Bibleline Radio Show – 2007-10-04

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Coming to you from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida declaring God’s love through radio and television, providing real answers to an ever-searching world. Got a question? Dial toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Now here’s the host of Bibleline, Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Well, good morning and welcome to Bibleline great to be with you today. Thanks for tuning into the broadcast. We look forward to you being with us each and every day and thank you for tuning in today.

We are coming to you live from Tampa, Florida from our studios here at the Calvary Community Church and we are looking forward to you maybe meeting us someday. If you can ever come by, we welcome you to knock on the door and visit our Resource Center open every day until 4.30. You could also come by on a worship day and you’re welcome to come this Sunday. On the third Sunday of this month, the 21st, we’ll be having a dinner and you’re welcome to join us for the 10.30 service.

Stay for the wonderful dinner or lunch. It follows and that allows for you to kind of make it a day. And this one, of course, the 21st of October, we’re having a baptism and you’re welcome to be included in that if you We don’t have a church that you attend or a place where you can be water baptized. We’ll be glad to include you. Call and get your name on the list and we’ll be glad to explain to you what we’re going to do.

It’ll be at a lake, at a church members home, just north of the church, a few miles. We’ll have a wonderful time. I love doing these outdoors. I think it’s more biblical. If you wait and go with me to Israel this coming year, we will probably baptize a bunch of you in the Jordan River. We did every trip we do that. We’ve been 14 times now and if you want to be on that prospect list, if you want to be informed, Wardwelling, if everything goes well, we may do that trip in February thinking about moving it up earlier and we’ll let you know as soon as we finalize here and we’d love to have you go with us.

to be a wonderful time visiting the places where Jesus walked and where he taught and where the events of the Bible all took place. It’s really a life-changing event. You’ll come back and visualize the Bible. But in any case, if you’ve not been water baptized since you have been saved, then you need to be baptized as a believer, not to assure your salvation. Baptism is a testimony of the water’s ceremonial and pictures how we are cleansed of our sin by the blood of Jesus Christ.

The hymn writer got it right when he said, What can wash away our sin? The answer is nothing but the blood. Nothing but the blood. So if you died without being water baptized, you’d still be saved. If you trusted Christ as your only hope of reaching heaven, that his death and shed blood paid your sin debt and full, but you definitely as a believer, as an act of obedience to Christ, be water baptized, and we’ll be happy to include you.

Again, I’m Dr. Englund Sherman. We have a lot of resources here. You might want to call on the ask for a resource sheet to be sent out to you, and we’ll be happy to do that free of charge. You can also visit our online bookstore on the internet. Just go to BibleLineMinistries.org or .com. If you will do that, you can click on the online bookstore and see all of our resources, descriptions and prices, and you can order right there.

You can also donate to Bibleline there on the secure site there on our online bookstore. It’s by the line ministries.org or .com. By the way, you can hear our radio programs live and also at any time of day or night. If you go to the internet, click on that spinning globe. Also, when you click on that, the page will come up and it has a place for you to submit a question. Just type it in and hit submit and we’ll get it and we’ll try to get those answered for you.

So you can do that in a nice easy way. Just type in your question. It’s all set to go. The blanks are already there. Just fill in the blanks and hit submit and we’ll get that. Also you can call and get on live with us. The number is 1-800-576-3771. 1-800-576 The Take Advantage of that. And if you want to come by and look at our resource center, you can do that every day of the week. Money through Friday till about $4.30 or just go to the internet, but also on the internet.

You can catch our worship services. Right now we have 46 weeks of sermons sitting there for you to watch. And I hope you’ll take advantage of that and take a look. Just click on the camera on the home page. And if you do that, you’ll be connected. And last Sunday’s sermon is there, and all the way back 46 weeks. In just a couple of more weeks, we’ll have a full year worth of sermons sitting there for you to watch and to listen to and to enjoy.

So keep that in mind. We’re excited about being with you every day. We want to welcome those new listeners in Scranton, Pennsylvania. And we had our first caller from there yesterday, Beverly called in from Scranton, and we hope if you have relatives or friends in that area of the country that you would help them find our new station that we’re on up here in North Pennsylvania. Well, we’re going to get to the Bible for a few minutes and we’ve been talking a little bit about repentance this week and this is a major, major problem.

Most churches are teaching repentance incorrectly. Most people define repent as turning from sin or sorrow for sin, and that is not the case at all. The Greek word is metanoia. M-E-T-A, metamines change. Noya means mind. The two words together mean a change of mind metanoia. And that’s really the primary word used in the New Testament. And as you read through the book of Acts, and you read through the Bible, the change of mind is usually about how somebody is saved.

