Bibleline Radio Show – 2007-06-27

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Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Coming to you from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida declaring God’s love through radio and television, providing real answers to an ever-searching world. Got a question? Dial toll free at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Now here’s the host of Bibleline, Dr. Hank Lindstrom. 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 every day Monday through Friday And this is Friday and we’re coming to you live from our studios right here in Tampa at the Calvary Community Church We’re on the pastor and thanks for tuning in today And by the way, you can hear this program throughout the day and they’re out the next probably who knows year or so It will stay at archive and you can listen 24 hours a day.

Just go to our website BibleLineMinistries.org.com. We’re coming up on July 4th. Our nation’s birthday will be celebrating July 4th on July 1st here at Calvary Community with a big picnic and hot dogs and apple pie and hamburgers and potato salad and baked beans and chips and all kinds of things. Welcome to come and celebrate with us on the 1st of July when we’ll celebrate the 4th of July. We have a wonderful picnic area at the rear of our property with oak trees and shade and picnic tables and our mentally grilling hot dogs and hamburgers and you’re welcome to come and be our guest.

Tim at 1030, join us for the morning worship and we’ll celebrate our nation’s birthday and go back to the picnic area and have hot dogs and apple pie. If you’re in another state, you can always join our worship services by internet. All you have to do is go to Bible Administries.org. Click on that camera and you’ll be connected to the worship service. If you go about 11 o’clock on Sunday morning, you’ll see clouds rolling by. You’ll hear the old rugged cross.

And as soon as I begin the message, the video and the audio will come up on your screen. I hope you’ll join us. And if you can’t at the time when we’re live on Sunday morning, you can go into archive and catch several months worth of sermons that are sitting there. You can watch in here from your computer wherever you might be on the planet Earth. It’s worldwide, that’s for sure. In any case, we’re glad that you’re listening today.

We want to welcome those new listeners in Jacksonville and the northeast corner of the State of Florida listening on the WYMM1530 on the dial. We had some people that came by yesterday that were people that live in St. Augustine and they heard on the radio down here that we were up in that area and they couldn’t wait to get home to be listening this morning. I hope you’re hearing this loud and clear you should be able to in St.

Augustine And so we thank you for coming by and we were excited about your excitement about being on in your area now in St. Augustine, and Jack’s Mill, and of course all the way back over to Gainesville and Lake City and so on. We’re going to go to the Bible for a little bit and then we’re going to be talking about All fair questions and taking your live questions, the phone number here is 1-800-576-3771. 1-800-576-3771. And we hope that you’ll follow along with us as we take a look at the Scriptures.

One of the passages that is so misunderstood is James chapter 2. cults like it because it seems to lend to their false plan of salvation by works. And those churches that teach works for salvation love it because it seems to support their position of salvation by works. And you hear these people spout it out. Faith without works is dead. Faith without works is dead. How do you explain that? And you know most Christians can’t explain it. They don’t know what to do.

And it kind of leaves them silent. I believe you ought to know what James is talking about. James, throughout the whole book, is talking to believers, not unbelievers. He’s not talking about how to be saved, but how to have rewards in heaven. How to Live for Christ after you are saved. such that God will reward you and bless you when you stand before him at the Judgement Seat of Christ. You’ll notice, beginning right at the very beginning of the book, he says, My brethren.

And that is repeated over and over again. My brethren, my brethren, my brethren, including chapter 2 several times where he says in verse 14, My brethren, what does it profit? So men say He has faith and have have not works can faith save him and everybody goes to this passage that generally doesn’t have salvation right. What you need to recognize here is that we’re not even talking about the doctrine of salvation. You’ll notice one of the tip-offs is the fact that he’s talking to the brethren those that are already saved.

Secondly, he’s saying here what profit will you have? Salvation is never ever, ever spoken of as profit. Salvation is always referred to as the gift of God. It says in Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that He gave. He gave His only begotten Son, that if you would believe you would not perish but you would have everlasting life.

Ephesians 2-8 says, By Grace, are you saved through faith? And this salvation is not of yourself. It is the gift of God. And we can go on and on. Romans 5 repeats at numerous times, calling it the free gift. It is a free gift purchased by God at the cross by His death and shed blood. And when you trust in the finished work of Christ, God saves you. It’s a gift received on our part. It’s a gift given by God the Father to all that would believe on his Son, who soever believeth in him or trusteth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

So we know that James is talking about rewards because profit, gain, rewards are all the result of our labor and we can earn rewards, we can get profit based on our works. If we are saved we can live for Christ and have treasures in heaven and I love that that hymn that says it will be worth it all. When we see Jesus that everything that we’ve done here that’s been done for Christ will last and count for rewards in heaven.

