Bibleline Radio Show – 2009-01-27
Transcription:
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Hank Lindstrom, a ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, declaring God’s love through radio and television, providing real answers to an ever-searching world. To reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep Bibleline on the air in your community, dial toll-free, 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Now here’s a re-broadcast of Dr. Hank’s of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, declaring God’s love through radio and television, providing real answers to an ever-searching world to reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep Bibleline on the air in your community.
Dial toll-free, 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Now here’s a re-broadcast of Dr. Hank Lindstrom, host of Bibleline. Hi, this is Tom Perry for Bibleline Ministries. We’d like to thank you, the listener, for your prayers and support. I’d like to encourage our listeners to visit our website, BibleLineMinistries.org. Once again, that’s BibleLineMinistries.org. Our Bibleline Radio program will be continuing 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on our website. Please continue to support Bibleline. Your prayerful and financial support is greatly needed at this time, so that we can continue Dr.
Lindstrom’s work in spreading the gospel across the world. If you’d like to partner with us at Bibleline, please contact us at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Once again, we would like to thank you, listener, for your prayers and support for Bibleline Ministries. God bless you. Welcome to Bibleline. Great to be with you today. Thanks for tuning in to the broadcast. We look forward to being with you each and every day here as we come to you live from Tampa, Florida, from our studios here at the Calvary Community Church where I’m the pastor.
And we always look forward to meeting our listeners if you ever get a chance to come by, come on by and see us. We have our Resource Center open every day up until about 4.30 in the afternoon. You’re welcome to come by and knock on the door and say, Hi, we’re going to chance to meet you. You’re going to chance to meet us and that’ll be wonderful. You’re welcome to come by. And thanks for listening to Bibleline. We appreciate all of you, our listeners.
We’re into a brand new year. We hope you’re going to have a great year and we pray for God’s blessings upon you. And we ask that you’d pray for Bibleline and for God’s blessings upon Bibleline that we might reach out and tell people this wonderful news of Jesus Christ and what He’s done. We’re going to take callers and if you’d like to call in the number is 1-800-576-3771. 1-800-576-3771. And we invite you to give us a call. If you have a question or a comment, you’re welcome to call in with that.
You can leave your question off-air and many do that and you’re welcome to do that as well. So you don’t have to go up on the year. Some people are a little bit shy about that. So just tell the operator to leave an off-air question and you can do that during the show but also any time of day. And I think that it’s a wonderful thing that you can find answers to your questions that are in the Bible. And all we really do here at Bible lines point out where they are and what the Bible has to say.
In any case, we’re studying the Bible for a few minutes and then we’re going to go ahead and take our questions today and we invite you to call in with your question again that numbers 1-800-576-3771 that’s 1-800-576-3771. So you’re welcome to give us a call and obviously that number again 1-800-576-3771. Let me cover a wonderful verse in Hebrews 13-5, Jesus said to the believer, I will never leave you and I will never forsake you. Think about that. What a wonderful, wonderful truth that is.
Once you become saved, Christ indwells you and he says, I will never, not maybe or something else, but he says, I’ll never, never means never, I’ll never leave you. And that would mean if you could never be lost, which is impossible, that if you somehow wound up in hell, that Jesus would have to go to hell with you. That will never happen. He said, I’ll never leave you. Isn’t that wonderful to know? And also the fact that you’re never, never, never alone.
Sometimes people feel like they’re alone. And maybe you are alone as far as other human company and you’re all by yourself. But as a believer, you know we’re never alone because the Lord is never going to leave us. Isn’t that great? So wherever you might go, wherever you might be. The Lord is right there. You don’t have to pray. I’ve heard people pray. Lord be with me tomorrow when I do such and such or go such and such a place.
You don’t have to pray that prayer because Christ is already promised. I will never leave you. So he’s always there with you and you don’t have to pray. Lord, go with me. He does go with you as a believer. Now, the unbeliever doesn’t have that, but the believer does. And the moment you trust the Lord of Savior, the Bible tells us, us that God comes to dwell in your body, that your body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit.