So why not take a fresh look and be reminded of this. If you tell somebody they have to stop sinning or turn from their sin to be saved, then you are adding an element of works to salvation and you are giving a false gospel because a person who is working to be saved will not be saved. Let me give you a great verse. Romans 4, 5 says to him that worketh not. That means doesn’t do anything to him that does not work.

This is a shocking verse really. The first time I saw it, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It says, but to him that worked if not, but believe it on him that justified him, Godly, that’s Jesus. When you trust or believe on Christ, it says your faith in Christ is counted for righteousness. So God makes the person righteous who puts their trust in Christ as he imputes or credits our account with his righteousness at the moment of belief. And it has absolutely nothing to do with our works.

In fact the Bible says that if you’re working you won’t receive grace. And if you’re working you simply are increasing your sin debt. So if you’re trying by your works like let’s say to stop sinning, as you continue to sin your sin debt just builds up and it gets worse. Let me look at verse 4 with the Enromans 4, where it says, not a hymn that worketh is the reward, not recantive grace. So as long as you are doing any work, here is the way to detect the true gospel.

I call it the grace test. Close your eyes and just think for a moment and ask yourself, am I being tugged by a message you are hearing, by a preacher or by the church that you attend, to do something or not to do something in your life that will affect whether you go to heaven or not. And if you are, you’re listening to a false message because that’s works. If you are, if it’s implied that you must do something or not do something that will affect your salvation from the time you’re living right now until you die, that’s works.

You see, The true plan of salvation always takes the lost and dying sinner and points us back to the cross of Calvary. Where there Jesus said, it’s finished. The work of salvation is finished. It’s finished. It’s done. Christ paid it all. All to Him I owe sin enough to Crimson Stane, but He washed it as wide as snow. Jesus paid the full sin debt at the cross. Now the false plan of salvation points you to your future and to yourself and says you have to do something or stop doing something or change or something has got to be different in your life.

That is a total lie and that is not what the Bible teaches. We are reading it right here in the Bible. Take a look at it. I am just amazed. You know the night I got saved I was 18 at a time. I realized when I saw salvation was a gift in God and when I saw it was none of works the state of ancient buster brag i remember saying to myself some of these wrong somebody’s wrong either my church is right in the bible is wrong or the bible is right in my church is wrong I think you know which way I went.

I chose the Bible and why we don’t have people that have courage to say that this is what the Bible says. I don’t know. But I began a long time ago to say I’m going to tell people what the Bible says without compromise. And that doesn’t make me popular with everybody, but I’m going to say what God says and I’m not going to apologize for it. The Bible says here in Romans 4.4, now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of death.

Let me give you a silly, silly, silly illustration. Let’s just say that you have a bill that you owe to the electric company. Everybody uses electricity and you probably pay an electric bill every month. Let’s say that this month when you send in your payment, you go to your monopoly and pull out those bundles of money and you include monopoly money in the amount to pay off your electric bill. Now, you mail that into mail and I’m sure they get a big chuckle at the electric company when they process your bill, but guess what?

Your bill is not paid for because your monopoly money will not pay the debt. And so not only do you not get your debt, you probably get a late fee and then you have your next month’s bill if they haven’t cut it off already added to it and your debt becomes greater. That’s right. You owe more money because you didn’t reduce the debt and you incurred more electric use since you sent that money, the monopoly money off, and you have a greater debt.

That’s what it’s saying here. If you are attempting to illegitimately pay off your sin debt by works stopping your sin or changing your life or joining the church or confirmation or baptism or whatever it is you are trusting in to get you to heaven. As long as you are working to do that, you are not reducing your debt at all because it does not pay for your sin. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. What does that mean?

It really means ultimately the second death you will have to go to hell if you want to pay for your sin. Now how many would like to go to hell? I don’t think you do, right? I don’t see any hands being raised. You don’t want to go to hell. But if you paid for your sin, it would be hell. But Jesus paid the death penalty for you. And that’s why you could be absolutely assured right now at the moment you trust Christ that you’re going to go to heaven because Jesus paid the death in full by his death.

So as long as you’re working, think again, just close your eyes and ask yourself, Do I have to do something? Is there a tug at me from the church I’m going to or the messages I’m listening to that I have to change or I have to do something to be saved? My friend, then you’re hearing a false message. The true message says Jesus paid it all. The true message says it was paid for at the cross. The true message says it’s done.

Jesus said on the cross it’s finished. It really means paid in full. It’s an accounting term. The Greek word to tell us is a word that has recently been found on so many documents that are being discovered nowadays with modern archaeology. And they find it as an accounting term and it means paid in full. Full satisfaction received from the debt. Have you ever owed a debt and you paid it off and you get that piece of paper in the mail that says you don’t owe anymore?