But also if you go to the context in James chapter 2 if you’ll notice carefully verse 12 it tells you what’s going on here. It says so speak ye and so do ye as they that shall be judge by the law of liberty. The law of liberty is the law under which the Christian will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ. That’s reward time. That’s accountability time. That’s when we give an account of what we’ve done since we have been saved.

And so everything we speak, everything we utter, that everything we do ought to be done in view of the fact will be giving an account at the judgment seat of Christ. So here James is not talking about salvation from hell, he’s talking about salvation from the consequences of what happens at the judgment seat of Christ. When he says in verse 14, can faith save him, the person that has no works? And the answer is no. Now, we’re not talking about from hell, you’re already saved from hell and saved forever.

You cannot be lost once you become saved at the moment you trust Christ. But as a believer, if you have done no works in your Christian life, and you die and stand before the Lord which you will at the judgment seat of Christ, you will find that it will not save you from the consequences. What are they? They will be regret. They will be sorrow. They will be the loss of reward. They will be embarrassment. They will be a shame-ness.

So on and so on. Because if you have not lived for Christ, the consequences of that judgment I think will be devastating in a sense that you will not have rewards in heaven. James is warning his readers that they needed to get on the ball, get off their blessed assurance and start serving the Lord. You’ll notice that theme is picked up in chapter 1 where he says, be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

He says in verse 15, or rather 25, who is to ever look at the perfect law of liberty and continue with therein. That’s the law by which we are governed as a Christian and when you continue living your life using that liberty to please God and deliver God. He being not a forgetful here, but a doer, a doer, a doer of the work. Then this man shall be blessed or happy in his deed. You’ll have rewards. You’ll have blessing.

You’ll have God’s approval. He’ll say, well done though, good and faithful servant. But if you are a Christian who’s doing no works, then you’ll be embarrassed. You’ll suffer the loss of reward. There apparently will be tears right up until the new earth where Christ will or God will come over according to chapter 21 of the book of Revelation after this earth has been destroyed. and there’s a new heavens and a new earth and it says he’ll wipe away all tears from your eyes.

That’s believers by friend, shedding tears, believers experiencing regret, believers experiencing a shameless for what they have not done. As a Christian, James is in no case talking about works for salvation. In fact, when you go to verse 26, it seems to make the whole chapter unfold. He says here in verse 26, as the body is dead, or as the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Let’s talk about that for a moment. The first phrase, the body without the Spirit is dead.

If I were to drop dead right now, my Spirit and my soul would leave my body, and if you came over and looked for vital signs in my body, there would be none. I would not be breathing. There would be no heartbeat, there would be no pulse. If you tickled me, I would not laugh. Obviously, I would be absent from the body. But guess what? Guess what? I would still be alive. I have eternal life. And once I leave the body as a believer, I’ll be absent from the body and present with the Lord.

So I’m going to be absent by my body, present with the Lord very much alive. I have everlasting life, but I cannot show you in this world that I’m alive anymore because that requires my body. In other words, my body, because I can move, I can talk, I can speak. All these things that I can do that you can see and observe in here, let you know that I’m alive in my body. But once I die, the body without the Spirit is dead.

And it really means separation. Death in the Bible always is used in that way, never annihilation or the cessation of existence. Well, in the same way, he says here, faith without works is dead. In other words, works is like the body. It’s what is visible. It’s what is seen. It’s what is heard. It’s what is demonstrated. And so if you have no works, it doesn’t mean as some people teach, you have no faith. I hear this all the time.

If you don’t have any work, you have a dead faith. Therefore you have no faith. Therefore you’re not saved. That’s not what it’s saying. It’s saying, if I don’t have a body, I’m still alive. If If I don’t have a body, I just can’t show my works to you. I can’t show you the life of my soul without my body, but in the same way, without my works, I can’t show you my faith. Yes, I have faith and I’m saved forever once I trust Jesus as my Savior.

But I can’t demonstrate that faith. Nobody can know that I have faith unless I have works. When I was first saved, I was at the University of Florida studying electrical engineering. When God was working on me to become a witness for Him, I knew I was saved but I was not living for Him. I began to pray for the people in my dorm. I would say, God, this dorm is full of heathens. I have a bunch of pagan heathens living in my dorm.

They need you desperately. Would you send somebody to lead them to Christ? They need to know you desperately. And I prayed that prayer and prayed that prayer and nothing ever happened. Nobody ever came and all of a sudden it dawned upon me. I was already there. I knew how to be saved. I was a believer. And maybe God wanted to answer that prayer by using me. But I was already acquainted with the language. I was already there a fellow student in the dorm and I had easy access to all these guys that were in my dormitory.

And so I said, Lord, I think you’re telling me something. And you know, I began to witness and I was amazed. I had a lot of guys get saved almost immediately. And yes, they were hungry. Yes, they needed the Lord. But nobody was there to tell them. But here I was. God didn’t have to send somebody from hundreds of miles away to come into my dorm and lead these guys to Christ, I was living among them. He said, I should have been telling them from the get-go.

