Bibleline Radio Show – 2007-04-09 – Seeing by Faith

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Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Coming to you from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Declaring God’s love through radio and television. Providing real answers to an ever-searching world. Got a question? Dial toll free at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Now here’s the host of Bibleline, Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Good morning and welcome to Bibleline great to be with you today Thanks for tuning into the broadcast we look forward to being with you each and every day Monday through Friday’s we come to you live From Tampa, Florida from our studios right here at the Calvary Community Church from the pastor Thanks for tuning in today, and we hope that you’ll join us all week And we look forward to having a great week of talking about the scriptures the word of God and of course you can catch this program again and again and again on the internet.

If you just go to Bible on ministries.org, click on the spinning globe. You’ll get the program right now as it’s streamed to the internet and you can catch it in the archives as often as you like and you can also catch past programs and listen to them as often as you like. Our TV programs are also there. Click on the TV He said our worship services are also there. Click on the camera on the homepage, BibleLineMinistries.org. Hopefully you had a wonderful resurrection week and yesterday was a special special day.

The day we call Resurrection Sunday when we celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ is risen again from the dead. We’re going to be taking callers in a little bit. If you want to get our number, it’s 1-800-576-3771, 1-800-576-3771. Give us a call and we’ll get your question off air or put you up on the air with us. We’d love to hear from you. We have a number of all fair questions we’ll be taking today and we’d love to hear you also come up live on the Radio with us and we’ll try to answer your questions on the Bibleline program.

We’re excited about the time in which we’re living. We believe Christ is coming back soon. Russia is saying that we’re going to invade Iran in this month of April. Wow, that means any day now. We don’t know what the future holds except that Christ is coming back and all of these things are part of the end time prophecies. Wow, we’ve got to be getting close. If the Lord comes this year, it will probably be in September on the Feast of Trumpets.

That’s right. There are seven feast days and we have just seen three of them fulfilled. The Feast of Passover was a picture of Christ’s death at the Cross of Calvary and Christ died exactly when Israel was offering up their Passover lamb and fulfilled that wonderful prophetic feast that God gave. Leviticus 23 gives us all seven. The Feast of Unleavened Bread spoke of his body, sinless body being buried. The Feast of First Fruits, which was yesterday, was a picture of the resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15 tells us that Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection. So if you want another title for yesterday, it’s not only Resurrection Sunday, but it is the Feast of First Fruit State and it always occurred on a Sunday and always followed the Passover. So, Jesus came back from the dead on the first day of week, which was always that Feast of First Fruit State. So 1 Corinthians 5-7 tells us, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

So we know that Christ was the fulfillment of the Passover. He was the lamb that was to be slain. Also we know that he took the bread when he instituted the Lord’s Supper and he said this bread represents my body. And the unleavened bread feast pictured his body being placed in the grave. And then the feast of first fruits pictured his resurrection. There’s another one coming up, the feast of Pentecost, 50 days after the feast of first fruits are fifty days after the resurrection and that’s when this present AIDS that we’re living in began at the Feast of Pentecost when Holy Spirit came to permanently involve believers of this age.

And the next feast… He’s in the fall and that is the Feast of Trumpets. We believe just as the Feast of Pentecost began this age, the Feast of Trumpets will conclude this age and will be ramped up. So, every year in the fall I get up a little higher on my tippy toes and I get ready to be taught out. I don’t know what year Lord is coming, but I do really believe that whatever year he comes, he’ll probably come right on that feast day.

Why? were fulfilled literally. Christ died when the Passover Land was being offered up. He was buried in the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He rose on the Feast of First Roots Day. This present age began on Pentecost the exact day. It says, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, the disciples were gathered together there in one accord, and the Holy Spirit came, this age began. The Holy Spirit will be taken out at the Feast of Trumpets. The Rapture will take place as when the Holy Spirit goes we go and will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

Wow, we have a wonderful future ahead. Jesus said, In my Father’s house, there are many mansions. He said, If it were not so, I would have told you, but I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also.” That’s John chapter 14. And what a wonderful passage that is, because it talks about Christ leaving, and while He’s absent from us now in this world during the church age, He’s preparing a place for us to live with Him in heaven forever and ever.

I got a mansion all paid for in heaven. And so do you if you are a believer in Christ. If you are not a believer, then you don’t have a mansion waiting for you. The Bible tells us that if you were to die, you would spend all eternity in the eternal lake of fire. Christ said that hell is a place where the soul will never die and the fire will never be quenched. Certainly, you wouldn’t want to go to hell because once you’re there, it’s too late.