Your debt is paid in full and you have that big stamp on there that says full satisfaction has been received for this debt. You have no more lean or mortgage on the property or the item that you have been paying for. Isn’t that a wonderful feeling? Well, that’s what Jesus announced at the cross. It’s finished, it’s paid for in full. Full satisfaction was received for your sin debt. Past, present, future sins were all paid for at the cross by Christ ethic Calvary.

Now let’s go on in Romans 4, 5 and take a look at verse 5 where it says, but to him that worketh not. That means that you don’t do anything. That’s right. It says work if not. That means you do not work. To the one who does not work, but believe it, that means to trust on Christ that justifies ungodly people as us. Your faith in Christ is counted for righteousness. There are three things here that are the formula for salvation.

Number one, to be saved, you have to come to God recognizing you can’t save yourself. not capable of doing anything that will bring about salvation. Number two, you have to place your trust in Jesus Christ as the one who made the payment for you. Number three, the result is that God will count your faith in Christ for righteousness. If you’re working and you’re trusting in your works, the Bible says you will not have grace, you will not have grace, you will not have grace, verse four, Romans four, you You will have greater depth.

Your sin debt will increase and when you die you will go to hell because you did not pay for one sin by your works. You can work, work, work, join, join, climb, climb, climb, pay, pay, pay and all those kinds of things. All of your life, and you’ll still go to hell. You have to trust Jesus alone, as the only means of your salvation, due to heaven. And by the way the Old Testament saints were saved that same way.

Look at you will at verse six where it says even as David! Old Testament King David King David also describes the blessedness, the happiness of the man under whom God imputed or credits or charges righteousness. Look at the last two words of Romans 4, 6, without works. Without works. Without works. Boy, it’s amazing to me how many people are counting on their works. Are they going to be surprised when they wind up in hell because they were working and not really trusting Christ alone, and their faith will not count for anything, and therefore they will go to hell.

But the formula for salvation moments 4-5 is that you do not work to be saved. But trust in the finished work of Jesus at the cross is death and shed blood. That he was buried and rose again from the dead. When you trust him, God saves you and saves you eternally. I’m Dr. Englund’s from this is my blind. We’re going to go to the phone lines and we look forward to hearing from you. If you haven’t called in before, we’d love to hear from you for the first time.

Again, this is a Bibleline and the phone number here is 1-800-576-3771. 1-800-576-3771 and we are waiting for your call. We have a lot of all fairs, so we’re going to go ahead and grab a few of these. We have Mike and Largo saying, off air, could you please give some verses that explain specifically not to pray to the saints? All right, very good. First of all, in 1 Timothy 2, 5, it says there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

So we find there’s only one mediator. If you are trying to get to God through the saints or to have saints answer your prayers, you cannot. Also, Isaiah 819 tells us that you are not to pray to the dead. That is, any saint is somebody who has died and is already in heaven and you are not allowed to pray to them. Mary is in that same category. If you prayed a Mary, it is a dead end street. You are not going to get through because Mary can’t answer your prayers.

And you will not be able to get through to God. It is very, very important that you don’t do that. You are forbidden to pray to the dead. Lots of verses, Leviticus 18, Deuteronomy 20, and numerous verses in the Old Testament tell us that we are not to try to contact the dead. This is forbidden territory. If you do, you might contact somebody, but it’s not going to be your dead relative. It’s going to be an angel that will impersonate the dead and will know enough about your relative to maybe fool you.

That’s the Satan’s lure into that whole realm. But we’re simply forbidden to pray to the dead. There’s only one mediator. Why go to somebody else, Mary or some saint, to answer your prayers when God says that there’s only one ONE. First Timothy 25, check that out. Thank you so much, Mike, for calling in. We now have Randy in Tampa, Florida, and Randy, welcome to the Bible and you’re on the air. Question about the AA 12 steps. What can you tell me about that?

How do I have a girlfriend who’s sister in that program? Well, the AA system really doesn’t define who God is, and that’s where I think it really This is the mark being time. In other words, you just talked admit to a higher power. I think they’re successful and with many that in the helping them with their alcohol problem, but really you need to go to your Bible. And a lot of people have told me that we’re alcoholics that they oftentimes.

He would then be introduced to other people who like to drink or do drugs and they would find themselves pulled back down. I’m not too sure about how effective the program is, but I know that they do help people. And I’m glad for that, but it’s certainly not one where you can count on getting correct Bible teaching. Certainly they leave it open to any God, so you could be, you know, except any God in the world. think the coconut tree down the street might be a God and pray to that.