And that was a valuable lesson for me. You see, until I began to display my works, until I went and knocked on their door, until I opened my mouth, until I shared with them the gospel, nothing happened. But once I began to engage myself and get in motion, then guys got saved. They couldn’t see my faith without my works. They didn’t know I was a believer. I was a secret believer for that whole first year. And so it was not until I began to share.

that they saw my works and they recognized that I was a one of faith and I believed on Christ and I led many, many guys to Christ. What about you? If you’re a Christian not living for Christ, let me warn you as James does that you’re going to have no profit. You’ll have no gain. You’ll have no rewards in heaven. We know that you’ll have tears, regret, and sorrow and the fact that you have faithful not save you from the consequences of the judgment seat of Christ.

James 2 12, so speaky and so dewy as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. That’s at the judgment seat of Christ. My friend, if you’re a Christian, you’re going to be there. If you’re an unbeliever, you’re going to be in hell. You can disregard everything I said because it doesn’t apply to you. Only believers are spoken to in this chapter and in the book of James. He talks to the believer, my brethren, my brethren, my brethren.

I hope that helps and I hope everybody listening has trusted Jesus and his shed blood at the cross of Calvary as the only means of this salvation. When you trust him, God saves you. What do you do? What do you say to say, God, I trust you right now as the one who came in the person of Jesus Christ, God in flesh, went to the cross, died and shed your blood to pay my sin debt and full was buried and rose again from the dead.

And I trust Jesus as my only hope of heaven, as my Savior, as my only means of entrance into your presence. And the moment you trust Christ, God up in heaven, save you. We’re going to go to the phone lines. I’m Dr. Inklyn Shrim. This is my blind. We’re coming to you live on this Friday from our studios here at the Calvary Community Church in Tampa. We’d love to have you come by and visit our resource center during the week.

I’ll put until about 4.30 in the afternoon. Also, you’re welcome to come out on a worship day, and we’d love to have you come on a Sunday. But if not, if you’re living in another city, another state, another part of the world, you can catch our worship service on the internet by clicking on the camera on the home page. We have David and Tampa, and David, welcome to my blind year on the air. Okay, thanks. I just wanted to ask a couple questions about the James passage that you were talking about.

Sure. Um, how come to me it still seems like the James passage is talking about saving faith and not, it seems like it’s asking the type of faith that you have. What’s the type of faith that you have? It seems like if it’s an authentic faith, then it would be the kind that does these things. You know, that feeds the hungry and clothes, the neck, it goes in and talks about Abraham And it seems like it’s talking about the type of faith that saves him.

He believes God first. I understand that. But then, you have faith? That is not true. In other words, isolation is something that is given at the moment of trusting Christ by an act of faith at an instant of time. It’s nothing continuous. It is something that happens. It’s irreversible. And now he’s talking about the person after they have had that initial faith in Christ that they need to have works and they’ll have no rewards in heaven. Some works play an important role for the believer and for the unbeliever.

They play an important role as well. There’s a degree of punishment assigned to everyone who goes to hell based upon their work. So some are punished more than others because of their works. So believers go to heaven because they’re believers. Unbelievers go to hell because they’re unbelievers. believers will be judged according to their works to determine degree of reward. Unbelievers are judged according to their works to determine degree of punishment and health. Basically, it has nothing to do with what we do after that point.

In fact, the teaching of Calvinism is where we get all this nonsense that your life is going to improve in a positive way if you have truly had saving faith. That is nonsense. If you read the New Testament and When you read the Old Testament, you’ll find many people went in a negative direction after they got saved. Look at Lot. He went down, down, down, down, down, lived in literally down at the lowest place on the face of the earth and then see us 1,300 feet below sea level, but also down spiritually to one of the most Despicable cities in all of history that God destroyed because of the sinful practices of Sodom, and yet he was a believer.

Peter describes a lot as a righteous man. Righteous is not because of his works, but because of his faith. In fact, Abraham knew that. Abraham, Genesis 15, 6 was made righteous by faith alone apart from works. And when God described to him how he is going to destroy Sodom, he was thinking about his nephew Lot there. there, and he said, if there are fifty righteous there in Sodom, would you spare the city? He was talking about fifty saved people.

Fifty people that had received already the righteousness of God imputed or credited their account based upon their faith in Christ. And so they were already saved, and Lot was already a saved man, but he was not living for Christ. If you read 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, boy, what a motley crew lived in Corinth. Most of them were still involved in all kinds of sins and immorality as Christians, and Paul warned them about God’s chasing upon them and about how they would suffer loss of reward in heaven when they stood before the judgment seat of Christ.

Chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians is a big detailed description of what happens at that judgment about how even if all of your works were burn up, you’d still be saved. It says in 1 Corinthians 3, 15. So if you did nothing, David, for Christ, after you were saved, you’d still be saved, because it says in 1 Corinthians 3, 15, if any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss of reward, but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire.

You’re still saved even if you did zero, even if you did nothing after you became saved. And we have a lot of false teaching today. Nowhere does the Bible ever say we have to be changed? The Bible says we have to be born again. There’s a difference. The change is works. To be born again is another ball game. And once we’re born again, we’re saved forever. Then we have the choice of earning rewards and pleasing God in this life.

And that comes as a result of the fact that we want to please the Lord and earn those rewards He has for us. But it has nothing to do with our salvation. It’s not the quality of faith. Jesus said if you had the faith of a seed, a mustard seed, which is one of the smallest seeds, you have the faith to remove mountains. It’s not the quantity. It’s the object and who the faith is placed. Once you trust Christ, you are saved forever.

I hear this thing all the time where you’ve got to believe, they talk about easy belief ism as versus hard beliefism. I don’t know how in the world you can make such a statement or not you, but I mean people doing this. How do you believe hard? Do I plinch my fist and grunt and groan as I supposedly believe? Believe is not really any action on our part at all. It means from the Greek to trust, to rely upon, to put your confidence in, to rest your weight upon.

And once you trust Christ, you are eternally saved. And this is really a false doctrine I believe it’s not for today. So David, I hope that helps. I don’t know. But he’s certainly not talking about anybody. they’re getting saved. The incident in Abraham’s life, he says at that point it was 40 years after he had gotten saved and when he got saved he didn’t even have a son. But he offers up Isaac and demonstrates that he had believed all along and was evidencing his faith to humans.

It doesn’t matter to God. He knows whether you believe or not from the get-go. Others don’t and others saw Abraham’s faith in his willingness to kill the very son that he’d waited a lifetime for that was his only begotten son and Obviously Abraham loved Isaac very dearly just like God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son And so Christ died and he purchased eternal life for me And I knew that tonight I got saved when I heard the gospel I said God I’ll never serve you, but I’ll take you upon your free gift.

And I walked out of that meeting, saved, and knew I was saved, or God was a liar. And God worked on me, though, in the coming year, and He brought me to the place where I chose to serve Him. But I knew that if I never served Him a day in my life, I would go to heaven, or God was a liar. And I know God can’t lie. It says in Titus 1, 2, God cannot lie. One more quick question.

When it talks about the demons, even they believe that there is one God and we know that when Jesus walked the earth, he said that this is the holy one I got. You think that… They just didn’t fly. Is that right? No, I’m not saying that. I’m saying that the demons also recognize this day of judgment coming. You know, at the same time the lost are cast into hell. The angels are cast into hell. And just before the loss of the human race are cast into hell, we believers will be there and judge the angels according to 1 Corinthians 6 and they’re scared to death.

They know that they’re going to receive the results of their sins against God at that same judgment. judgment, the great white throne judgment where unsaid people are assigned a degree of punishment in hell. So there are degrees of punishment for the fallen angels and Satan will be the worst punished and they tremble at the thought of what’s going to happen in the future. In fact, when they recognized Christ, the demons that were in a man back in the gospels, they said, are you here to torment us before the time?

They knew the torment that was coming and james said the same torment that angels fear is the loss and regret that will happen to you if you don’t serve the lord as a christian you will experience regret and tears of the judgment of price yet so when i’m not talking about salvation angels are already lost but they believe in trouble at the consequences that are coming up for them when they have their deeds and their works examined and they’re receiving a degree of punishment and hell angels have degrees of punishment held just like humans do that are lost yes i want to be installed you said or you are the whole we want to go out of whatever they believe that jesus was the christ but they didn’t trust in him is that the difference no that’s not at all they they they feared what was coming up there already lost

there already made their decision to fall satan were condemned to hell but they still have a judgment coming up where they’re going to be assigned a degree of punishment That’s what they were fearing. And that’s what they still fear. And James is talking about the same thing. You ought to fear what will happen to you if you don’t live for Christ here at the Judge of Jesus Christ. You’ll never go to hell, but you’ll suffer the loss of reward for all eternity.

We’re gonna have to go to break and wish we had more time, but we don’t. And David, thank you for that great question. Stay tuned right here. We’ll be right back for a second half hour. If you haven’t trusted the Lord, you need to do that. For sure. We’ll be right back. Don’t go away Bibleline will be back in a moment. Give us a call at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Alright, we’re back here and I’m Dr. Anglican Linscherman and this is Bible and we’re coming to you live from Tampa, Florida from our studies at the Calvary Community Church.