And as it says in Colossians 1, 26 through 28, Christ dwells in us. He lives in us. And because He lives in us and He’s promised He would never leave us, you can be absolutely assured that you’re eternally saved. Then He says also in Hebrews 13, 5, I will never for safety. In other words, there’s nothing you could ever do that would cause Christ to forsake you. Once you’re saved, you’re saved forever. I don’t think people get the point, but once you’re saved, you’re saved forever.
People don’t, I think, think about the definition of saved. They don’t understand what it’s all about. Let me just illustrate. Let’s just say that you were out on some kind of a cruise ship out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and somehow you fell off and nobody saw you fall off and there you are stuck maybe a hundred miles from shore and you’re in real trouble. In fact, let’s say you don’t even know how to swim. That even puts it where you’re really in deep trouble.
But let’s say that there you are somehow splashing, managing to stay above water and you’re there in a 100 miles from shore out of the Gulf of Mexico. And all of a sudden somebody drives up in their boat. They happen to see the splashing and they drive over and they see you and they say, look boy are you fortunate? And they shut off the motor to the boat and they are right there, parked next to you while you’re splashing there in the water.
And they say boy are you fortunate. I happen to have a book here in my boat called three easy lessons on how to swim. So I’m going to leave this book with you. And he tosses the book to you in the water and he says just follow these three easy lessons and let me point out which direction shore is. And you just follow those directions and keep on keeping on and eventually you’ll be safe and on the shore. Would that person be a Savior?
No. He would be an educator, a teacher, you know, a lot of people have accepted Christ as a teacher, as an educator, but not as a Savior. That would be a Savior if you then cranked up the motor and then drove off and left you out there with the book Three Easy Lessons on How to Swim. A lot of people think Christ as some educator, some teacher, and that that is what is going to get him to heaven. Well let’s say that somehow you still manage to stay above water and you’re still splashing and thrashing and another boat pulls up.
This time this fellow turns off the motor and he says look you are really fortunate. Let me just show you what you need to do. He slips over the side of his boat and he demonstrates the back stroke, the free style, the butterfly and all different kinds of swimming strokes. He shows you the breathing techniques. I tip your head to the side and take a breath of area and then turn ahead again and keep on swimming. He says, just follow my example.
Let me just, by the way, point out which direction it is to shore. So he gets back at his boat and he says, just follow my example, head that direction over there and you’ll be able to make it. Just follow my example. Well, is he a savior? The answer is no. But a lot of people have accepted Christ as their example. They just say, if we live Christ like, we just follow his example. We’re going to be able to make heaven one day.
And that isn’t accepting Christ as Savior either. say that somehow you’re still not dead yet, you’re still thrashing the water, you’re still alive, and a third boat comes up. And this guy sees you there thrashing in the water, and he grabs you by the hand and pulls you up into the boat. Gives you a towel, drives you off, and you’re driving back towards shore, and things are really looking up, and you’re really excited about being rescued and all of a sudden one mile from shore.
This guy says, look, I’ve taken you 99 miles, but the last mile is on your own. You know, after all, you have to do your part. I do part, you do part, and I’ve taken you most of the way, 99 miles. You’ve only got one mile to go. And so he kicks you out of the boat. He says, you can see the shore is just a mile away. Of course, you can’t swim. And he drives off. Would he be a savior?
No, because it wouldn’t matter if you were just 10 yards off a shore. If you can’t swim. If you can’t swim, you’re in trouble. And here you are, a mile off the shore. He’s taking you most of the way, but he said, you have to do your part. And would he be a savior? And the answer is no. The savior is one who would come up in a fourth boat and take you and put you into the boat and drive you all the way to the shore and place your feet safely on the shore.
That’s a savior. He delivers you and saves you from your dilemma and takes you to safety and puts you on the shore. My friend, let me just say, if you haven’t trusted Christ, to take you all the way to heaven’s shore and put your feet safely on heaven’s shore, you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior. But how many times have you, maybe at least I have, I’ve asked people, have you trusted Christ as your Savior? they’ll say yes. And then I’ll say, where are you going to go when you die?