So I think is your best bet is the end of the Bible and God once you get saved he gives you the Holy Spirit that will give you the power to have victory over an addiction alcohol or other things and and that’s where you need to go. I would say first up you need to lead that person to Christ and secondly then get them growing in the knowledge of Christ as a brand new believer and as they become strengthened and grow as a Christian, they can pull on the power of God to have victory over that sin.

And maybe they might have to go do a detox center or something else to help get themselves away from that withdrawal. But they really do need the Lord and that’s where you need to go in the 12th step plan. We’ll never tell you about Jesus. You’re sure welcome. Thank you for calling in Randy in Tampa, Florida. We don’t have Shirley Dunn in Bradenton, Florida. And Shirley, welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air. Okay. Okay, you’re on the air and do you have a question?

Yes. All right. What is your question? My question is, well, it was asked to me yesterday. Yes. And it was asked to me yesterday and I couldn’t answer. What is that question? The question is, is that if God knows that you’re what’s going to happen in your life already, that how could he allow bad things to happen to you like a young child being lifted or killed? Well, that’s a good question. You know, God knows the future. But let me just say that all of these bad things that we see happening in our world are really caused as a result of sin.

Adam sinned death passed upon the whole human race everybody dies you can’t find any place on the planet where there is not a burial place or cemetery I’ve traveled in many countries and everywhere you go you find that there are monuments even the pyramids were really a place where the sarcophagus the thing that would hold the body of the Pharaoh would go and so these were burial places and people die. And because of sin, there are terrible things that are done and their atrocities are awful.

But you know sometimes God uses these things in our lives for good. Sometimes maybe it’s a wake up for those that are left behind that are living when somebody maybe is murdered or killed that they would seek maybe the Lord and find out what’s going on here and the Lord can turn it to good. I like Romans 828 where it says and we know that all things work together for good. It doesn’t say all things are good but it says all things work together to good or for good to them that love the Lord and who are called according to His purpose.

So if you’re a believer you can expect that whatever is happening in your life even as painful as it might seem is for a good purpose and you need to find out what it is. Maybe it’s to draw you closer to the Lord. Many times I’ve seen a death bring family members to Christ as they think about death and they realize wow, they would love to see that loved one again. And the only way to do that if they’re a believer is to also become a believer because only believers will be together in heaven and enjoy each other there.

So I believe the answer is that there are sad things that are going happen right up until the Lord finishes that thousand-year kingdom he’s going to set up on the earth and after that Satan and all the lost will be cast in the hell forever and there will be no more sin, no more pain, no more sorrow, no more tears, no more heartache, nothing will ever affect us adversity again which is going to be wonderful. But in this This world is going to be pain and it says back in the book of Job that as the sparks fly upward from a fire so is man born under trouble.

We’re all going to have trouble in this world. It’s all because of sin. It’s all because of what Adam did and we just have to realize that God can turn that evil to good. You know Joseph. . . . . . . . . . One of the twelve sons of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel back in the Old Testament, we find that his brothers wanted to get rid of him. And they were going to kill him, but they decided they would go ahead and sell him to a caravan headed down to Egypt.

And they said, boy, it lasts for a writ of our brother. Little did they realize what would happen, and we know he spent some years in prison down in Egypt, but God raised him up to be second only to Pharaoh in Egypt. and at the end of his life he forgave his brothers of their sin of trying to kill him and said that what they meant for him for evil, God turned to good. When you read the Bible stories you can see story after story where things happen that were bad but God turned it to good and it could be that way.

Hopefully that helps Shirley. Alright, thank you. Alright, that was Shirley down in Bradenton, Florida. We have Claude in Jacksonville, Florida. Claude, welcome to Bibleline your on the air. Yes, how you doing? I was listening. I just started to listen to you so I’m in the solo morning and for some reason I’m having problems with presumption on God’s mercy. I understand that you’re going to… You’re going to have to hold on till through the break here because we are coming up on that break time, Claude.

The whole still right there will get you in just a minute. But this is Bibleline. We have to run and take a break. We’ll come back and do the second half hour. If you’d like to help Bibleline, you can give a gift by credit card over the phone or you can mail your gift in the Bible and pray for us and also consider being a partner of ours and helping us continue these programs on the air. Right now we’re going to go to break.

We’ll be right back. So keep your radio dial tuned right where it is and we’ll be back and if plot is still there, we’ll talk to him after we get 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. All right. I’m Dr. Englund. It’s great to be with you today. Thanks for tuning into the broadcast. We appreciate you and all of our listeners today. And thank you for tuning in to the Bibleline program.

