Bibleline Radio Show – 2007-01-29 – Faith Without Works

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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

And thanks for tuning in today. And by the way, this program is being streamed to the internet right now and you can go to our website, BibleLineMinistries.org or .com. And you’ll find that there you can catch our radio programs and our television programs sitting there for you to listen to any time of day, any time of the week from anywhere in the world. 147 countries have logged on. You can tell your friends in other parts of the country or the parts of the world and they can be listening into Bibleline.

Why don’t you pass that word along? That would be great. Also, we have chosen a class we’ll be teaching tomorrow night, beginning tomorrow night, five weeks, 10 hours of instruction from 7 till 9 o’clock every Tuesday night beginning tomorrow night on the topic, Jesus is coming. And obviously that’s going to be a great class. One of the best I’m sure that we’ve ever done. Jesus is coming beginning tomorrow night at 7 o’clock. Why not come out and be a student if you’re in the area?

And if you’re not, you can order these CDs and also you could call and register and pay the fee and get the passcode to watch these classes on the internet live and also at your leisure throughout the week so you can catch the classes each week on Jesus’ coming, 10 hours of instruction and we hope that you’ll take advantage of that. And again we’re going to go to the Bible for a few minutes and then we’re going to take our callers.

You’re welcome to call in here the Bibleline at 1-800-576-3771. 1-800-576-3771. You know, James too keeps coming up again and again. People who don’t understand the plan of salvation and add works to salvation love this passage and they use it to bring works to the table. James is not talking about works for salvation, but James is talking about works for reward. There’s a difference between salvation, which is free and purchased by Christ’s death. Jesus paid it all as the hymn writer wrote.

Sin had left the crimson stain, but he washed it as white as snow. But eternal life being a gift throws people off. We have to separate and rightly divide the word and notice that works bring about rewards for the believer and they determine the degree of reward in heaven, but salvation is God’s free gift. We are going to turn to James 2 and take a look at your Bible. You might want to do that as well. No passage in all of scripture has been so misunderstood as James 2, 14 through 26.

What’s not works is dead is the quote that you’ll hear again and again by those who add works to salvation and that is their proof text. Most Christians don’t know how to explain that and so when they have the cults and others who teach works for salvation coming to them they really don’t know how to refute that. They really sometimes are left confused because this is a major Passage that is brought up again and again and again. Do you know how to explain James too?

Well not being able to explain this passage will hinder your effectiveness as a Christian witness So often the lost will object to the true gospel by saying Faith without works is dead But if you can’t explain this phrase, then you will make no further progress with the one to whom you are witnessing. And we find that one of the twists that we have out there today to say if you don’t have If you have any works then you don’t have any face.

And therefore you’re not saved. They say that if you don’t have work, you have a dead faith. Therefore you have no faith. Therefore you’re not saved. That’s not true. That’s not what James is saying at all. And you need to take a look at the passage very carefully. James writes his letter, his epistle, to save people. James was written to believers. Notice the phrase, my brethren. It occurs throughout the book. My brethren, my brethren. James 1, 2. My brother in James 1 16, my brother in James 1 19, my brother in James 2 1, my brother in James 2 5, my brother in James 2 14, my brother in James 3 1, my brother in Markham.

It’s to the brother and not to the lost. James is writing to people who are already saved and the subject is not how to be saved, but the Christian life and how to receive rewards in heaven. James is writing to those who are born again. James 1 18 says of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So we know that we are born again, we are saved at the moment we trust Christ and James is writing to those who are saved and who are born again and if you are a believer Then this of course is a passage for you.

James is talking about rewards. Notice he says in 214, what does it profit? The word profit is always used in connection with the Christian life and rewards that come from it. The word profit, the word gain, the word reward, all are similar. Treasure, profit, all or the loss of it, is determined by what you do for Christ after you become saved. You know at the judgment seat of Christ which is a judgment for believers only, every believer’s works will be judged and it will be determined then whether you’re going to be rewarded or suffer the loss of reward in heaven.

James is saying in James 2 14 that if a believer has no works that his faith will not save him from the embarrassment, the regret, the loss of reward that he will experience at the judgment seat of Christ. The believer will have his works judged and he won’t lose your salvation, but you certainly can lose your rewards. There’s going to be embarrassment, regrets, sorrow, tears. All those kind of things will be there for the believer who has not803 Christ.

How do we know? How do we know that James is talking about the Judgement seat of Christ? Well, read the context. In James 2, James says in verse 12, which is never quoted by anybody, so speak ye and so do ye as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. This can only be referring to the Judgement seat of Christ and how the believers will be judged there according to their works to determine the degree of reward in heaven.