And they’ll say to heaven, I hope. To heaven, I hope. What do you mean I hope? In other words, if you trust Christ as Savior, you’re trusting Him to take you all the way to Heaven. Now, unless you trust Christ to take you all the way to Heaven and plant your feet safely on Heaven, sure, you have never trusted Him as your Savior. Did you hear what I just said? A lot of people don’t think through what the meaning of the words are, but if you haven’t trusted Christ to take you from where you are right now, all the way to Heaven’s shore, and plant your feet safely on Heaven’s shore, you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, and you’re not saved.
And by the way, if you’re not saved forever, you’re not saved. That’s what the definition of the word is. If you’re not saved forever, you’re not saved.” Wow, there’s a lot of folks that aren’t saved, that maybe have used the word and would say, yes, I’m saved. And are you going to heaven? Well, I don’t know about that. I’m working at it. I’m trying. I’m doing my best. Well, obviously you don’t understand the meaning of a Savior. A lifeguard, when he comes to rescue, doesn’t take you part way to shore and then abandon you.
He hasn’t saved you. He hasn’t rescued you until He’s taking you all the way up where you’re safe on the shore. And unless you’ve trusted Christ, to take you all the way home to heaven and place you safely on heaven’s shore, you have never trusted Christ as your Savior. I hope that you have trusted Christ as your Savior. I hope that you are going to heaven when you die. And you can certainly be assured of going to heaven once you trust Christ as your Savior.
You are saved forever. Christ says in Hebrews 13.5, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. You are saved forever. I’m Dr. Anchlinschram. This is Bibleline. And it’s great to be with you today. And if you don’t have a place to worship this Sunday, come see us here if you’re in the Tampa Bay area. come from all directions of the compass and we would love to see you if you want to come by your welcome and of course you can always come by when you’re in town if you’re from out of town but come by and see us and we oftentimes people have people that are visiting here from other states as a part of the country that have heard Bible item want to come by when they get here to Florida and you’re welcome to to do that as well.
In any case we’ve got lots of phone colors lots of welfare questions we’re going to go ahead and and take a look at what we’ve got here we’ve got georgia and georgia is in clear water that’s interesting isn’t it georgia welcome to bible on your own ear thank you uh… this past or lintstrom yes you’re on the air with me uh… i’m a Presbyterian and i arm ask my pastor recently our it’s a teary and believe that jesus is the only way through Jesus is the only way you can get to heaven.
And she said that the Presbyterian Church believes that, but also that God’s grace is bigger than that. And then I asked her if she remembers when she existed, Jesus as her Lord and Savior, and she said she doesn’t have a date. It’s kind of been an evolutionary thing that when Christ was crucified 2,000 years ago, was when we were promised our salvation. Well, I’ve come to believe even as a Presbyterian like Here you talk so often to each that we have to make a conscious decision and commitment.
And it made me a little uncomfortable with her. Her answers made me uncomfortable. What do you think? Well, I agree with it. Of course, Presbyterian doctrine is based on Calvinism, which says that God already made the choice for you before the foundation of the world and that when you believe it is a consequence of your being chosen, God overpowering you and giving you faith, whereas you’re not saved based on your faith in Christ. You’re saved based on the fact that you were chosen and then faith is a consequence That you really have no control over that’s not true.
Of course, you do have to trust Christ as Savior You read about it in the New Testament all the way through You see the evangelism that took place the gospel would be presented and and in fact the apostles were were were basically very persuasive and pleading with people to trust the Lord. Peter said in Acts 4.12, neither is their salvation in any other. There’s none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. So anybody and everybody that’s going to be saved has to trust in Christ according to Peter Acts 4.12 and numerous other verses and they were being confronted with the decision would they trust Jesus as Savior or not?
Peter on Pentecost. thing and he tells them no assuredly that Jesus Christ is both God and He’s the Messiah. And they said what should we do? And He said change your mind and be cleansed of your sin in the name of the Lord Jesus and you receive the forgiveness of your sin and the gift of eternal life and so on. So I remember myself when I finally trusted Christ at 18. It was the choice that I was to make and if I hadn’t made it I’d be in deep trouble today.