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Hank Lindstrom. Hank Lynch from All Right. We’re back from that break and this is by one. It’s so great to be with you and thanks for tuning into the broadcast and welcome to the program. And maybe you might be one of those new listeners. We have a whole new audience now up in Scranton, Pennsylvania as we began their Monday live at 10 o’clock in the morning, saving time is here. And we want to welcome all of those listening in Memphis, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, We’ve had a new contingency.

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Well we have Claude patiently waiting from Jackson the Fort, let’s get back to Claude and sorry to have to have put you on hold but that’s the way it is. And we are back with you Claude. So you were saying you were having difficulty grasping this concept. Yes, no understanding the presumptions on God’s mercy. I can appreciate the text this morning, but for baby Christians and those who have strayed, you know, for some reason the implication that, you know, you know you can just wall it in you.

Don’t think that’s what. Okay, let me just talk about that for a moment. Once you get saved now, it’s a new ballgame. You’re a child of God and you don’t work to be saved, nor do you work to continue to be saved. That’s a done deal. But if you are delinquent as a believer, God is going to spank you. If you read Hebrews 12 and verse 6 it says, for whom the Lord loves, he chases, that means discipline and scourges every son whom he receives.

Now when you are received in the God’s family by the new birth, all of a sudden God for the first time becomes your father and you become his son or daughter. And if you’re going to be delinquent, just like a parent will discipline their children, God is going to discipline you. It says in verse 8 of Hebrew 12, if you be without this discipline from God, where of all of His children are partakers, It says you’re a bastard and not a son.

That’s a pretty strong word. And what it means is you’re illegitimately claiming to be a Christian when you’re not. And if you can live as you please and get away with it, it proves you were never saved. Because God spanks every child who is delinquent in his family. And you don’t want to have God on your case because obviously he can get your attention. So you can’t live as you please. Plus, you’re going to be held accountable for reward one day, and rewards here and blessings here and blessings there in heaven are all based upon your deeds.

And you know, this wonderful message that when I realized that God loved me enough to save me when I deserved to go to hell and he gave me to her life completely free and there were no strings attached, I was grateful. I said, Lord, if you were willing to do that for me, the least I can do for you is tell others about you. And I chose about a year after I got saved, it was 19 at the time, I got saved at 18.

I chose to live for Christ the rest of my life. I graduated in electrical engineering from the University of Florida, I’m a gator. And I never went on to practice engineering because I felt the Lord called me there in college to tell this wonderful gospel that I had heard at 18 to the world. And so that’s what I’m attempting to do. still in, but I realize that there is nothing that I have to do to be saved, whether I have done anything for God I would still be saved.

But the love of God constrained me and that’s what the Bible says. And if you really get saved and you realize the greatness of his love and the greatness of his sacrifice and how much God loves you and how that this life is very short in eternity forever that we ought to be living for Christ here. And I found that the way it turns out, opposite of what we normally would think, but I have had hundreds go into full-time Christian work.

And they’re all over the world. I have missionaries and pastors and Bible teachers on five continents. One has a Bible college seminary in Belgium, in England, and they’re all over the place. I have a professor at Nalistological Seminary that I led to Christ. One of the first guys I ever led to Christ at the University of Florida. And they’re all over in different fields of Christian work, but because they realize they don’t have to do a thing. But they’re so grateful.

Yes, I’m glad you are stressing that point. I just didn’t want baby Christians and those who have gone astray to feel that their responsibility is only to believe in Jesus Christ because to be a Christian you have a certain lifestyle. I feel that that’s what the Bible is all about changing our lifestyle. Good night. But not to be saved, but it is the result of being saved that we are to live for Christ and glorify Him and to be Christ-like in this life.

Exactly, but we don’t do it as a means of our salvation. It doesn’t have a thing to do with our salvation. It is secured by Christ, but we now want to respond in love and gratitude by living for Him and He’s going to reward us for that. Rewards are separate from salvation. There are five crowns that the believer can earn for different things that we can do for the Lord and there are multiple other rewards that God is going to give.

Moses chose to serve God for that very reason. It says in Hebrews 11 that He could have been Pharaoh and could have enjoyed the pleasures of sin for the life he was on the earth here but he esteemed the reproach of Christ, greater treasures than the riches in Egypt. And so he chose to serve the Lord because he knew God would pay him better than he could have been paid his Pharaoh. Yes, I hope our conversation has been valuable to many people and I appreciate the time, sir.