Once you die, in fact, without Christ, it’s forever too late. You must trust Christ while you’re still alive. You know, there were two thieves crucified with Christ. One died without trusting Christ, and it’s too late for him. He’s forever lost. But the other thief that believed on Christ in the last moments of his life is taped today with the Lord. You know, Jesus told him today, Thou shalt be with me in paradise. He was saved on the spot. By the way, he was never water baptized, never became a church member, never walked an aisle, never had a chance to live the Christian life.

The dying thieves simply trusted Christ, and that’s the only way anybody can ever be eligible the inner heaven. You can be religious, you can go to church, you can pray, you can be living the Christian life as faithful as you can and still wind up in hell because none of those things will save you. You’re only saved by the blood of Christ when you trust him. God saves you. That’s great news. I’m Dr. Ankeren Klims from This is Bibleline.

We look forward to hearing from you today. The phone number is 1-800-576-3771. 1-800-576-3771. And we had a wonderful week ourselves. We had people getting saved on Good Wednesday. We had people get saved in our sundown service. We had people get saved a bunch yesterday in our in our resurrection service on Sunday here on the Feast of First Roots Day and we just had a super time. We thank you all for listening today and I hope you’ll call us again in a question and we’ll get you up on the air.

We have Ken in Clearwater Florida and Ken, welcome to Bibleline You’re On The Air. Yeah, good morning when you mentioned something like that. Well, it was a blessing and we all were rejoicing yesterday not only that Christ had risen, But on that special week here, we had so many people get saved, it was wonderful. I was just wondering if you could explain something a little confusing in my mind sometimes, just like you were mentioning a few minutes ago that Christ promised the thief that this the country, the Christ was in the town.

For 72 hours there, he basically got a paradise with the thief or did his body go or did it set just a… No, his body was in the tomb. His spirit and soul went down into the heart of the earth. And at the end of the three days he took all of those that were there up to heaven. It says in Ephesians 4.8 he led when he ascended this group captive that were waiting there for sins to be paid for.

all the Old Testament saints is what we’re talking about that were there in Paradise and he descended into the lower parts of the earth the Bible says that Ephesians 4 and 9 and then he ascended taking them up to heaven. Paradise is now in heaven so this side of the cross we when we die are absent from the body present with the Lord but if you lived in the Old Testament you would have gone to Paradise in the heart of the earth then after Christ died and paid the full payment for sin.

You could have entered heaven. I understand that part. Christ came back up and re-intered the body in the tomb and he was resurrected. Look at S.A. after he took him to heaven. Yeah. Right. Yes. Oh, okay. Okay. Thank you. You’re so welcome and thank you for calling in. Yeah. The Bible is quite clear that Jesus’ body was in the tomb, but he went down into the heart of the earth and there he delivered all those folks that were in the Old Testament from there took them up to heaven.

They were in a place of comfort but couldn’t enjoy heaven yet because the payment for sin had not yet been made. All right we are here looking at some of the The Off-Air Questions mark in Tampa calls in and says in Proverbs 3.5 it says, Lean not unto your own understanding. What does that mean? Well, it says your trust in the Lord will blow your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. What is talking about there is that we really need to see what the Bible says about what is significant and what is important in life.

I’ll never forget I got saved right out of high school, but then it was about a year later. I was at the University of Florida and I was in my engineering studies. I graduated in electrical engineering and I had a couple of verses from the scripture that just couldn’t get him out of my mind, couldn’t shake him. And one of those was it says in Proverbs 11.30, he that went with souls is wise. I thought to myself at that time I thought, well, I’m pretty smart, but you know, I began to think about that verse and I said, boy, you’re not very smart at all, because the person who’s wise according to the scripture will win souls to Christ.

He that is wise will win souls to Christ. He that win souls is wise. And so I said, boy, I need to readjust my thinking and I need to readjust the direction of my life. And so I, somewhere in there, made a decision to live for Christ and tell people how they could go to heaven. And you know, that really did revolutionize my life because then I began to see the joy that would come by leading people to Christ.

And of course, in my particular case, I believe the Lord then led me into full-time Christian service. But every believer is to be a witness for Christ. Every one of us are to observe the great commission, to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. So basically, what’s valuable? What’s of importance? Somebody once said, and of course the Bible supports it, that whatever you do for self will pass, but only the things that are done for Christ will last beyond this lifetime.