Well I remember making that choice for myself when I was a sophomore in college and I’ve always known that that was a significant date in my life and when I heard her answer it just felt watered down and almost irrelevant. So I appreciate your answer. Thank you very much. Alright and of course you know this thing about people that don’t trust Christ being still save because God’s grace is bigger than all that. God’s grace is sufficient to save any and all.
There’s no one that could not be saved. In fact, the whole human race could be saved, but they do have to make the choice. John 3.36 says this. He says, he to believe it’s on the Son or would trust on the Son of God, half or has everlasting life. He to believe if not shall not see life but the wrath of God abided on him. So there’s no one that’s going to get to heaven that does not believe on Christ.
As Jesus said in John 14, 6, I’m the way, the truth and the life and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Well, obviously we need to go by what the Bible teaches. I remember the night I saw the gospel in the scriptures, I had to make a choice between my church’s doctrine and what I read in the Bible. I chose the Bible over my church. Boy, that was the first step in getting free from beliefs that sometimes I have just come down over the centuries and have eroded andCooldown departed from the scriptures to going back to the Bible, which is God’s Word and is the authority.
We have David Plant City. Dave, welcome to Bibleline your own here. Good morning, Dr. Hank. How are you today? I’m doing fine. I just want to commend you on your dialogue there. People don’t understand as simple as you explain that. I don’t see how it could be any simpler. Your last caller there talking about Presbyterian. I was raised Presbyterian and besides what you said, the church I was in also required me to publicly confess Christ. They taught I had to be baptized.
I had to take a catechism class and to me it was all worked. Once I found out what salvation was really about and like you explained in your opening. Just wanted to pass that on. A couple of weeks ago, the fellow John called. I hope he’s listening today. He made a comment to you that You were saying, couldn’t enter heaven and you were trying to explain to him about what saved to always save. I think he couldn’t lose your salvation.
I just want to pass on to him that even the evil thought or a dirty thought is a sin. There’s no way any of us in this flesh life can live without having the evil thought or telling the white lie or something like that. I think he might have been putting a degree on sin like murder versus lying or something. Just saying it’s saying it’s saying, you know, people have to understand that. My question today is could you… Explain Pentecost.
I have a person who’s lifting today and I really couldn’t explain it. I think it’s clear that you could explain that and explain if it’s the same to the Jew or the disc to the Gentile. I’ll hang up and listen and thank you. Pentecost is one of the Jewish feast days in Leviticus 23. There are seven feast days that God has given to Israel and the feast of Pentecost is the fourth feast and it’s a picture of What happened?
50 days after the resurrection of Christ it means 50 days Pentecost the Greek word means 50 days It’s 50 days after the feast of first fruits which was the day that Christ rose from the dead as the first fruits of the resurrection. And then fifty days later the Holy Spirit came and began this present age. And when you read Acts 2-1 it says, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, the disciples were there gathered and the others were there in the upper room.
And the Holy Spirit came to indwell the believers of this age. And so from Pentecost until the Rapture, the believer of this age, are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and by the Holy Spirit are baptized into one body called the body of Christ or the church. So the church did not exist in the Old Testament and the church is a unique body comprised of living believers of all different areas of the world, different races that have received Jesus as their Savior.
Between Pentecost and Rapture are members of the Body of Christ. When the Rapture happens, the bride of Christ is caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and then from that point on the church the Body of Christ will be forever with the Lord. And of course there’s a marriage that takes place in heaven when Christ comes back. The whole earth will celebrate for a thousand years the marriage of Christ, the lamb to his bride, the church. But we find that Pentecost was the beginning of the church.
It occurred on a Sunday and it was the fulfillment of the Old Testament type. Those feasts were beautiful pictures of what would happen in the future. Christ died as the fulfillment of the first feast, which was the feast of Pentecost, He gave me a Passover, and Christ died as the Passover lamb, exactly when Israel was offering up their lamb. The Feast of Unleavened Bread, which followed was a picture of Christ’s burial, his body being the unleavened bread, the sinless body of Christ, placed in the tomb and would come back from the dead.