But James 2 14, you’re certainly not seeing salvation in that verse. He’s talking to my brethren about this judgment at the judgment seat of Christ and how that you will not escape the consequences of that judgment just because you’re saved or just because you have faith. You know when they or different ones say that if you don’t have works, you have a dead faith and therefore you have no faith, that certainly is not true. If you read James 2.26 it says that as the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.

What does that mean? Well think about it. The body without the Spirit. If I were to drop dead right now, my body would slump to the floor and if you came up and took my pulse or would be none, if you looked for breath or breathing there would be none. There would be no heartbeat. There’s no vital signs. Obviously That’s what we often define as death, but yet I would be very much alive. I have eternal life I’ll be absent from my body and present with the Lord according to 6th Corinthians 5 8 So certainly the fact that my body is lying on the ground doesn’t mean I’m not alive anymore I’m very much alive But my body is the means by which I can display the life of my soul and the fact that I can move I can talk I can walk I can be visible to people, people know

I’m alive. But I cannot display my life in a physical realm without my body. So if I were to drop dead, my body would be lifeless. My soul would be very much alive and I would be with the Lord and I’d get a brand new body in heaven, but my body would no longer be able to display my life in the physical realm. James is saying in James 2.26 in the same way, Faith Without Works is dead. In other words, your works are like your body.

It’s the means, the visible means by which you display the fact that you have faith. If you have no works, nobody can see that you have faith. You’re obviously not going to impact anybody or be effective as a Christian unless you have works. James is reminding the Christians about how they needed to do works if they were to be blessed and if they were to be rewarded. James 1.25 says the one who is a doer of the word and not a hearer only is the one that is blessed in the deeds that he does.

the deeds that we do in the flesh bring about rewards for the believer as we live for Christ. But it has nothing to do with our salvation. Salvation is a gift purchased by God. James by the way teaches justification by faith. In verse 23 he reminds us of that wonderful verse in Genesis where Abraham got saved by faith alone. He actually quotes it in James to 23 where he says Abraham believed God concerning the Messiah. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.

Abraham was made righteous before God and saved by faith without works. Abraham was justified by four men by offering up his son Isaac. That was by the way 40 years after his salvation experience. Abraham had been saved forty years when he displays his faith by offering up his son Isaac, the example that James used in James chapter 2. So don’t let anybody fool you. Faith without works is dead in the sense just like my body is necessary to display the life of my soul.

If I have no works in a sense, I can’t display my faith, faith and therefore I have what they call a dead faith. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have faith. It means my faith cannot be displayed any more than if I don’t have my body that I don’t have a living spirit within me that will live on forever and ever. Certainly, I will live forever and I have eternal life from the moment I trust Christ as my Savior.

I’m Dr. Englundstrom. This is Bibleline and thank you for listening to Bibleline today. By the way, we want to go to some of the all-fair questions and then we’ll take your live question. The phone number is 1-800-576-3771. We have Martha in Bradenton, Florida, and she says, please rightly divide verses that speak about salvation and then also maybe discipleship. How do you do that? Well, a good clear example in our tons of them is in Matthew 11, 28. Verse 28 is about salvation.

It says, come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Everything is there. Come unto me. That’s all you have to do to be saved. Christ is already provided for salvation. You simply come to Him, and it’s open to everyone. All that labor and are heavy laden. And notice He says, I will give. Salvation is a gift you simply receive it. But then if you go on to verse 29 and 30 he then talks about the Christian life So I would draw a line between Matthew 11 28 and verse 29 and 30 because 29 and 30 are Talking about the Christian life.

He then says take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lonely and heart you shall find rest under your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So verse 29 and 30 are talking about Christian service and he’s talking here about two different kinds of rest in verse 28. The fact that you can rest in the fact that your salvation is secure and it’s settled and that you can have that assurance is given in verse 28.

But verse 29 is talking about a different kind of rest. Arrest even though your life might be in turmoil you might be going through great Struggles in your life. You can have a piece that passes all understanding that comes as a result of being in God’s will and serving him So that’s a good example. I hope that helps Martha But you separate from as we did in James to James is talking to my brethren the believer He introduces the fact that we have been born again James 118 a new birth has occurred, but now that we’re believers we have to be serving, and James is talking about the Christian life.

