattoo And before she had done it, we see a little bit of spiritual counsel just to make sure, to see what people had to say about that being a sin and whatnot.

And I was told that referring to Leviticus, that that is a cultural-based birth, and that the pagans, the way they were tattooing and piercing themselves, the action of their culture and their anti-God culture pretty much. For instance, most Christian men don’t really have a problem with women piercing their ears, but it does say not to put any holes in your body. I was just wondering, that’s kind of just a general statement pretty much. Well, I don’t think it’s a cultural land.

This is what God has said. In Leviticus 19, 28, you’re not to print any marks on your body, which is tattoos, and you’re not to make any cuttings in your body. And I think that’s because God has created your body. In Genesis, these 70 fashioned men out of the dust of the ground. And I don’t think he wants us to deface this body and to print marks on it. And it’s like graffiti. I think that we are defacing it.

If you read 1 Corinthians 6, 19, and 20, it says, what? Don’t you know that your body is the temple? The body is the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells within you, and you’re bought with a price. Therefore it says, glorify God in your body and in your spirit. And obviously we’re told to glorify God with our body. So when we print marks on it, we have, I think, defiled the body. And I don’t think we are allowed to do that.

I think if you already have a tattoo, then you’re stuck. I think you can get it removed, but I don’t know if they can perfectly do that and it’s painful. But, basically, I think it’s wrong, and it’s not a cultural thing. Otherwise, we can explain away everything in the Bible as being something that was cultural for that time. not true, the Creator Himself is the one who makes those remarks. And He says, don’t print any marks on your body.

And He says, don’t cut your body or cut any cuttings in your body. And I think that still stands for today. And I would recommend in the New Testament 1st print in 619 and 20 that says your body is God’s temple. And what you do with this body can either bring glory to God or you can defile the body and deface it and God is not pleased at all when that happens. So the body is of course his temple.

He lives within us and you have to ask yourself when you go to the tattoo parlor with God himself, the Holy Spirit living in you as a believer. He is happy when you violate his word and you have somebody starting to print marks on your body when he said in the Old Testament you are not to do that. And of course I feel badly if you already have tattoos you have to live with those. And many times that happens before you get saved or before you have any knowledge of what the scripture says.

But if you know what the Bible says then you are definitely not to do that. And I remember when my daughter was young, I threatened her. I said, if you want to get a tattoo, you better think twice because I’m going to take you to a plastic surgeon and they’re going to remove some flesh from another part of your body and replace where that tattoo was. You know, she never got a tattoo. She took me to be literal and I was.

I was going to have a plastic surgeon remove that skin and replace it so that she didn’t have those marks on her body. In any case, her friends were encouraging her and she said, Dad, what do you think? And I said, you’re not going to do it as long as you’re living in my house. And she never did. And of course, the reason why is not because it’s my idea that it’s wrong. It’s what God says. I think we have to.

Thank you so much, Lloyd, and I think it is wrong. I think it’s not a cultural thing. It’s amazing today how people explain away passages and they say, well, that’s not for us. That’s for somebody else and it doesn’t apply today. And yesterday we can do whatever we want when I don’t think that is true at all. We have a number of off-air questions. We’re going to try to get to some of these. And I’m going to try to get to the next question.

I hope that if you have a question, you’ll call in and leave that question with us, or you can go on live with us and we’ll answer that on the air. We have author here, Jeff, down in Venice, Florida, in Ephesians 1. He says, man making salvation decisions. Explain decisions. Well, I’m not too sure what you mean, except this probably has to do. I’m guessing with predestination. We do make a choice. And I’d like to have you look at Ephesians 1, 13, where it shows God’s part in our part and how we do make a choice in our salvation experience.

And it’s a great verse. In Ephesians 1,13 it says here of Christ, in whom you also trusted. Well that experience of you trusting Christ is your decision to get saved. It says here you trusted in Christ after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. So when a person gets saved, they first hear the word of God, they hear the gospel message presented. And then they trust Christ. And then it says, after you believed, and it should read, having believed, or simultaneous with belief, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

So in other words, when you place your trust in Christ, after hearing the gospel of your salvation. The good news about how Christ died shed his blood, paid your sin debt and full was buried and rose again from the dead. God saves you. And it says you’re having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. So God the Holy Spirit seals you and that happens upon your belief. Now it is God’s predetermined will to save all that we believe.