And on the Feast of First Roots, the third feast, always occurring on a Sunday, a picture of his resurrection, fifty days later, in the Feast of Pentecost, marking the beginning in this age and we believe the next feast, which is the feast of trumpets, marks the close of this age and is the feast day when the rapture will happen. That always occurs in the fall and so I always look extra for the Lord’s return for us at the rapture in the fall because I believe it will probably happen right on that feast day.
I don’t know when it occurs this year in the year 2007 but I always look around the feast of Trumpets for Christ to shout and catch us up as believers and close out this age. I think we’re getting close to the end of it. And so these feasts, all seven are prophetic pictures of the two comings of Christ, the first four fulfilled literally at the first coming, the next fulfilled at the second coming. Thank you. I hope that has helped.
Arthur in Belgrade, Florida and Arthur, welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air. Yes, hi Pastor. I’d like to ask three questions real quick. Can you tell me when did the disciple, can you tell me when did the disciple came to be the disciple? Can they come to be the disciple when Jesus first picked them? That is great. Right at the beginning of Christ’s ministry, he selected out 12 disciples. disciples. Matthew 10 is a good passage where you have them all listed.
But in Matthew 4, we find right after the temptation it wasn’t much longer in Matthew 4 Christ sees Peter and John. They were fishing and he tells them, follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men and they forsook their nets and they followed him and they became disciples. They were 12 and he invites them to be disciples right at the very beginning of his ministry. Okay. Now in X, let’s see, in X1, 20. He was in the Bible in the Bible in the Bible.
He was in the Bible in the Bible in the Bible. And that was because Judas never trusted Christ as his Savior. In John 6, Jesus points to Judas and he says he knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him. And he’s talking about Judas there in that passage and Judas although a disciple This is what is interesting is that you can be a disciple of Christ to be lost You must trust Christ to be saved and Judas never trusted Christ as his Savior and that’s why he went to hell 125 they say he was a minister and he had a partnership so that what he was he ever a apostle?
He was an apostle but he was lost. Interesting isn’t it? I’ve got to get a break right now. If you want to hold on we can talk about your other question and I forget back. We’ve got a good break unfortunately and we’ll be back to do a second half of my blinds and don’t go away. Don’t go away. The Bibleline will be back in a moment. To pledge your support for Bibleline give us a call at 1-800-576-3771. It’s 1-800-576-3771.
Well, I’m Dr. Englister, and it’s great to be with you on this Friday. And thank you again for tuning in to Bibleline, wherever you might be listening. We’d love to hear from you. I’ll tell you, it’s always great to get a word of encouragement. If you just send us a little postcard or a little note in the mail, or give us even a call and say, hey, I enjoy Bibleline. I’m listening from wherever you might be listening. And let us know that because that would really be a word of encouragement to us.
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And so keep dialed, you’re ready to now tune right where it is. And if you can’t get the second half on the radio, go to the internet and get it there. And continue in your area 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 Alright we’re back from that break and this is Bible and I’m Dr. Englund for minutes exciting to be with you And we have Arthur in Belgled’s Florida on the line and I’m gonna go ahead and pick up it I’m Dr.
Hank Lindstrom and this is really a pleasure to be here with you. Bibleline and we really enjoy being with you and I hope that you enjoy being with us and that you’ll tune us in each and every day if you can as often as you can and know that you can always go to the internet and catch all the programs of the past month and listen to them at your leisure. 24 seven so that is a wonderful thing so Arthur we’re back with you now and sorry we had to run into the break there.
Okay I just have one more question now you say that in X one and 26 Matthias I think that’s his name did Jesus say did the Holy Spirit gave P.D.M. the right to choose him or that was something that they did on their own, that they did the case when the pauled come to be one of the twelve disciples. That’s a great question. The answer is that if you read Acts chapter 1, Peter and all of the disciples were told in verse 4 that they were to wait, W-A-I-T, wait.