I hope that helps. We have Curtis in Bradenton, Florida, and Curtis, welcome to Bibleline You’re On The Air. Good morning. Great. Just wanted to make some comments on the subject. Really glad that you’re speaking about it. Sometimes we tend to get away from these kind of subjects today in church and stuff. But really I just wanted to kind of add to it. Thank you for just confirming what the Bible teaches about our eternal security and our salvation that believers have.

we can’t lose our salvation and we’re certainly not going to lose it according to our deeds. But I just kind of want to add it, I just was kind of getting confused though I’m really kind of educated on the subject but just thinking from somebody else’s point of view maybe getting confused. A lot of times we talk about believing in Christ and for the moment we believe in Christ that you know we’re eternally secure and there’s a truth that also wanted to to know though sometimes when we talk about work and face without you know work’s being dead and stuff like this we we think of you know we think of deeds and things like this but i wanted to make a note on repentance and jesus in the loop chapter thirteen uh…

talking to these folks and he says uh… Do you think that all these Galileans were worse sinners than the other Galileans because they suffered this way? He said, I tell you no, but unless you repent, you too will perish or the 18 who died when the tower of Salom fell on them. Do you think there were more guilty than others? And he says no, but also unless you repent, you will perish. And so repentance is also a key to our salvation and repentance.

You’ve gotten away from the true meaning of repentance. Repentance doesn’t mean to be sorry, but repentance translated from the word metinoid means a change of heart or a change of mind. So repentance can’t be viewed as a work. It’s a change of attitude, but repentance, Jesus own words, except you repent, you too will perish. So that’s lead you to the next part of the passage in Luke chapter 13 verses 6 through 9 where he talks about the tree that’s not bearing the fruit and hope it doesn’t seem like I’m going all over the place here.

But when we talk about works sometimes we tie that into or we forget about repentance because people tend to tie the two together. Repentance is of course the change of mind that occurs when you get saved and when you read that passage of Luke 13 you’ll notice the verse 2 he says Suppoji and then he tells them that their supposing was wrong and they needed to repent or change their mind in verse 4 of Luke 13 He says think he and their thing And their thinking was wrong and he tells them again they have to change their thinking.

They have to change what they had supposed. They were thinking wrong and drawing wrong conclusions and they needed to change their mind. And when you change your mind about Christ and what he’s done, then God saves us. And so salvation has nothing to do with works at all. That’s why the Bible says in Ephesians 2 and 9, it’s not of works. any man should boast or brag. But again, when you get the key, which is 2 Timothy 2.15, to rightly divide the word of truth, then you’ll be able to see that you need to separate the truth of salvation from the truth about the Christian life.

Most of the modern translations drop that verse. You have an NIV. Look for 2 Timothy 2.15 and rightly divine the word of truth is not there. They dump it because they don’t want you to be a student that rightly divides the word and those are bad translations. Yeah, I agree. You know, you know, judgment begins in the house of the Lord. And unfortunately, that’s the way that things have headed, getting away from hermeneutics and properly translating the Bible. Bibleline in certain words.

And I really do appreciate the subject of your speaking on again today. Just wanted to add the comment about repentance and repentance not being a work. No, it isn’t. It’s in fact included in saving faith. Let me move on to the but thank you Curtis that was great and the Curtis done in Bradenton Florida we have goddess in Tampa Florida welcome to my one year on the air. Good morning sir my name is Gladys Laddis. Gladys okay. And one of the questions that I have, I have so many, I’ve just came across this station and just I just don’t know I’m so tired and just I just never turn it off.

Wonderful. But one question answer I was married for 31 years and my husband laughs. The place that I’m in right now is just that I believe in God and I truly do. I always believed it and I brought. I believe ever word that is written in the Bible. And just my marriage, which has been about 10 years now, that he just walked off and left. I’m in this place, I was just reading. I know I get a little bit confused, I mean not confused, but I have bipolar for one thing.

It started in 1978, and I’ve gone through my own medication, and sometimes I come off it because I feel that whatever I’m going through, doesn’t have anything to do with me being sick, but I feel that it was sinfulness. And I think that the Lord has really done a mighty work. I feel that the Lord has really done a mighty work in my life because he did it. What is your question today? The question that I have is, would him lead in me?

Where is my… Right is, as far as being involved with another man. Well, have you all had a divorce? Yes. Yes. So he left you and divorced you and abandoned you. He, uh, yes. He left me. Has he remarried? But I divorced him. Okay. Has he remarried? No, sir. Because he told me he’d find somebody else, so he left me. I fought for many years trying to hold on to him because I believed God word and what it’s saying.

Yeah. Well, if you’re the innocent part of it in a delta relationship, you’re certainly free to remarry and I think you can go right ahead and get married. I wasn’t so the problem I have with myself because I wasn’t perfect myself in my marriage. So you see, do you understand what I’m saying? Yes, ma’am. Well, if you can live single, that’s wonderful and live for Christ. That’d be great, but if you cannot, I believe that if the marriage has been dissolved and he was with someone else that you would be free to remarry.

I mean that’s the problem I have is being free to even, you know, people are telling you could find somebody else but I don’t want to find nobody else. I want somebody to find me because I feel that law has done. Donna might have worked in my life and I’m, you know, if I had known these things before, I mean I’m just finding out this morning I find that sisters that I even have a choice. I found out in the last twenty years that even about a system, it’s like I was just dead.