Well, Claude, thank you for calling your right on. That’s exactly right. to tell people that salvation is free, that it was purchased by Christ’s death. But the Christian life, that’s where we pay a price and the result will be rewards in heaven. We have an anonymous caller from Chester, Virginia. Mr. Anonymous, welcome to Bibleline You’re on the Air. Hello. Hi. This is us Anonymous. Yes. Okay, you’re on the air. Well, Hank, I enjoy your program very, very much. I’ve been listening to you for years.

And you taught me very much about Bible. And I’ve believed in Jesus and God all my life, but I am now closer and learning more every day about him. And what I want to ask you is, what do you believe about giving a tenth of your income? I have always done this. But I’m… The Bible tells us that we are to give the first fruits of our increase. So off the top before we spend any money anywhere else we are to give it to the Lord.

Proverbs 3.9 gives that instruction to us and gives us the promise that we will obviously be rewarded greatly for our investment in eternity while we are here. We will pay off in rewards in heaven. It says that we are to honor the Lord with our substance with the first fruits of our increase. So definitely. And 10% is a number that she’s throughout the Bible. But the Old Testament giving of the 10th was under the law and was required of you, was demanded of you, you had to do that.

Under the New Testament, we do it from the heart and we do it because we love the Lord. And we say, Lord, I love you and I want to honor you. And so therefore I’m gonna give to you to invest in eternity to make sure that Jesus is heard about and get that gospel message out and God will bless you richly for that. So you’re right on. Well, I believe all this pastor and I have given the time to remember the family.

I don’t believe that they are even saved and I don’t know what the, you know, they would give it from the heart or what, but I know that I will. And I want to send you a good piece of this as a gift for you being on the radio for your ministry right now. But I just hope that you stay on the radio because I am between churches now, but I’m going to one and to Sunday school. But I’m praying for the Lord to lead me to the right church where He wants me because I have moved from where I was going to church.

So I will be standing your gift and listen to your God bless you and please stay on the air. Well we’re going to try and thank you so much and that’s wonderful. The Lord supplies through people just like this and keeping us on the air and again I think we get more results. We have people every day. We had a person come by this week and said that he had been incarcerated and he knew how to go to heaven, knew he couldn’t lose it, and we asked him how, and he said that he had heard Bibleline in the jail.

We have letters coming in from many jails where people are hearing the gospel and getting saved, office buildings, homes, cars, trucks, people traveling on the road, salesmen. We’ve had many tell us that they kind of plan their day as their deliveries go and as their Their sales calls go around Bible and so that they can take in as much of the program as they can. We’re really flattered. Well, thank you, Mrs. Anonymous, for your wonderful call and God bless you as you attempt to please him.

We’re now going to go to David in Tampa, Florida. And David, welcome to Bibleline you are on the air. David, are you there? Hello. Yeah, I’m here. Okay, David. You’re on the air. Go ahead, David. Good morning Dr. Lindstrom. Good morning. Dr. Lindstrom, I’ve heard you many times discussed this recently. I listened to this very station, and the pastor spent the better part of half an hour dealing with that, and claiming that yes, there is. Are those who still have that talent?

And they went on and on. And I think that there’s just a conflict here, if you’ve gone to the same station, and going to just elicit more and more calm questions to you concerning the issue. Well, you know, it’s amazing. This movement has really grown. And I think it’s a sign that we’re in the end times because this is a counterfeit movement. And Jesus said in Matthew 24, 24, there would arise false preachers in the last days. and they would show the signs and wonders that would deceive even genuine He said, I have told you this before it happened.

So we should be forewarned that the miracles done in the last days would not be done by believers but by unbelievers. And I think it’s a tip off that we’re seeing those who parade as Christians that are, I believe, the tears that Christ spoke about that would look like we talk like we, in other words, they would look like Christians and talk like Christians but it would be a very good thing. In other words, they would look like Christians and talk like Christians, but it really not.

And their doctrines are flawed. Of course, the major doctrine that these people all generally believe is that you can lose your salvation, which is major, because that means that they have to live their life out and they have to have works ultimately to get themselves to heaven. And I’m afraid these people are lost and they’re not going to heaven at all. But tons is not the major issue. It’s their salvation and their salvation plan. Every time I ask one of these, can you lose your salvation?