We thank God for all of you who are our listeners and we really look forward to being with you every day. This is Friday. I hope you’ll attend attend church somewhere this weekend. If you don’t have a church to attend, you’re welcome to come and attend with us here at Calvary Community Church and Temple. We’re right next to the airport, and we love to have visitors come by, and we love to get to meet them, and we love to have you come by.

We’ve had people really from all over come by this week, and what a thrill to get to meet people from different parts of the states and some born in other countries that are here and they’re listening to the Bible and we had a fellow that was here in the area from Puerto Rico and he said he’ll be attending church this Sunday but listening to the Bible and while he’s in the area and we’ll have to listen in Puerto Rico on the internet because we’re not broadcasting on a live radio station there.

Pre-forces we try to reach out and we have people coming in here from many different countries as well as from the United States. We’re excited about how God is allowing Bibleline to touch lives all around the world. If you’ve been listening, you heard an offer question from Sweden. You heard an offer question from Macedonia. They come from all over the United States. This is just in the past week or so. We know that people around the world are listening via the Internet.

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Would you like to call Bibleline and ask Dr. Lynch from a question? You can. Just pick up your phone and dial 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Now here again is Dr. Hank Lindstrom. All right, we’re back from that break and this is Bible and we’re coming to you live from Tampa, Florida from our studios right here at the Calvary Community Church. We’re on the pastor. We want to welcome our new listeners up in the northeast corner of the state of Florida.

We’re on a big station there, the BYMM 1530 on the Am dial and we reach all the way over to the I-75 corridor. We’re reaching I-95 from Georgia all the way down to St. Augustine plus and we certainly hope that you’ll welcome all these new listeners to us. If you’re listening from that area, give us a call just to say, hey, I’m hearing you. Tell us if you like the program or if you don’t. If you don’t like it, tell us that.

We’d like to hear it all. I know that we welcome your criticism, and we welcome your praise. So whatever you would like to say, we would love to hear it. So we hope that all the folks up in the Northeast part of 4 will begin to discover our program, which is live 10 to 11, just like it is as we go live here in Tampa 4 to 10 to 11. Some stations carry us at a later time of day, because the 10-11 AM Eastern Standard’s time was not available.

We’re going to be teaching some more classes in the near future. We’ll be announcing that as we get closer to the start date. You can take them by internet from anywhere in the world, but also you can go back and buy the CDs or some in some cases DVDs of the classes of 10 to 12 hours of teaching. a lot of people like this series on Revelation 12 hours and verse by verse and we have Daniel. We have much of the New Testament books covered Romans, Hebrews in particular.

We have the little book of Jude which was a dynamic study. We have many on topics like the Rapture, the second coming meeting the challenge. Ten vital doctrines. And on and on. We just got lots and lots of teaching. Some people use them not only for their own personal use in their car as they go to and fro from work or they travel on a vacation. They put them in and play them throughout their trip and it really makes the time go by in their learning while they’re doing it.

Also some use it to facilitate a Bible study. I have a friend in Pennsylvania, a former World Series baseball player, and he has a Bible study in his basement and neighbors and friends come over and they play part of my one of my tapes or series of their actual CDs and then they have discussion, refreshments, and they’ve been doing that for years. In fact, sometimes when the Bible study is going on they would call me on my cell phone We’re stuck.

We have a question we can’t answer. Would you answer it? I answered it for the whole Bible study from my cell phone to a Bible study group up in Pennsylvania. But many are using them for a Sunday school class or to facilitate a Bible study. And some have a home Bible study where they use the CDs or DVDs. And the DVDs are nice because some tell me that when they can’t get out to church, Maybe there’s illness or sickness.

They put in a DVD and they have their church service at home. They watch a presentation of the Word of God on video and audio on their TV screen. So all of this is available. You might want to call and get a resource sheet or go to our website, BibleLineMinistries.org and take a look at the list of all the things we have available. You can order directly off the Internet or you can call for a resource sheet to be sent to you to you and order off that sheet and of course you just call in and our operators are…

We have lots of callers and we invite you to call. They’re calling in from all over. The number is 1-800-576-3771. We have lots of offer questions. You can leave it on the screen. They’re calling in from all over. The number is 1-800-576-3771. We have lots of offer questions. You can leave it off there. I hope we can get to most of those today. We have a whole slew of them and we had a lot yesterday and we are trying to get through those offer questions coming in.

But again in reference to James, let me just go ahead and read that one verse that we were covering last hour. In James 2.19, I believe there is one God that will do us well. The The devils also believe and tremble. What they do is acknowledge the fact that there is a God and that they are already condemned and headed for help. What they tremble about is what degree of punishment they’re going to get when they’re cast into the eternal lake of fire.