Maybe it’s the sinfulness. Yes. Because through I have committed many many sins and you know I… Are you in a church now? Yes sir I am. Yes sir. I’m in a church. Well you need to be just living for Christ and God will direct your path with Proverbs three, five and six. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths, and we’ll be praying that the Lord will just lead you into that matter.

Thank you so much for your call, and we’re now going to answer by Ann in Tampa who leaves an offer question for us. If God and Jesus are the same person, how can Jesus sit on the right side of God in heaven? Well the answer is of course Jesus is God, but he’s also a man. The man Jesus will remain in heaven forever as a man and he will be seated at the right hand. So we have God, the eternal second person who involved a body and that body of course was the man Jesus and Jesus was crucified as a man was buried and rose again from the dead and now is ascended and is seated at the right hand of the Father and he will remain so forever.

So you have a man in heaven that is Jesus who will be there at the right hand of the Father forever and ever and ever. So he is God, but you have to remember he’s also a man and he’s the God-man who will be there on the right hand side. So he’s got N-Man at the same time that’s… The way you have to look at that. We have Robert in Plant City, leaving this off your question. It says here, take up your cross and follow me.

What does this mean? This has to do with the Christian life. You come to Christ to be saved. You follow Christ to be a servant or disciple. And taking up your cross, I believe means that you are going to witness for Christ and tell people about the cross and what happened. And then you follow Christ in his teaching. teachings in his life to be an effective witness for Christ. You simply come to Christ and trust him and his death and shed blood at the cross to be saved.

But then you follow. I like Matthew 4.19 where Christ says, follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men. So we know that following Christ means that you’ll become a fisher of men. You’ll hold up the cross and proclaim what Christ did on the cross for mankind and lead people to Christ and let your life be one that would be an effective life as you live it in accordance with God’s Word. Robert, I hope that helps and we’re going to go to break now because it’s that time and we’ll come back and do a second half hour of Bible and so don’t go away.

Keep your radio dial tuned right where it is. Don’t go away. Bibleline will be back in a moment. us a call at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. All right, we’re back here, and this is Dr. English from the Bible and you know it’s a brand new week. It’s Monday and we hope that you’ll tune us in every day or every opportunity you have. And also be aware that you don’t have to necessarily go at the time we come on the radio because with the internet you can hear our program anytime of day or night.

A lot of people tell me they want to come home in the evening, they have their dinner and then they go to their computer and they listen to Bible and there. And what they like is the fact that they can fast forward and they can back it up and they can pause it and they can just open their Bible and learn by just being able to slowly go through the question and answers that we have there. So take advantage of you would have the Internet.

Bible-lined ministry is not ORG or .com and we hope that you will benefit greatly. But we’ve got lots of things on that Internet site that will benefit you as well. So take a look including our online bookstore and there we have lots of things that will help you in your growth and in your evangelism and I hope you’ll take advantage of that as well. I’m Dr. Englinsztram and we want to thank all of you who pray for and give the Bible in because you’re the ones who actually keep this program on the air.

We are totally listener supported. We don’t have any other sources to pay for these programs. And so your gift to Bible in. Have you given a gift to Bible in the month of January? Well would you do that before January is over? We can certainly use your help and you can do that by mail, by mailing it to us and you can call 800 number. We’ll be glad to send you an envelope with our address on it or you can have our operators recited to you carefully and slowly so you can copy it down and send it to us and or you can give a gift by credit card over the telephone.

You might want to do that. Also, on our website, there’s a place on our online bookstore for you to be able to give to Bibleline in increments really as small as $1. So you can do that by credit card on the online bookstore, on the website, BibleLineMinistries.org, or.com. It’s Monday. I hope you make plans to join me every day, Monday through Friday. And if you ever get a chance, if you’re in the Tampa Bay Area, come by and see our Resource Center.

And join us for a worship service, if you like. We’d love to have you do that. and I hope that we’re blessing to you. Again, if you can give a gift in the month of January to Bibleline, it would be greatly appreciated. We’re about ready to rejoin the stations that have been on break, and we hope that you’ll stay tuned for the second half hour, and if you don’t get it on your broadcast, you can get that on the internet.

Here we go, second part of Bibleline. Would you like to call Bibleline and ask Dr. Lindstrom a question? You can. Just pick up your phone and dial 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Now here again is Dr. Hank Lindstrom. All right, we’re back for that break and welcome to Bibleline it’s wonderful to be with you. Thank you for listening and tuning in. We want to welcome our audience in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We have an offer question already coming in from Chattanooga. We’ll catch that in just a minute.