They don’t even blink their eye. and say you bet you sure can and and and what that means is that from now till their death they have to live their life faithfully and and that’s works that will get them to have an ultimate makes them the savior not christ my salvation space to pull a crisis for me two thousand years ago the end of his comment that the number one thing that we need to be careful of and and in my opinion he was preaching that for about the fifteen minutes at the beginning of his uh…

his message that’s it’s so amazing i’m telling you we’re living in a strange time i had a fella coming to town who listens to buy blind and he was trying to find a good church he went on the uh… telephone to interview and he said that uh… when he asked a pastor uh… do you believe the bible to be the word of god the pastor said why are you asking that and he said why does one of the other if there’s a church that was the bible’s word of god is that we don’t divulge that kind of information over the telephone he said i couldn’t believe it that uh…

they won’t even tell you what they really believe sometimes when you call the interview to find out if you can’t find a good church and i had a guy called me from kitty tucky yesterday he’s trying to find a church and he called five and ask them which you could you tell me how to be saved you thought that would be a good test he said he got hung up on the justlam the phone down he said he couldn’t believe it they would even answer to tell him how to be saved what kind of a day are we living in when that happens i would think boy somebody called me and ask me how to be saved that they would have my full attention i would do everything by power to lead the crime thank you very much dot com thank you for alerting us that hold on the one to

get my operator to get your number i want to talk to you later and uh… so uh… thank you for calling in and this is uh… bible and i’m not going to have a phone number is uh… one eight hundred five seven six three seven seven one let me give uh… we have robert in braiden for the robert welcome to my line on the air uh… but i think i bless you thank you and uh… I got a question.

What is the difference between the Old Testament, Perils and the New Testament, Perils and now Hank, that’s so I can listen. Thank you. Sorry, well… that the parables in the bible are uh… really contrary to what most people think are written to conceal truth rather than not reveal truth uh… in uh… marks gospel in chapter four jesus said there as he spoke to his disciples after he had spoken the parable of the sower. And he says, I’ll just read the verse for you.

It’s quite a shocker to me. I just wasn’t expecting this as a new believer as I began to read the Bible. But Jesus said in verse 10 of Mark 4, and when he was alone, they were about him with the 12, asked him of the parable. He said unto them in verse 11, unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto them that are without, that is those that are unsaved, all these things are done in parables that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.

So we learn here that parables were spoken in to conceal truth, not reveal truth. And basically for those who didn’t want to know truth, the Bible has these things in there to kind of keep you blinded. If you want to know the truth, you could be a child and understand the wonderful message of the gospel of Christ. But if you have the intelligence of a genius and you don’t want to know truth and you read the Bible, you will not make heads or tails out of it.

It’s just written in that way. And I think that’s the case about parables throughout the Bible. That’s why you have to be careful. When you make parables a main part of your teaching, you need to interpret them in a lot of clear, clear passages, or you’re going to come out wrong. I have lots and lots of books, lots of commentaries I’ve gathered over the years. And when you go to the parables, boy, you’ll see they all disagree with each other.

They all get confused. I did a series on parables that is on CD that, that turned out to be really good. It will cover the most difficult parables and show you the principles of interpretation. interpretation, and we come out with interpretations that agree with all the rest of Scripture, and that’s the confirmation you have the right interpretation. Thank you for calling in. We now have Scott in Tampa, Florida. Scott, welcome to Bibleline you are on the air. Scott? Yes.

Yes. Dr. Lindstrom, I have a question for you. I know that the Scriptures tell us that God is an invisible spirit. However, when Jesus Christ the God-man left this planet, there were eyewitnesses, his disciples, that he left in his glorified body. My question is, as he ascended into the clouds, did he return to the spirit realm or did he retain his glorified body? He retained that body and will continue to retain it. He comes back even that passage in Acts 1 that you’re referring to says this same Jesus which is taken up from you in the heaven shall so return in like manner as you’ve seen him go.

So he’ll come back in a physical body and the Bible tells us that he’ll be recognized at his second coming as they’ll see the nil scarred hands and feet and the wound in his sign. They’ll know no doubt that this is Jesus. So yes, he’ll retain that body forever. I see. Now how would you answer someone who says, well if Jesus is an in heaven and he’s visible, how can he be part of the invisible singular God? Well he is obviously the one that we’re going to see when we get to heaven.

I don’t think you’re going to see God the Father because he is a spirit and is not visible. But I think you could probably see his glory as obviously when God appeared to Moses in the mountain there. Moses had to be covered in the cliff, in the rock, and protected as the glory of God passed by. Or he would have been killed. He would have died as a result. But God chose to reveal himself in a way that we can see him and enjoy him.

And I think we’re going to see Jesus when we get to heaven. I don’t think you’re going to see the Holy Spirit and I don’t think you’re going to see God the Father. I think you will know that they’re present and you’re only going to see Jesus. My estimate. I see. Okay. Well, thank you very much for your help. You’re very welcome. Thank you, Scott. And certainly the Bible says, great is the mystery of godliness that God was made known in a human body.