So basically, believers can lay up treasures in heaven. What you do here for heaven’s sake will bring about rewards in heaven. And somebody once said, what on earth are you doing for heaven’s sake? We ought to be doing things for heaven’s sake that are going to count for eternity. As you look at the hours you spend during the day, how much of them are really going to count for eternity? I think we need to redeem the time like the Bible says.

That means we need to buy up time out of our schedule that we can use for God. Do you take any time to read your Bible? Do you take any time to pray? Do you take any time to give a track or share the gospel with someone else? Do you give any time to go to church? And so on and so on. And there are lots of activities that we can do that are going to be of spiritual value and God will reward one day.

I hope that helps. Mark, thank you for calling in. Phil calls in from Tampa, Florida, and he leaves this off air question, and he says, what were the women thinking if they were going to the tomb to roll away the stone? I don’t think they even conceded they could roll it away. They were hoping, I’m sure, that they could get assistance, I guess, when they got there. But obviously they came and they found the stone rolled away. It was a heavy stone.

They estimate it weighed about seven tons. That’s about three and a half average cars, I think. And they certainly could not have rolled it away. But the angels rolled it away so that they could get it and see the Christ was gone. He was already risen when they got there in the morning. We’re going to go to Lou in Tampa, Florida and Lou, welcome to Bibleline you on the earth. Well, good morning, Dr. Hank. How are you? I’ve got a friend of mine, Christian, who listens to John MacArthur quite frequently and And I wanted you to explain.

John MacArthur and his view with Calvinism and that acronym that you use tulip and just go through those letters for them and tell me where you feel that there’s a problem with that doctrine and if it’s a major flaw in salvation or not. Okay. All right. Calvinism basically can be summed up by. the acronym T-U-L-I-P and T stands for total depravity, which I believe in the depravity of man, basically it says that sin in the garden when Adam sinned that he could not regain himself, he needed a Savior and that sin nature was passed on from Adam upon everybody in the human race and none of us were able to regain our former position that we had prior to the fall, that we need a Savior and of course Christ is that Savior.

So I believe we are depraved, I believe we are sinful, but the first point of Calvinism goes too far because it says, because you’re born spiritually dead as a result of Adam’s that have passed upon all men, that dead men cannot do anything, and that includes not even believe. And I believe that’s not true. The Bible teaches that you can hear the words of Christ, and you can respond, and you can believe even though you’re spiritually dead. So basically the Calvinist says that you have no choice at all, that you are chosen before the foundations of the world to be saved if you’re to be saved and if you’re not one of those then God is obviously elected for you to go to hell.

With this regard to whether you believe or really anything, there’s really no criteria to be met on your part that would mean that you were chosen or not chosen or saved or lost. Basically God picks out who’s going to be saved and he causes them to be saved and then they believe is a consequence. Well anyway, Jesus said in John 5 and verse 25, barely, barely I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead, talking about those that are spiritually dead, walking around here on the planet, she’ll hear the voice of the Son of God and they did hear, that means hearing, receiving what they hear, shall live.

And you see it throughout the New Testament, you find in Acts, Peter is preaching at the house of Cornelius and what happens. Peter said to Christ, give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believe that in him should receive the remission of their sins. And while Peter yet spaked these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those which heard the word, they heard it, they believed it, and the Holy Spirit came upon those new believers at the house of Cornelius.

So basically the believer is saved by trusting Christ and a dead man can believe. The second point of califin is it is unconditional election and that God does not put any conditions on why he elects you and that’s true. It’s not a works, the Bible says, but it’s basically a God who chooses to save. believers. But again, Calvinism says not even based upon your belief. But that certainly is not true. The Bible tells us that there’s a wonderful verse in 1 Thessalonians, I love very much.

It says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, or 2 Thessalonians, excuse me, chapter 2, and it says in verse 13, we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, We love to the world. of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Most people just stop right there and they say, see, God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. But then it says, and here are the two aspects of our salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and secondly belief of the truth.