We’ll let you know that tomorrow we’re going to have, if you’re in the local area, classes that I’ll begin to teach on Tuesday night for five weeks, ten hours, two hours every Tuesday night from seven to nine. We’re going to teach on Jesus is coming. Wow, that’s going to be a great course, probably one of the best. And you’re welcome to join us coming over and signing up for the class and taking that class. There is a charge of $50.

But you can also, if you’re living in other areas, take it on the Internet by signing up over the telephone and getting the passcode so that you’re able to watch the classes as they happen live on Tuesday nights. Also you can go back and review them during the week. That’s a special, obviously thing that’s made possible by the technology we have today to be able to bring you the video and audio of the class as though you’re right there as it happens.

And then go back and review those in our archive section. So sign up for Jesus is coming and be one of our students for this course. I’ve taught over 40 of these. I’ve taught for the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago for 11 years. I’ve taught really for three different Bible colleges. And I love to teach. And some of these series that I’ve done 10 or 12 hours of teaching are available on CD and some now on DVD video. And you can order them from our operators.

You can call in and ask for a resource sheet to be sent out to you. You can also go on our online bookstore and see many of the things that we have available. I certainly hope that you will do that. So please take advantage of the class tomorrow night. If you’re in the Tampa Bay area, please come on over and sign up and be a student in the classroom. We’re going to have a lot of fun. I know you’ll enjoy it and I’m looking forward to having you in my class, beginning tomorrow night.

Five weeks from seven to nine o’clock, ten hours total of teaching. It will be 10 CDs available when it’s all over and you can take the class that way or you can do it live on the internet as we do it right here in Tampa, Florida. We want to thank all of you who give the Bibleline and make it possible for us to be on the air. If you have not given a gift in January, would you consider giving a gift this month?

As we near the end of the month, you could send a gift by mail or you can give a gift my credit card over the phone just to go ahead and call our operators and they’ll be able to either send you an envelope or give you the address or take your gift by credit card over the phone. We have Sarah in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has left us an offer question. She says, please expound on predestination and she is asking I think some from a verse in Romans.

You know, predestination is a word that scares a lot of people, but God is predestined to save all that would believe on Jesus Christ. And He is predestined that all those that would not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ would be lost. The El Moody said it as simply as I’ve ever heard it. He said, the Whosoever wills are the elect and the whosoever wants are the non-elect. And basically that’s it. So John 3 16 has predestination in it, doesn’t it?

It says for God so loved the world that’s the whole human race. That he gave his only begotten son that’s Jesus Christ, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish because Christ perished in their place but have everlasting life. So what was predetermined? the foundations of the earth, God chose that whosoever would believe on Christ would not perish but have eternal life. But He also determined that those that would not believe would perish and not have everlasting life. So Sarah, I hope that helps.

And if you have a particular verse in mind, please call back and let our operators know, I’ll try to answer that for you. We have Jack in Chesterfield, Virginia, and Jack, welcome to Bibleline You’re on the air. Hi. A comment about your opening statement about Jack Hook and to all believers, but only Jewish believers. I don’t think any of the Gentiles could be focused in on that. And James was probably the first letter to be written. And James was always under the law.

He was under the law even when Paul and Acts 15 tried to make Paul go to a sacrifice under the law. And he even said, look how many Jewish believers are so zealous for the law. He was proud to be under the law. Well, I think I would disagree with you. James, obviously in Acts 15 is the moderator at the first council held in Jerusalem where Paul and all the apostles got together. and he stands up and he declares the result that we were not under the law, but we’re saved by grace.

And of course Peter had stood up just previously and let me just quote Peter and then I’ll quote what James said at that council and this is Acts chapter 15. Peter says in verse 11, but we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. And then we have James answering and stands up and says, Men and brethren, harken unto me. Simon have declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name, which of course is what this age is all about, where God has now turned to the Gentiles.

And then it says after this where 16, Christ would return and the temple in Jerusalem would be built again and reestablished. And so then when he goes down about talking about the law, he then explains later in this declaration here that truly we are not under the law, that we are saved by grace and not by works. So James never believed that you were saved by the law. And of course James, the book of James doesn’t proclaim that at all.

It tells us were saved by faith alone. If you read verse 23 of chapter 2, James of all people quotes Genesis 15-6, the very same verse that Paul quotes in Romans chapter 4 and in Galatians chapter 3 that declares that Abraham believed God and it was a Canada him for righteousness. So James and Paul were all in agreement and Paul later says that in the book of Galatians when he talks about how we’re not under the law, he said that the apostles did not add anything to what he knew and all of them were in agreement the salvation was by faith alone.

But when Peter was from James he got a little upset. He became a hypocrite there, he sure did. And Paul pointed out his hypocrisy and he is Peter knowing that a man is not justified by the law. Even we Peter, you and I, Paul and Peter have believed on Jesus Christ that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. So are you saying that today we need to keep the law to be saved?