And we’re going to have to wait till we get to heaven to find out all the fine details and it’s going to be exciting. We’re going to go to Markdown in Bradenton, Florida. Mark, we want to welcome you to the program. Thank you for tuning in to Bible on. Hello. Hi. You’re on here. Don’t listen to your radio or it’s a 20 second delay, I think it is. Okay, yes. Just listen on your phone, turn your radio down. Okay, yeah, this is Mark.

I have a couple questions for Dr. Hank and then I’ll listen off air. Okay, go ahead. The first one is when the disciples asked Jesus to teach him to pray and gave him what we call the Lord’s Prayer. He said, part of it is, and lead us not temptation. I didn’t have the impression that God would lead us in temptation to get in to explain that to me. The next question is on tithing. Am I required to give my tithe, all of my tithe to my local church, or can I spread that out?

The ministries that I think do good work. Thank you. All right. As far as the tithe, I believe the churches that really are heavy on the tithe try to quote Old Testament law in Malachi 3, where it says, bring the tithes in the storehouse. but I was talking about Israel and to bring it to the treasury of Jerusalem as it really was like an income tax that supported the government of Israel. But I think you can give it where you’re being blessed and I think that’s what the New Testament teaching is, is where you are getting the most…

There was a lot of fruit for your money. Paul said in Romans 4 17, he said, not that I desire a gift as he talked to them about giving, he says, but I desire fruit that may abandon your account. So as they gave, they were giving to missions beyond where they lived, and Paul was saying that the fruit won by Paul in his ministry would accrue to their account in heaven as they faithfully gave. And so definitely that’s true.

Lead us on an attempt. I think we want God to lead us, don’t we? And the Bible talks about God leading the believer and directing our steps. And if you don’t have God’s direction, you might be led into temptations. I would say like Proverbs three, five, and six, where it says, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not into your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. So you want God to direct your path.

And obviously, if he’s leading and you’re following, you’re not gonna be led into temptation. But if you’re leading your own path, you might wind up in the bad neighborhood or in the bad environment where you’ll be tempted to sin. So I believe that’s what is talking about, not the negative that he’s leading you in the temptation, but for him to lead you in the paths of righteousness, like it says in the 23rd Psalm. I sure wish you had more time.

We have lots of color still waiting out there and we’re not going to be able to get to them. I’m Dr. Englunds from I hope you’ve trusted Christ as your Savior. Just whisper that prayer, Lord, I’m a sinner. I don’t understand much about the Bible, but I believe Christ died for me. I trusted He paid my sin debt and full was buried and rose again from the dead. And the moment you trust Him, God, I’ve been having saved you and you’re saved forever.

Pray in for Bibleline and if you can give a gift to help us, that would be great. In the meantime keep looking up Jesus is coming and Lord willing we’ll see you back tomorrow on the radio 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 4081 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.

the church of Tampa, Florida. Well, I’m not carrying Lindstrom and we had a We had a great time being with you today here on the Bibleline. . . Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for praying for us. Thank you to you that give to Bibleline and keep us on the air. . . . God bless all of you. We’re excited about what God is doing and it’s really a miracle. .

And everybody that listens and is praying for and giving to Bibleline is a part of that . . miracle. You really are because we couldn’t do it alone. . We couldn’t do it without you. . We of course trust God that he would raise up people just like you who would pray for us . and would give the Bibleline and see that this ministry continues. It’s a pretty big venture because it’s bigger than me. It’s bigger than the vault here that we have here.

A lot of people are surprised when they come because we run a very lean operation here. A lot of people have visited while we do the broadcast and they said, oh, they thought they would see dozens of people searching Bible questions on the computers and handing me papers with answers on them. And it’s really me with the Bible on my lap. And one fellow next to me answering the calls and then of course people in the office next door.

But it’s a very lean operation and we have all these volunteers that are doing these things because they love the Lord and that enables us to put all this money, whatever comes in out to paying the bills. And so we just, every time we have opportunity to expand or go further, bring this message. We believe that it’s a desperate time in our world. I think that the Lord is coming very soon and it seems to me that we’re on a collision course with that tribulation period.

I’m glad that we as believers this side of the tribulation will be caught up at the rapture and escape the darkest hours of human history that are about to come upon the earth. It’s kind of scary. If I wasn’t a believer, I don’t know where I would want to go to escape the problems that are ahead. But I’ll tell you what, we’re close and the Lord’s going to take us out. It’s wonderful to know that. And pray for us.

And if you want to help my blood call us and give a gift, would you know gift is too small? But if you could give a generous gift. It would really help us at this time as we try to reach out as far as we can. God bless you and thank you for listening in the day. We’ll see you tomorrow. Jesus is coming and keep looking up. 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 at BibleLineMinistries.com. Be sure to tune in for another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church of Tampa, Florida.