But your choice about believing or trusting unpriced is of course your choice. God offers salvation to the whole world. For God so loved the world, that’s the whole human race. John 3 16 says that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Christ should not perish but have everlasting life. So Jeff I hope I got your question right. I’m not too sure that I did. And hopefully that explains it. We have another question here about discerning Cliff and Tampa calls in and talks about Pentecostal friends say that they are a discerner of spirits.

Well, generally speaking, most people get this wrong and they do it by feeling. Let me tell you, it is based upon what they say, what they teach, and if they are not speaking according to God’s Word, it is because there is no light in them. I had a young lady come to me a number of years ago that said that she was demon involved. She was told by the demons to kill her infant child. It was an awful, awful nightmarish situation.

She told me how she had gone to a number of Pentecostal churches, and they had laid hands on her to cast out the demons. She said it only got worse. She got more demons. And I really believe that that was true. When I had a chance to sit down with her, I talked to her about her salvation, and I led her to Christ. And I said, guess what? From this point on, you should have no more trouble with demons, because once you trust Christ, then God the Holy Spirit comes into your body and your body becomes His temple and there is no demon.

That would want to live in the same body with Jesus Christ or with God the Holy Spirit. And you know she kept in contact with me over the next several years and she told me she had no more problems. She had no more demons in her. She had no more voices, telling her to kill her infant child. What a wonderful story. And so, really it’s interesting how that there are those who claim that they can discern whether somebody has demons and try to claim that they can cast these demons out.

But the issue is really misunderstood by these people because the real issue is salvation. A person who is lost is potentially able to be indwelt by a demon. Not many are. I believe you have to make an invitation by an act of the will to have a demon come come and dwell you. But you’ll find that those that are demon and dwelt generally through drugs or through different places where they associate lay themselves open for demon possession. But a believer cannot be demon and dwelt.

It says in 1 John 4 4, greater is he that is in you, then he that is in the world. And so the he there is the Holy Spirit that is in you, then he the Satan that is in this world. So it tells us that we have overcome the spirits or the demons. According to 1 John chapter 4 as believers, and that the Holy Spirit dwelling in us is greater than Satan who dwells in the world and therefore we’re safe from being in dwelt.

That doesn’t mean that we’re safe from not being influenced anymore. We can be influenced by demonic forces. And we need to be careful what we read, what we see, what we do. But obviously the devil is out there to try to deceive, but you cannot be in dwelt once you become the same. So I caution those who claim that they have the gift of discernment. You need to make sure that you are discerning based upon what you are hearing from the person you are discerning and what the Bible says.

If they are not in agreement, then the person you are listening to is wrong. Isaiah 820, I will quote it one more time, If they speak not according to this word, that is the word of God, it is because there is no light in them. We have Mr. Anonymous in Tampa, leaves the question about dogs eating scraps under the table in Mark 7. Please explain. I don’t really understand the question. Everybody that has a dog knows that the dog is going to eat any scraps that come under the table.

And in fact, if you’re not careful, the dog will climb up on the table and eat what’s on your table. I had a dog that I remember one day I went outside to do a couple of chores and I had a sandwich I set it down and boy I tell you I turned my back for one minute and my dog was running across to the neighbor’s yard with my sandwich in his mouth. So the dogs are going to eat scraps, they’re going to eat anything they can and I don’t understand the question.

If you come back at that question again and tell me what you’re trying to figure out here I’ll be glad to help you. But it’s pretty straight forward. Dogs will eat scraps. If you have any scraps under your table and you have a dog, you better count on the fact the dog is going to eat him. And that’s all I can tell you. We have Ed in Richmond, Virginia, who calls in, and he says in Numbers, it talks here about those who rebelled against Moses and God and how God opened the earth and swallowed them, where they saved, and I believe they were.

And they were taken out of this world early because of your sin as Christians. And they went into the heart of the earth and I believe they went to paradise. And that’s where the unsaved dead prior to the resurrection of Christ went. But when Jesus died, He Himself descended into paradise. There he met the dying thief that he had told today thou shalt be with me in paradise, and he emptied the place out when he resurrected from the dead.