And James is using that as an illustration to you and me, can faith save you from the the consequences of the judgment seat of Christ, where if your works are burned up you will have no reward and you will experience sorrow, embarrassment, regret and loss of reward for all eternity. I am afraid nothing can save you from those consequences Draven and the demons know that the consequences of their actions will be assigned a degree of punishment in hell and they tremble at that thought.

smarter than humans sometimes because we don’t take it as seriously as the demons do. They know that they’re going to pay a price according to their works. According to their works, they’ll be punished and the demons will get a degree of punishment according to the deeds that they have done and that’s clear in scripture and they trembled over that event that is still future for them and they trembled when Christ was here the first time thinking he would be be there to torment them.

The torment is the degree of punishment. They were worried, are you going to get us right now and assign us our degree of punishment? They of course weren’t going to have it happen then. It happens at the same time all the unsaved of the human race are going to be judged and assigned a degree of punishment as well for their deeds as unbelievers. But believers are going to be judged and believers ought to wake up and realize that James says, don’t let that happen to you.

We have now Fred. He’s been and holding a long time, and Fredrient welcome to Bibleline, and Fred, welcome to Bible Lion here on the air. Hello Hank, how are you doing today? Good. I’ve been accused of preaching easy, believe-ism myself, and I know what that’s like. So what I tell people now is I don’t preach easy, believe-ism. I preach effortless believerism because easy suggest some kind of effort however minimal on my part and the Bible is clear salvation is all of the Lord even in the Old Testament says salvation is of the Lord.

So I got a question for you and I also have a question for those out there who hold to this what we call Lordship Salvation position and my question for the Lordship Salvation us out there if you’re listening, probably not because they hate this message. But if you’re listening, how many good works have to be apparent in my life before I approve that I have true saving faith? And my question for you, Hank, is there a verse of scripture or maybe a grouping of scriptures that tell us that it would be hard for people to understand this pure gospel message?

Also, you were talking about Corinthians and also says in Corinthians about a man who was that they would commit his flesh to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the soul may be saved in the day of Christ. I’ll hang up and listen. Thank you. All right. Good point, Fred. And you’re absolutely right. I just talked to a fellow that I lived a great year ago. He’s out of Wichita, Kansas. And he listens to the Bibleline. He says he’s being persecuted in his church for telling people there and the children, particularly the teachers, that they’re saved by faith alone without works.

This message does bring about persecution, and Paul even says that. He says in Galatians 5 and 11, if I still continue to preach the law, then why am I being persecuted? Then this reproach of Christ is taken away. the reproach of the message is that Christ paid it all and we have no part. There’s nothing we can do. Well in 2 Corinthians 11 in answer to your question in verse 3 it talks about how Satan would use the fact that the message is As you say, effortless and is simple to cause a person to stumble over the message of reject Christ.

It says, I fear in 2nd Corinthians 11, 3, lest by any means as the serpent Satan beguiled Eve in the Garden of Eden, so that your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. I’ll never forget as a young believer as I witness to people, I would hear people say, that’s too simple. simple. That’s too simple. You mean to say, if I just trust Christ, I’m going to go to heaven no matter what. And I used to bother me.

It really did bother me. And then I found that mercy in Corinthians. And now I have an opposite approach. I, when I hear somebody say, that’s too simple, I kind of secretly pat myself on the back and say, wow, you have communicated well. They have understood the true gospel because when they say it’s too simple. They have understood it simple. And I usually reach out and shake their hand and say congratulations. And they say, what? What? What? What? What?

What? What? What? What? What? What? And I said, because you understood the true message. The Bible says it is simple. And so I pat myself on the back and I also congratulate them for understanding it. I had one fellow call me on the telephone and, excuse me, being a false prophet and this, that and the other. And he said, you’re teaching people that all they have to do is trust Jesus and his shed blood and his finished work at the cross and that’s all we have to do to be saved.

And he went on and on and on just really with a loud voice and really blasting me. And when he finally had a pause, I said, you know, I want to commend you. He said, for what? I said, you heard me exactly right. Praise God. You understood me. That is exactly what the Bible teaches. That’s exactly what I said. And I said, unless you believe that, you’ll not be saved also. And I plead with you to take a fresh look at your Bible and realize that Jesus paid it all all to him.

I was sin had left to crimson stain, but he washed it as white as snow. You need to trust Christ and Christ alone. And Fred, that’s a great verse. It talks about the simplicity that is in Christ, that the devil, just like he deceived Eve back back in the Garden of Eden would use the simplicity of the message to cause people to trip and stumble and reject it. They just say it’s too simple and they move on. When the Bible says it is simple and the devil is saying, you can’t buy into that.

Why that’s too simple, it’s got to be more than that. And that’s the devil’s trick. You don’t want to fall for that trick of the devil. It is a simple message. And definitely that passage you referred to in Corinthians where there was a man living in fornication with his mother and was proud and not ashamed at all. It says in 1 Corinthians 5, 5, to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. In other words, allow Satan to kill this man so that his spirit would be saved when Jesus comes back.