In other words, our part is the belief of the truth and the next verse goes on to say how that when we hear the gospel and the invitation of God to become saved and we respond and believe the truth, then God does his part and that as he sanctifies us or makes us pure and holy based upon the substitute of Christ that we are saved. So there are two things that happen when a person becomes a believer, but God has from the beginning chosen believers to be saved.

the whole point. D.L. Moody said the Hoosomever Will’s or the Electon, the Hoosomever won’t sell it unlike. Well, in any case, generally speaking, this doctrine of Calvinism, deadens of Angelism, I would quit today if I felt that people were already chosen to go to heaven or hell, and I had no impact in sharing the gospel. It seems like it was a futile exercise for Christ to tell us to go and all over and preach the gospel if God has already decided who is going to be saved and they are going to be saved with disregard to whether they believe any message that I preach or anyone else brings to them.

But the Bible tells us basically in John 3 16 that God so loved all of the human race so much that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever the invitations to anyone that if If they would believe in Christ, they would not perish, but they’d have eternal life. So it’s right there. I was a youth director in a church that taught Calvinism at the University of Florida. And I had a lot of young people coming out and the thing was just growing and the pastor said in one night and I thought, boy, he’s going to like this, what he’s seeing here, all these kids coming to his church.

And I thought, boy, I’m probably going to get a raise. He invited me to come to meet him that week in his office. When I got there, he said, how dare you try to do the work of the Holy Spirit? I was caught off guard totally. He was saying that because I was evangelizing, that I was doing the work of the Holy Spirit and shame on me. He fired me. That was a quick wake-up call to the effects of Calvinism.

He said that I should not try to evangelize. That was the Holy Spirit’s job. He is going to bring to himself those that he’s already chosen to be saved. The third point is limited to Tom and El in tulip and it means that Christ didn’t waste any bullets. In other words, he only died for the elect. So that’s certainly not true. First John 2.2 says that Christ is the propitiation. That’s a big word that means satisfying sacrifice for our sins.

It says there in 1 John 2, 2, and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world. That’s impossible to defend. Then the Bible tells us that Christ died for everybody, not just the elect. Of course, the fourth point is irresistible grace, which says that God’s grace will come upon an unbeliever that has been chosen to be saved and overcome them and save them with disregard to their will. And certainly that’s not true. Stephen preaches in Acts 7 about how that group he taught there did, just like their forefathers, resist the Holy Spirit.

And so you can resist the Holy Spirit. Obviously they did. They rejected His message in a stone, Stephen, the first Christian martyr. The last point is the perseverance of the saints. That’s totally backwards. I’m eternally secure, not because I persevere, but because Christ perseveres. I’m saved eternally, not because I’m faithful, but because He is faithful. But the Calvinist teaches, and this is how they bring works in the back door, and they They say that if you truly are… He said, I have never heard of the Christian life.

I’ve never heard of the Christian life right until the day you die. That certainly is not true. That’s not supported by the Bible. Obviously, if you read the Epistles of the New Testament, they’re written to Christians who are not living for Christ that needed to be corrected. Certainly, it felt like a lot who was saved chose to go in a negative direction. He went down and chose deliberately to live in Sodom and he became a city councilman and sat in the gate of Sodom and his life was far from what a Christian’s life ought to be, but yet he was still saved.

Lewa hope that helps a little bit. I can’t agree with any of the five points as they are generally presented. I believe, yes, we are depraved and I believe that yes, we were not saved on the basis of any works that we do. So I believe in unconditional election to a point. But I can’t believe in limited atonement at all. And I cannot accept the irresistible grace at all. And the perseverance of the saints is flip-flopped backwards Christ perseveres.

And therefore, I’m going to be eternally saved because I have arisen Savior who lives forever. Thank you, Lou. If you want to call in here, the program phone number is 1-800-576-3771. 1-800-576-3771. Give us a call. We’d love to hear from you. And also, I hope you’re going to enjoy this week, listening to Bibleline. Catch us on the Internet if you’d like to at your convenience or listen to us live. tell your friends about the program and we’re going to get a break so uh…

please stay tuned right where you are and will be right back in just a moment to do the second don’t go away by the line will be back in a moment give us a call at one eight hundred five seven six three seven seven one that’s one eight hundred five seven six thirty seven seventy one i’m not going to instrument is great to be with you today thanks for tuning in the broadcast we appreciate you and all of our listeners and thank you for being a part of the Bible and program today and listening.

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And we got to meet a bunch over the weekend here. That was wonderful. So thank you again for tuning in and I hope you’re enjoying Bible Land and don’t forget that we have a lot of things on our resource rather on our internet site where you can go and research the Bible. You can look up articles I’ve written, questions that I’ve answered, catch our radio and television and church services and so on and so on and so on. There’s so much there that will keep you informed as to what’s going on.