He emptied paradise out and now paradise according to 2 Corinthians 12, 3 is in heaven itself. And so I believe these were saved people who were rebelling against God and against God’s spokesperson, which was Moses, and God took their lives. And he took him home to heaven early or to paradise in this case because nobody went to heaven until after Christ rose From the dead the saved of the Old Testament went to paradise where they waited Carl in Sarasota leaves an off-air question and he says if we have freedom of choice How can we be a predestinated?

I don’t get the question real clear here, but In other words, I guess the question is, if we have freedom of choice, how can we be predestinated? Well, the point is that the choice is yours the choice Christ, or not trust Christ in this lifetime. What God has predestined is that he would save all that would believe. D.L. Moody said it this way, the Hoosomever wills are the elect. The Hoosomever won’ts are the non-elect. So what God determined was, He elected the save all that would believe.

So when you make your choice and believe, you become saved, you predestinate it then. If you die without Christ, then it’s been predetermined you’re going to go to hell. There’s nothing you can do to avoid that if you die as an unbeliever. Whosoever believeth in Christ should not perish but have eternal life. But if you don’t believe, my friend you will perish and you’ll not have everlasting life. Off here Yolanda in Tampa calls in and she says, When was the Eastern Gate sealed in by whom?

Jerusalem has 8 gates in the Old City wall around the Old City. The Eastern Gate is the gate that enters into the Temple Area, the gate that Christ used to enter into the Temple Area when he was here the first time. This gate, Ezekiel 44, predicts would be sealed up and not open again until Christ returns that is second coming. If you go to Jerusalem, you’ll see it’s sealed up at this very moment. And it’s been sealed up since around the 1500s.

Apparently, during the time of the Audubon Empire, the Turkish Empire, one of the Turkish sultans heard that Jesus would come and open that gate and liberate Jerusalem and raise up the Jewish nation to be the head nation on the earth. When he heard that, he told his architects to seal it up, to wall it up, to make it impossible for Christ to come back. Of course, in so doing, he fulfilled the prophecy. We have Rob in Pompano Beach and welcome to the Bible on your own ear.

Hi Dr. Lynch from How Are You? Good morning. I know you don’t have much time so I’ll be quick. You got a call from an anonymous caller just a few minutes ago about the dog and I found the verse he’s talking about. It’s in Mark 727 and 728. It’s about a woman who asked Christ to, if you could just explain that, I’d be interested to hear it. alright i’ll turn there right now maybe that’ll shed light on what the question was all about thank you rob for listing in that in pampano okay thank you very much for your ministry i really enjoy it beautiful but israel with you but maybe next time i hope so that would be great okay take care doctor linson bye-bye mark uh…

helping us out there in pampano i mean robin pampano helping us out telling us the passages in mark seven Let me turn there and see if I can find it real quick and we’ll maybe get to get the answer in before Bibleline is over today. We’re right up against the end of the hour. In Mark 7 and my pages are sticking together, it says here. In verse 24, from then he arose and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon and entered into a house and would have no man know it, but he could not be hid.

And there was a certain woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit who heard of him and came and fell at his feet. And it says here the woman was a Greek and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil. Then Jesus said to her, let the children first be filled for it is not meat to take the children’s bread to cast at the dogs. And she answered and said, and M.S. Lord, get the dogs under the table, eat the crumbs of the children’s, the crumbs of the children.

And he said, for this saying, go thy way, the devil has gone out of your daughter. Basically what he was saying is that at this period of time the message was given to Israel about the coming kingdom and the Jews had no association with the Gentiles. But notice this woman was a great woman of faith and because of her faith he did prematurely here. Go ahead and answer her request and cast the demon out. You’ve got to run. Keep looking up.

Jesus is coming and we believe soon. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a presentation of Bibleline Ministries of Tampa, Florida. 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. Alright, I’m Dr. Engleinstrum and we have finished Monday here at Bibleline as we hope to have a great week with you and I hope you’ll tune in every day.

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Or visit Bibleline online at BiblelineMinistries.com. Be sure to tune in for another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church. of Tampa, Florida.