Oh no, I’m not saying that, but I’m saying that when the apostles gave their right hand to Paul and said when you go to the Gentiles they don’t have to be circumcised. They don’t have to do any of that. In the church in Jerusalem. That’s why they said Paul said you go to the Gentiles and we’ll go to the second size. Yeah but I think you’re confusing the terms. The way that they actually practice circumcision or not is not the point.

The point is that that term began to be used of those who are law keepers and or not under the law and of course everybody made it clear that circumcision really was a reminder of how a salvation was by faith. That’s what it tells us in Romans 4. Circumcision was a sign of the righteousness of the faith that Abraham had before he was ever circumcised. Abraham got saved as a Gentile and was circumcised as a sign, a reminder. You see circumcision required the shedding of blood.

It was a picture for that parent that his child needed salvation by blood, which is about Jesus, and that he, the son, would be reminded that his children and his family would have to be saved by the blood. So circumcision was always really a picture of salvation through faith in Christ. In Romans 4, 11, it makes that very, very clear. It was a sign that God gave to Abraham of the righteousness of the faith that he had prior to his being circumcised, that Abraham might be the father of all that believe, whether they’re Jewish or whether they’re Gentiles.

Thank you, Jack, so much. We have Michael in, in Deltona Beach, Florida. Michael, welcome to Bibleline your own ear. Hey, how you doing, Dr. Muslim? I just was taught and caught your name in 1973 at one of your ranch services. I come to know the Lord that you’re clear enough of miracle to hear you on the radio. Isn’t that wild? That’s incredible. So you were one of the youth that used to attend my meetings. I sure did. And me and Robert Albritton and we went up on the…

Oh, you did us? I remember Robert. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And we come out there. I went to Jefferson High School and caught us burials with another one. of your guide that he was he’s the one that led me to the Lord and here’s 34 years later I’m I’m so thankful that that your message is so clear and that it’s to know about eternity and I did not wonder about so glad you called in and it’s great that you’re able to hear me over there in that area of the state of Florida out of yeah your signal is coming in very well and I would like to make a point to come and see you sometime.

I would really enjoy that. Well, I hope you do, Michael. All right. Thank you so much. Thanks for calling in. Yeah, it’s interesting to find people that you’ve led to Christ in the past. I had a fellow that was at Staples, you know, the buying and things, and gave a track to somebody, and the guy with somebody that had led to Christ 40 years ago, and they put him on the phone, and and we kind of caught up a little bit too.

That was a lot of fun. We now have Ben in Clearwater Florida. Ben, welcome to Bibleline. Hello, Dr. Hank. This is Ben. I just want to know about Hebrew 10, chapter 10, verse 26 and 27. Can you so kind of explain to me those two words, please? Oh, I know. Sure you do. Ben, verse 26 is talking to believers that even if you willfully sin, you still don’t need to get another Savior or another sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ is efficient to save you forever.

Look at verse 14. It says, by one sacrifice Christ has perfected forever the one who has saved. So when you trust Christ, you’re saved forever, perfected forever, and so you don’t need to go get another sacrifice. But verse 27 on says that yes, God will Thank you or discipline you if you’re going to sin willfully against the Lord. So it says you need to watch out if you’re going to willfully sin against God. He will thank you, but he will take you home to heaven in some cases, but certainly you’ll never lose your salvation.

You’re perfected forever, verse 14. What does that mean? You’ll never go to help. You’re always going to be seen by God positionally as perfect. although in our actual state, we still have the capacity to sin. And if you sin willfully, you don’t need another sacrifice. Christ saves you forever, but you do need to be aware that God will judge you. And that has to do with discipline here in this life and loss of reward in heaven. And so you don’t want to do that.

We’re going to go now to Sally, and Sally is in Lansing, Michigan, and Sally won’t be able to arrive on your own ear. Great. I enjoy your program. Thank you so much. I heard you’re serving yesterday on the nine gifts of the Spirit listed in Fris Corinthians 12, starting with verse 8. And two of them are two that you have, I’ve heard you say, you know, don’t exist now for the gifts of the church. Of course, you know, it’s tongues and speaking on no tongues and then interpretation of tongues.

And I’d like your comment on that. And in addition, 2nd Thessalonians 5-20, Paul says, despite not prophesying, which was also one of the gifts given to the church. All right. Well, that’s a great question and I’ll take it. Are you to stay on the air or just listen? Just listen. Okay. Let me just say that the passage in 1 Corinthians 13, 8 through 10, tells us about three gifts that would cease tongues and the gift of prophecy and the gift of knowledge would cease.