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you like to call by the line and ask doctor lins from a question you can just pick up your phone and dial one eight hundred five seven six three seven seven one that’s one eight hundred five seven six thirty seven seventy one now here again is doctor hank lins from are we’re back from break and this is by a line and we’re coming to you live from our studios right here at the calvary community church in campa where i am the pastor And we always love to meet our listeners.

If you ever get a chance to come by and visit with us, we’d love to meet you. We had a bunch come over during the Resurrection Week. And I got to meet you, and that was exciting. So please come on by, if you ever get a chance on a worship day or come by during the week and visit our resource center, that would be wonderful. We have John calling in from Clearwater, off air says, I ran, says today, they’re going to make a major announcement Iran says if the world does not start a world war they are going to they’re expecting a Messiah and then incredible are they expecting the same Messiah no they’re not they’re not expecting Jesus they’re expecting a Messiah of Islam but it’s interesting that they believe that if they start a world war that will bring the Messiah back.

So they’re really kind of crazy, aren’t they? But definitely, these are in time events and it’s all playing out. And maybe this is the year the Lord is going to come. Don, I don’t know what to tell you. But interesting to watch the news and see these things happen. We’re going to go to George in Deltona, Florida. George, welcome to my mind. You are on the air. How you doing, Dr. Linson? I have two quick questions. You told me the other day, you You said in the air that when you die and you go to your new body that you would be around the same age that the Lord Jesus was.

Yes. I want to know where you can find that. I’ll pick my answer over there. And the other one is all these people are like in Africa and all these countries that don’t hear the word of the Lord. Is there any chance of salvation for them? Okay. Thank you, George, in Deltona, Florida over near Daytona Beach. The Bible tells us we’re going to get a new body like Christ’s body and Since he was in the prime of life When he died and he came back in the same body We believe our bodies will be in the prime of life when we get our resurrection body George Philippians chapter one is one of the Favorite Passages I have on this It’s in Philippians rather chapter three.

It says our citizenship verse 20 of chapter three of Philippians is in heaven from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall change our vile body? This is at George verse 21 here of chapter 3 of Philippians. Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. According to the working whereby he is able even to do all things unto himself. So there you have But you have Christ telling us that he’s going to make our bodies like his glorious body.

So I think that that’ll put us right there in the prime of life. And hold on. And so George, my repudiant blank on your second question, I think. Oh, but about the heathen that people have never heard. And the Bible tells us that if you seek you will find, and God tells us that no one is going to have an excuse not to seek. In Romans 1,19 it says that which may be known of God is made known in them for God hath showed it unto them, and so therefore they are without excuse.

So if you read Romans chapter 1 verse 19 and 20 it says they don’t have an excuse. So if they seek God which God first plants the knowledge of himself within them so they become responsible to seek the Bible tells us that if they seek they will find Jeremiah 20 and 13 says you shall seek me and find me when you shall search me with all your heart. So the person who is seeking will find and George I sure hope that helps out.

Thanks for your call. We’re now going to go to… David in Tampa, Florida and David welcome revival on your own year. Hey, thanks. Bye first of all really appreciate your ministry. Just your daily commitment to Christ. It’s great. Um, I had a question about 21, 2021. We’re talking about that there will be priests of God. I guess I’ve turned the millennial thing. We’re right now priests of God. You know, every one of us are authorized by God to tell or dispense or tell the truths of God to other people, Minister Christ of the people.

So right now I’m a priest. Every believer is. Okay, but during the thousand years, they will be priests of God, verse 6. Well, that’s true. And the same thing is true. We’ll come back and have the opportunity to talk and share Christ with others. There’s going to be lots of people born during that Millennial Kingdom, not from us having children because we’ll be in our new resurrection bodies. it says there will be people born that will be related back to Adam and have a simple nature and need to come to know Christ’s or Savior.

And so the gospel will still need to be preached during the millennium. Okay, so it is like a mediatory function. Yeah, exactly. Okay, my second question is the next part of verse says, we will reign with him for a thousand years. What do we reign over? Are we reign over evil or are we certain? Well, actually we’re going to have administrative type jobs, you know, in the gospels it talks about raining or ruling over certain cities or whatever. Maybe you’ll be the mayor of Tampa in the millennium.