So that man would be saved and go to heaven and would be in the presence of Jesus when he comes back. he would not be allowed to remain here on the earth god would allow satan to kill him to take his body we don’t have david in china nuga tenancy david welcome to buy what you are on the air doctor lake bodies around you know what the going bone to get all the money and there’s some other nothing about but in the lot of god’s word i believe we should not you know it says in uh…

romens uh… seventeen uh… verses uh… sixteen seventeen to mark those that have doctrines contrary to the Bible and avoid them. It doesn’t say join them, it says avoid them. So if they, especially those groups, have religious overtones and religious beliefs incorporated in their organization, and I believe that the Bible is very clear, it says over in Ephesians 5-11 also have no fellowship with the unprudful works of darkness. So when they’re done in secret or in darkness, then I would definitely avoid them.

It says they’re in Ephesians 5-11 as well. And then of course 2 Corinthians 6, you don’t want to engage yourself in some type of a relationship with a business or an organization or even a marriage partner when they’re unsaved. We need to make those decisions before we get married of course. But it says don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers. These are filled with unbelievers and there’s no real need for a Christian to unite with an organization like that. I would say stay away.

I would too. I don’t know why I need you. You know, all the… Well, I don’t know. You might have to get a tuba for it and hit him side to head. Alright. Thank you Dave. Yes, some people need somebody to get their attention and I wouldn’t recommend you hitting anybody with a tuba for. But you know what I mean. In a sense, you got to get their attention somehow. We have Matt in Palm Harbor, Florida. Matt, welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air.

Hi Dr. Lindstrom. How are you? Good. So pretty good job. I think with Christians it’s more of a question of do the people that say they trust in Christ really trust in Christ. And in John I think in the gospel John makes it clear who Christ is he’s the word of God made flesh. And if that’s who Christ is you know trusting in Christ is synonymous with trusting in the word of God. I think you know you teach a lot of times that you know if we trust in Christ we’re saved and that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll see a change in our lives.

live but you know if you really read the the new covenant you know as opposed to the law being over us as if to say we’re under it the law is not over us anymore the law is written on our minds and written in our hearts and they’re in God didn’t write his law on our minds and hearts without purpose uh… the Prophet Ezekiel tells us that he did it with a reason and that is when my spirit comes upon you I will cause you to walk out my statutes and my statutes and my statutes.

in my commandments. So it’s not us walking out the commandments once we have faith in Christ. It’s the Spirit of God within us walking out the commandments. It’s his That’s his righteousness that walks out the commandments within us. So, asians tells us, you know, I am dead. It is Christ that lives within me. When Christ lives within you, Christ will not allow you to sin. I think a lot of people are deceived and believe and they’re saved and they really haven’t received the message.

But if you really receive Christ into your heart, Christ will not sin within you. Okay, well, Christ does it. But again, all of your singing is true as we yield to obey him because we have to make that choice. We are in the driver’s seat and as a believer can say, no, Lord, I will not serve you. And we can say, yes, Lord, I will serve you. And I made that choice a year after I had gotten saved. Where I said Lord I’ll serve you the rest of my life and not but there was a point earlier where I said no Lord I will not serve you and during that first year.

I didn’t grow I didn’t move forward in my Christian life at all But it was not until I turn the switch and say Lord I will now choose to yield myself to obey you That I saw the Spirit of God working in my life as I in a sense turn the light switch on You know you can have electricity in your home and you can have your house wired for lights and and unless you go in and turn the light switch on, you’re not going to have any light in your home.

And basically the Christian who chooses to serve and makes that conscious decision to obey the Lord and to yield to the Holy Spirit, guiding and directing in his life until he turns that switch, nothing is going to happen. Thank you for that call and I agree, but we have to be the ones to make that choice or nothing will happen. Those Christians don’t make that choice unfortunately. That’s why most of Christianity is really lukewarm today. We have Joe up in Land of Lakes, Florida and Joe, welcome to Bibleline you are on the air.

Yes, Dr. Lynchton, the gentleman that just called before me, I agree with him 100%. I just have a question that in Hebrews where we’re told that God, Jason, and scourge every son whom he receives. If we get saved, then we choose not to serve God, then my question is who are we serving? Well, obviously, he’s serving self and probably also Satan because he’s the other alternative. Well, then in answer to your question, God says that he will chase in everyone and scourge everyone that’s disobedient.

You can’t have it both ways. Well, let me finish, Dr. Lishtum. When someone gets saved and they become a new creation, uh… new creation god says that he discourages every son of your not serving god in any way god’s word says he will come after you he will chase in you and if you don’t respond to take your life so to say to someone you know for me to say to someone that while you could live the rest of your life out and never served god that that is not that is not what god’s telling me here And his word says that just will live by faith.