Those were partial gifts given until the Word of God was completed. So obviously in 1 Thessalonians the verse you cited, the New Testament yet was not completed. That was one of the earlier books, and it wasn’t until the book of Revelation came along in 1896 that by then all these temporary gifts were rendered unnecessary. The Greek language is the verbs and verbs and nouns. Every word has a gender ending. Since all of it is neuter, then it has to have a gender ending.

Since all of it is neuter, then it has to have a neuter subject and Christ in the Greek is masculine Christos the OS ending Let’s just know that that’s a masculine word and so it cannot refer to Christ Some say well It’s the love chapter and it’s talking about love and when Christ comes back everybody will love one another Isn’t it talking about love and the answer is it’s amazing, but love in the Greek is feminine So it cannot refer back to love, but yet the Bible is called that which is perfect in James 125 and in the Psalms it says the law of the Lord is perfect making wise the simple and converting the soul.

And so that is neuter in the Greek and so we believe it’s talking about the completed Word of God. We have a wonderful book by Merle Unger in our Resource Center called the New Testament teach you in tongues and he exegetes these passages in chapter 12, 13, and 14 and does a masterful job and makes it so clear that all of this is talking, it’ll thrill you really because it’s all talking about when the Word of God would be completed and the partial gifts would cease and these partial gifts carried the church along in its infancy.

In fact, in this very same chapter, it says when I was a child, I understood as a child, thought as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things. He’s still talking about these gifts and how that in the childhood of the church and its infancy God gave certain gifts that can be compared to things that children would use that later they would discard and that these partial gifts would then be discarded when the Bible was completed and we wouldn’t need them anymore.

And so the church, as it began its growth from being, in a sense, born at Pentecost, and as it began to go through the first stages of childhood, these gifts were to aid the church in its early days, but then became unnecessary and have been withdrawn. So the other six are gifts that God does still give to people in the church. Well, there are really 19 total gifts of the Spirit and again some of those healing and some others are gone as well.

But of the 19, a lot of them are still existent of course and the gift of teaching, the gift of helps, the gift of administration, the gift of giving. Numerous gifts are still available but I believe that the spectacular ones are the ones that are really gone. We also have another book called The 19 Gifts of the Spirit, which really does a good job on separating this out for you, where you get to study all 19 gifts. When you read the listing in Corinthians here and in Ephesians and Romans, you get the full number of gifts and then some of these have obviously gone off the scene.

It’s interesting because I was at a Bible conference last summer and a missionary from India was there. And I asked the question, how do you convert a Hindu? You know, what is, you know, what are the dynamics there? And he said, it’s miracles. And he said, I said, well, you know, what do you mean? And he said, when we go into these villages, he said, there are miracles performed in that. That’s, so I’m wondering if what you’re saying. In other words, these untouched villages in India, maybe some of these gifts, at least that one, is for their, you know, those are first century gifts, maybe that are for first time believers.

I don’t know. Have you ever heard of that? Never heard of that, but I would disagree and I would wonder then, and I’d be suspect about that missionary because the Bible says that the gifts were out of the miracles would be done in the last days by false preachers. So I would question his gospel very carefully to see. But I think the Word of God is what needs to be given and it’s the Word that brings life to somebody who is dead.

Christ said that He that hearth my word. And believe it, that’s the one that has eternal life and will never come into condemnation, but has passed from death in the life. So the word of God brings about the new birth and brings about salvation. And really, as I studied the Bible, miracles never brought about belief. It certainly didn’t bring about belief in Egypt. Look at the 10 plagues and it didn’t bring about belief. And even in the life and the ministry of Christ, it didn’t convert the nation of Israel.

Only the minority. really wound up receiving Christ as Savior, and those were persecuted Christians as the church began to grow and spread the Gospel out. In fact, they were basically chased out of Jerusalem because of the persecution, and as a result the Gospel went everywhere, which is what God’s plan was. But I don’t buy that. I really think that there’s something not right about that story. And the Hindus, their problem is that they have about four me and God’s to start with and if you’re not careful they’ll accept Jesus they really do.

I’ll put one more God on my shelf I’ve got four million and one. So really I have some dear friends that do a lot of missionary work in India and they tell me the powers in the word. Okay well thank you very much. All right thank you Sally that was Sally in Lansing Michigan and we’re on the air up there in every day in Lansing and also in Flint and Saigon, Michigan. So praise the Lord. We have Linda in Pensacola, Florida and Linda, welcome to Vibeline.

Oh. Can you hear me Linda? Just have a real quick question. All right. Does in order for a person to get saved have to hear the gospel? Yes. In Romans 1, 16 Paul says, I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for if the gospel is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believes us. So the gospel is the means by which God saves a person when they believe that message. And so absolutely they must hear the gospel and believe the gospel in order to be saved.