When we sit on Christ’s throne, you think that’s what it’s referring to? This is during the millennium only, during the thousand years where there is this earthly kingdom that Christ will establish and we’ll come back and help Christ rule and reign during that time. we will have definitely assignments and responsibilities uh… that will carry out so we’re raining with price under his uh… rule here on the earth is king of the earth okay what i think you’re so welcome david that was david in camp of florida calling in and now we have bill in uh…

uh… pittsburgh pennsylvania and bill welcome to buy one Good morning Dr. Hank, how are you sir? Good. Wonderful and I thank you for your about a week ago. It was a good answer. Yeah, it’s 1 Corinthians 9 verses 1 through 6. We read that 1 Corinthians 9. Did you know that I gave you the wrong chapter? Let me go ahead and take a look real quick. Okay. But let’s see here. I’m turning there right now and it says here.

Am I not an apostle? Am I not free and so on? Then he goes on down in verse 5, have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as the other apostles? Of course, it’s implied there that yes, he did have a power and apparently did have a wife, but he was now widowed at this point. Then he talks about in chapter 7 about others because of the time of persecution and the stress they were going through, they might remain single as he was widowed and single, so that they would be more free to serve the Lord during that time of persecution.

But it said if you can’t handle that, if you can’t contain yourself, then you need to get married. But otherwise he was recommending that you stay single so you can be devoted to the Lord because he had been married and was single. I think there’s another reference in 2nd Corinthians also that hints that he was a married man. I believe also to be a member of the Sanhedrin which he was, that you also had to be married to be a member of that body.

So there’s other inferences that he was. And he desired to be a member of Sanhedrin, right? That’s for sure. Yeah. He was working toward that goal. Yeah. Uh-huh. Can I ask you another question? Sure. I got to Romans 9 16 through 31 and it kind of stopped me in my footsteps. Well, if you go to the last part of it, it just unfolds the whole thing because there is talking about God. Jesus, you know, basically they have mercy upon those who have mercy and not to have mercy upon those that he won’t have mercy on.

But the key is over in verse 30 says, what shall we say then? Here’s the bottom line. that the Gentiles, which did not follow after righteousness, have attained to righteousness even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness, wherefore because they what sought it not by faith. So the Jews rejected Christ and were not saved because they didn’t come to him in faith, believing he was the Messiah.

Whereas Gentiles, us in this age, have come in faith and trusted Christ and were made righteous in God’s sight. And so God had mercy on which group. He had mercy on the Gentiles that believed. One to believe. Yeah. That’s those Gentiles who did not speak. Well, they didn’t have the scriptures. They didn’t have the Bible. And so they didn’t follow the laws of God’s word to be righteous, yet they attain the righteousness which comes by faith. The Jews which had the laws and were trying to follow them to become righteous didn’t because they stumbled at the stumbling stone.

It says, as it were, they stumbled because they were attempting to be saved by the works of the law of verse 32. They stumbled at that stumbling stone. And then he quotes the Old Testament as it was written, he’ll lay on Zion a stumbling stone in the rock of Ossra offense and used to ever believe it on him. So this rock is a person. As Jesus, then you would not be ashamed when you stand before God, but you’ll be saved in inner heaven because of your belief.

So God chooses to save those that would believe on this rock, which is Jesus, and trust him as their Savior. Yes. So the 960, like you said, comes back to the bottom line. Absolutely. And so he’s made all of us and some are vessels of mercy, not as the vessels of wrath and the vessels of wrath are those who reject Christ. And the vessels that he has mercy on are the vessels that I recognize their need and put their trust in Christ as their Savior.

Thank you very much, sir. You’re so welcome. Thank you for calling and built in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We have Donna in St. Petersburg calling in. She leaves this question off air. She says, if you don’t need to be baptized to be saved, then why do we do it? Why did Jesus get baptized? She said her son asked this and she could not answer him. Good question, Donna. Jesus was baptized in fulfillment of the Old Testament type or law. The priest in the Old Testament, when the priest became 30 years of age, the priest would be completely immersed in a baptism.

And that was a picture of his one-time cleansing of his sin as salvation is something that only occurs once in your life when you trust Christ as your Savior. And of course that was the beginning of that priest’s ministry as they were consecrated to the ministry by that water baptism. Jesus obviously began his ministry at the baptism of John. Before that he had no ministry, he did no miracles and it wasn’t until after the baptism of John that Christ began his earthly ministry.