We told the ones that are declared righteous. I agree with you. God came after me. I was over that first year when I was saved and not going to serve the Lord. The Lord brought me to my knees where I dedicated my life to Christ. And I knew I still could say no, but if I did, I knew I was dead meat because I really believe that God would not have allowed me to live on this earth. First Corinthians tells us that many of the Corinthians believers were weak and sickly and dead because they were living in the dead.

in sin and not willing to live for Christ. So yeah, he chases that discipline and that can be very, very mild and gently guiding you. Scourging is a violent intervention on God’s part into the Christian’s life who does not serve. So there’s two things going on there. You might just be gently guided by the Lord as he disciplines in a way that’s unseen by the world, but then also he could bring about discouraging which is a violent type of intervention in your life and you certainly don’t want to have that happen to you at all.

I think we’re in agreement here, Joe, but definitely you are in the driver’s seat and you can say no until you’re on your deathbed and you’ll suffer the loss of reward as a result of that. We have Matthew in Spring Hill, Florida. Matthew, welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air. plane plane metic POLITAddingurdue758–>627 Occupations undrafted VIDE Nicotine Good afternoon, Dr. I was opened up recently to a passage in Revelation. I can’t quote it directly right now. I’m in the car, but it talks about words of Jesus saying that we will be adorned beautifully as a bride for the Lord for God.

And now what I kind of got from that was his sheep820%] so we are in the He is sheep here him so we are opened up to new things as new believers, as believers. We’re constantly hearing Jesus. We’re constantly being led by him to stop. you know, open up the new things that we’re doing wrong. Now, as you read on and on, as you read the scripture, as you read scriptures and you’re opened up to new things, you start to realize new things that are not going correctly.

And I just think that it’s important to understand that, you know, how beautifully are you adorned for your groom, you know, due to the bridegroom, which is the groom’s best man. man and we are the bride. So I think it’s just a question of how beautiful you want to look to God when you meet him. I think it’s great. And obviously it’s a process. We really cannot expect that new believers will be at the same level of maturity that an older believer would be because it takes time to grow.

And Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2 as newborn babies desire the sincere milk of God’s word that you may grow thereby. We grow and develop as we take in the Word of God as we applied in our lives and I agree with you on that too, man. Thank you so much for calling and we now have Troy in the land floor. Troy, welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air. Good morning, Dr. Hank. I just want to respond to two previous callers.

They’re getting kind of a little touchy what you there about the salvation. And it is a simple message. One thing that I’ve learned is that salvation and fellowship. See, because you could be the nicest person in the world. Go to church every Sunday, keep to yourself. And not really, you know, when an opportunity comes up, you’re not sure if you should help or you don’t help or you’re just to yourself. And you can still be a Christian because you know you’re saved and you love God, but you’re not really doing anything wrong, wrong but you’re not out there uh…

fellowship and with other believers or fellowship and with god you’re just on the fence there and and and a lot of people i think uh… are are are getting salvation and fellowship uh… confused and i think you’re you’re talking about let let yourself be once you get saved and then you grow with christ and grow in the world like a gentleman said that the word uh… is a flesh and of christ but once you start for a ship in with christ then you go you know you know it like you said pastor that you want to get out there you when you got to be so i don’t work for But once you started to fellowship with him and learn his ways and be obedient to the word, you want to help others because you’re so free in the law of Christ.

And it is in your heart. You just want to help. Not because you’re safe, because you’re a good fellowship. You’re in fellowship with God. You’re a good son. And you’re obedient to love. and not through rule and just the school master. And I just want everybody to just, you know, don’t forget, there’s salvation and then there’s fellowship. And we should remember that. Thank you, Dr. Hank. Thank you, Troy. And that’s right. They have to celebrate, separate between salvation, which is what God does, and our response, which is discipleship where we serve the Lord.

Well, we have lots of all fair questions. I didn’t really get to those, but I’ll just say James and Plant City calls in with on repentance, a change of mind. If you’re a sinner, do you need to repent that you’re in need of a savior? And of course, that’s one area that you can also change your mind about that. There are people that are self-righteous that feel like that they don’t need a savior. And certainly, part of repentance could be for some to say, I am a sinner and I need a savior.

Well, I hope you’re saved if you haven’t, Excuse me, trusted Christ. Would you just say Lord, I’m a sinner and trust that He died right now and shit His blood is the only means of your salvation and the moment you trust Him God will save you. If you haven’t helped Bibleline in the month of June, would you call in and get an envelope sent to you or give a gift by credit card over the phone? I want you to keep looking up.

Have a great weekend. Come by and see us or watch us on the internet this weekend at BibleLineMinistries.org. Keep looking up. Jesus is coming. And I think very soon. 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.

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