Well, I’m hearing so many preachers, pastors give a good message and they give the invitation and they say come and trust Christ. And the counselors or people down front, they don’t, and I’m one of them, and we don’t have time to go through all of that. Well, we can do it fairly quickly, but you just have to, they have to hear that Christ died and shed his blood at the cross and paid our sin debt, then was buried and then he rose again from the dead and they must believe that gospel message in order to be saved.

Okay, great. That’s what I thought. Thank you so much. You’re so welcome, Linda, and Linda from Pinsicle, Florida. I think today we are, for whatever reason, we give excuses, but we’ve got to present that. I made it a point myself to make sure that I present the death, the burial, the resurrection of Christ as the means by which a person is saved. I love that verse in Romans 1 and 16 which really makes that clear. I am not ashamed Paul said of the gospel of Christ.

For the gospel the good news story of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection is the power of God unto salvation to everyone. In the key word there is believe or the word means to trust. and you trust Christ that He died for you. Shed His Bud to pay for your sins was buried in rose again from the dead. God saves you and that is exciting. And we’re on the air every day up there in Pensacola and over there in Alabama and the Panhandle of Florida.

And thank you for calling in. We’re about at the end of our show today and we hope that you’re enjoying. By the way, on our internet site, there’s a place where you can leave an off-air question and we’ll try to answer it the next day and you’ll hear it when we come on the air. Also, there are many other things on our website we hope that you’ll take advantage of and that’s BibleLineMinistries.org or .com. BibleLineMinistries.org or .com. Would you please tell your friends about Bibleline so they can join us as well and help us grow our audience.

We also want you to be aware of the classes I’ll be teaching now beginning tomorrow night. You can call and sign up and take that on the internet as they’ll give you a passcode. It’s a charge of $50 which will help Bible and you’ll be able to watch them again and again throughout the five weeks. If you want, you could also order the CDs after we finish these 10 hours of teaching over five weeks. We’ll send those CDs out to you and that’ll be a wonderful teaching on Jesus is coming.

And so truly we believe He’s coming and maybe very, very soon. We appreciate all of you who listen and thank you for your kind comments and words of encouragement that keep us going here at Bibleline. And we hope that you’ll put us on your prayer list and pray for us each day. And if you could give a gift to Bibleline this month of January, that would be wonderful. And it’s really through your gifts as listeners that we’re able to maintain this program and keep it on the air.

And we need your continued prayers and your gifts to do that. Got to run, but I want you to keep looking up because Jesus is coming and we’ll be back again tomorrow. Join me then. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a presentation of Bibleline ministries of Tampa, Florida. Your donation to Bibleline makes it possible for this ministry to continue in your area. Bibleline’s address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Or visit Bibleline Online at BibleLineMinistries.com. Be sure to tune in for another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church of Tampa, Florida.

Well, thank you for tuning in today. I’m Dr. Englund from this has been Bibleline. Hopefully, the program has been a blessing to you. We hope that it can be a blessing to many more. You can help us by partnering with us to keep Bible Eye not only supported in your area, but also to expand it out as far as we can to a world that so desperately needs to know about Jesus Christ. We’re living in the last days. Christ is coming back soon.

If you don’t know that, then your head is in the sand, truly. The signs are everywhere of the return of Christ. We can see, especially with Israel, the Jewish people back in the land and the nations of the world hating Israel and the armies of the world coming together in the Middle East already. We believe that’s the prelude to the Battle of Armageddon. Christ is going to return. I’m glad he’s first coming to snatch me out at the Rapture and then I’ll miss that seven years of tribulation and I’ll come back with him at the second coming to rule and reign on this earth for a thousand years.

Please take a look at our website and our online bookstore at the many resources we have to help you grow and develop in your Christian life to evangelize and so on. And if we could be of any help to you, give us a call here at our 800 number. We also hope that you’ll tell your friends about the program. We hope that you’ll take advantage of our radio and TV programs that are right there on my internet site, BibleLineMinistries.org.

You can click on the TV set on the home page and you’ll be connected to the radio programs and the TV programs and you’ll watch them as often as you want at your leisure anytime of day or night and that’s exciting. Again, send a gift, if you would, to Bibleline for the month of January. We would appreciate your help and God bless you and thank you in advance. I’m Dr. Englundsstrom. We’ve got a run. Keep looking up. Jesus is coming and we believe soon and we’re going to teach a class on the first 10 hours beginning tomorrow night.

Have a great day. You’ve been listening to Bibleline. A presentation of Bibleline Ministries of Tampa, Florida. Your donation to Bibleline makes it possible for this ministry to continue in your area. Bibleline’s address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Or visit Bibleline online at BibleLineMinistries.com. Be sure to tune in for another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church of Tampa, Florida.