So basically he was fulfilling the Old Testament type. Also, for the believer, It should be the point at which you become a disciple and choose to serve the Lord. It’s a way of publicly declaring that you have been washed of your sin by the blood of Christ and now want to live in the newness of life. But water doesn’t save you, it was ceremonial. It’s a picture of how we’re cleansed of our sin by the blood of Christ. We just baptized people in the Jordan River just a couple of weeks ago when we were in Israel.

It didn’t save them. It didn’t take away one sin. But it pictured what Christ did at the cross and how is his blood that washed away our sin. And now it’s a way of giving testimony and saying I want to live now for Christ who died for me. But it doesn’t save. I hope that helps a little bit. But there’s no verse that says that a person must be water baptized to be saved. We have Benjamin in Clearwater. Benjamin, welcome to the Bible.

I’m good. Good morning, just a plank. Good morning. I would like to know what was the assist. The Jewish people celebrate the day after Jesus crucified. Can you explain that to me please? You say that one more time that they did what now? Why would they taste? That they were celebrating something like a Sabbath. They were celebrating? well the pass over itself was a sabbath that was not saturday no there’s the okay uh… thursday was the pass over of the crucifixion week and thursday the pass over was considered a sabbath if you read john nineteen thirty one it talks about how they wanted to break the legs of those that were crucified so they could speed up the crucifixion because then they would not be able to push up to breathe uh…

and they would suffocate and die quickly and they could get them done off the cross because they would have died and it says here uh… the Jews therefore because it was the preparation that was wednesday the body should not remain upon the cross on the sappeth day that was the passover Sabbath what’s it says in john nineteen thirty one in the parentheses following For that Sabbath day was a high day. So it was one of the high holy days of Israel.

It was one of the seven feast days. And so even though it was on Thursday, it was a Sabbath. And so basically Wednesday at three in the afternoon Christ died, at 6 p.m. Wednesday, the Passover began. You know, the Passover ran from sundown to sundown even as the Jews count their days to this very hour Today is Monday, but at 6 p.m. tonight for the Jew it’s Sunday night. It’s Tuesday night. So Tuesday night proceeds Tuesday. So tomorrow will be Tuesday in the daylight period from 6 a.m.

to 6 p.m. But tonight at 6 p.m. is really Tuesday night. On Friday night, the Jews are at the synagogue because the Sabbath has already begun when we talk about the Saturday Sabbath. So I hope that helps a little bit, but that was a special Sabbath during that week. Every one of the seven feast days were considered a Sabbath, even though they did not occur on a Saturday. The feast of her fruits also would be a Sabbath. We have Jonathan in Richmond, Virginia, and Jonathan, welcome to Babylon.

Ah, yes, I can have. What are the things that Jesus fulfilled in prophecy? And what order? Well, in Leviticus 23 you have all seven listed for you. Excuse me, it says in Leviticus 23 the first of which was the Passover. And Christ fulfilled that. 1 Corinthians 5, 7 says for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. He died as the Passover Lamb at the time when the Passover Lamb for Israel was being offered up. Then you have the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which spoke of his burial, and Christ was buried during the time when the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The third feast was the Feast of First Fruits, a picture of the resurrection, and Christ rose on the Feast of First Fruits Day, which was always the first day of the week. Then we have the Holy Spirit coming in this age beginning on Pentecost, which was the fourth feast and that was always fifty days after the feast of first fruits or fifty days after the resurrection. Then there are three more feasts that occur in the fall and there is still yet to be fulfilled they have to do with the second coming.

And I believe the rapture will happen right on the feast of trumpets, which is usually in September. One more question, Dargay. If someone was believed that Jesus was the only way to have him, but then made on in life, someone convinced them that they needed to work to get to heaven. Would that change or would that be considered to be unforgivable sin? No, they would still be saved. Once you’re saved, you’re saved forever. that they would lose that on the joy and the assurance that they had earlier knowing that they were saved by faith in Christ.

Now they would be robbed of that and I think that happens to a lot of people that genuinely become saved and in bad teaching robs them of the assurance and of the joy of their salvation. David prayed that the Lord would restore the joy of the salvation. You can lose your joy. You can lose your rewards in heaven and so on, but you can’t lose your salvation. Okay, thank you very much, I guess. You’re so welcome. Thank you, Jonathan.

In Richmond, Virginia, we have Mary in Tampa, Florida. Mary, welcome to Bibleline. Good morning, Pastor Hank. I’d like to ask a question. I listen to your program almost every morning. About a week ago or so, someone had made a question. You had said that we no longer speak in tongues since the New Testament and what they speak now would be gibberish. But I read it in the past. I read in chapter two and wanted you to clarify that because it talks about speaking in tongues.

Okay. And that was when it was first given. And it was a gift that continued during that whole first century until the New Testament record was completely finished until we got the completed New Testament and then the gift was rendered unnecessary. So in Acts 2 you have people there from names 16 countries that are represented. There came from all of the known world at that time to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. When they got there, God gave the Holy Spirit to the believers and gave them the gift of speaking in tongues.

The Greek word there for tongues is dialectos. It means a specific dialect of a specific language. Here were people coming there from, they were born and raised in foreign lands that were here in the gospel now, spoken to them in their native tongue, a Gentile language, and they were being spoken to by Jews who had never traveled outside of Israel that were not very educated, they were just simple fishermen and so on. And they say in verse 8, how is it that we hear every man in the language where we were born and raised with?

And so they were saying, this is quite remarkable. How does this happen? And of course, that was the gift. So the result was 3,000 people get saved right there. If you read the passage a little further down, 3,000 people got saved. That’s not happening today. Today, what people are doing is not being used for evangelism, and they’re not leading anyone to Christ with their gibberish. But if they had the real gift, they should be going to Russia or China or Africa, and lead those people to Christ in their native language and that would be the proper use of the real gift but that isn’t happening today.

Well thank you very much. Okay. Just note there very carefully that the people who heard them speak said how is it that they’re able to speak in the very dialect in which we were born and raised with in our foreign countries and you just go a verse or two further down and it names 16 different countries. People were there from Rome and from all around the world at that time. And these Jewish disciples who spoke probably only Hebrew or Aramaic were speaking in Gentile languages that they’ve never heard before.

But not only that, the very dialect of those languages. And so Mary, I hope that helps. Nobody does the real gift of tongues today. It is a gibberish. We have another Mary on the line and she’s calling in from Clearwater Florida and Mary, welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air. Yes, was Jesus a Galilean? He was born in Bethlehem but he was raised in Galilee. He was raised in Nazareth which is considered the region called Galilee, yes. Oh, could you tell me what he looked like?

Is there some place in the Bible where he looked like? Did he have reddish hair and hazel eyes? No, we don’t have any not one description of Christ and what he looked like so I think that’s on purpose so that we wouldn’t be looking to See what Christ looked like we don’t have any idea Okay, it’s just guess working on our part. That’s right. Nobody knows. Okay. That’s probably better Thank you. Thank you Mary. Nobody knows what Christ looked like.

There’s no physical description given in the Bible Nobody took a snapshot. They didn’t have any cameras and not even anybody sculptured price. There’s just nothing. So we are better off. And God doesn’t want us to make images. So I think it’s best just leaving alone. All right. We have Donna in St. Petersburg calling in and she leaves an off-air question. She says, why did Jesus tell Mary not to touch me? And He also had to ascend again, apparently, because he had not yet apparently taken his blood to heaven to put on the mercy seat in heaven.

If you read Hebrews, chapter 9 verse 12, it says, but neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Later in that chapter in verse 24, he took it into the temple in heaven and applied his blood. So apparently if Mary had touched him at that point, she may have contaminated that sinless blood that was shed for your sins and minds. So I believe that’s what he’s letting us know there.

So I believe if you tie that with Hebrews 9, 12, and 9, 24 in particular, you get the fuller picture that Christ had not yet ascended. He tells us that in John 20, verse 17 and 18, but in Hebrews we think that’s the explanation. So we’re sure to thank you Mary. I mean Donna for calling in and I hope that answered your question. We have Mike in California. What is the requirement to become a pastor? Most people refer to the experience in the book of Acts called the Macedonian Call.

There are three factors. Paul heard of the need in Macedonia. Then he had a desire to meet that need and thirdly he had the ability to meet that needs. If you have all three of those, you are probably called. We’ve got a run. I’m sorry the time has run out, but keep looking up. Jesus is coming and we’ll be back tomorrow. We’re going in the morning. Bye bye. 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. Bible Lines 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. I’m Dr. Englund Stromman. We’ve had fun being with you today and I hope you’ve enjoyed the program and you’re welcome to call in with your offer question or your live question. There are a lot of questions we didn’t get to today, but hopefully we’ll get to them tomorrow.

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