And they had to wait ten days from the fortieth day when Christ, after preaching and showing himself alive for 40 days, ascends back to heaven, and until the 50th day, which was Pentecost, they had to wait 10 days. And Peter just got antsy and couldn’t wait, decided took it upon himself to elect Matthias. That was a big mistake. And Matthias was a nice guy, I’m sure, and a good choice if you were there to make a choice, he probably was outstanding.
But he was a wrong choice because that was not God’s choice. Paul was the choice to replace Judas and the rest of Paul’s life he was plagued by Peter’s decision. Every letter he’s defending his apostleship and he tells us he wasn’t elected by men. He was appointed directly by Jesus Christ and that was the mistake that Peter made. He got the men together there during that 10-day wait. It was a crazy way they did it even, not very scriptural.
They supposedly prayed about it. They selected two people out and then they said, God, which one of these two do you want? Then they drew straws, which is like a lot of, and the straw happened to fall in Matthias’ favor. You don’t read about that guy anymore. He was a nice guy but he slips out of the scripture and he disappears because he was not God’s man. Paul was the replacement for Judas. So, is this the only time that we hear about this guy?
That’s it. He’s off the scene because that was a blunder on the part of Peter. And Peter blundered a number of times. The wonderful thing about the Bible is it doesn’t hide the blunders of its heroes. That’s what convinces me and another one of the many reasons why I believe the Bibles of Word of God And you know if this book were written by men they would glorify these guys where they were absolutely perfect and infallible. Just like the Roman Catholic Church has done with the Pope they made him infallible and he’s not.
We’re all sinners. We’ve all come short of the glory of God and the Bible reveals the flaws and the failures of its heroes including Peter. Okay. Now you say that other question, you say about about June, you said that in John chapter 6 verse 64. the Right to the end of the chapter. Good to hear have you calling in Arthur and and Bill Glades is right down there in the middle of the state and we appreciate you listening every day.
Thank you too. All right that was Arthur and Bill Glade Well, great Florida. We now have Melanie in Tampa, Florida. Melanie, welcome to Bibleline. Hi. I just want to know, are we still under the law to pay the 10% ties and also what’s your belief on speaking in tongues and I’ll hang up the list and also. All right, Melanie, we are not under the law, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t give. You know, You know, we are under grace, and here’s what the Bible says about giving.
If you want to write it down, it’s… 2 Corinthians 9, it says here verse 7, every man according as he purposedeth in his heart, so let him give. So it doesn’t say 10% here. and it says not grudgingly. That means against your will or where you give really not from the heart or of necessity. That is because the need is there. But it says God loves a cheerful giver. Then it gives a hint here as to how to give in verse 6.
If you sow sparingly, you’re going to reap sparingly. And if you sow bountifully, you’ll reap bountifully. So notice the floodgate is open here. you can choose and if you only invest a little bit in the things of God, you’re only going to get a little bit of return in reward in heaven. But if you give a lot, you’re going to get a lot of reward. I remember a missionary telling me one time that they had taken ten years to lay up a year’s salary in heaven.
That tells me they were giving a tithe or a But now, since their children were grown and they didn’t have those other obligations, they were now putting a year’s salary in heaven every five years. That tells me they doubled their giving to 20%. There is no set number, but basically somebody once said, and I think it’s true, should we give less under grace than we gave under law, where the law obligated us to give a tenth, we give less now that we’re under grace, we now have the freedom to choose.
But I think God is really pleased when we choose from the heart to give to the Lord. And it says God is able to make grace abound toward you so that your needs will be met even though you give bountifully unto the Lord. Hopefully that helps. On tongues, tongues has ceased. There is no tongues today. The biblical gift was a known language. The Greek word in Acts is dialectos. That means a specific dialect of a specific language. It was used for evangelism and the people that do it today don’t evangelize with it because they don’t understand what they’re saying nor does anybody that hears them know what they’re saying because what they’re doing is a gibberish.
this gibberish movement is what I call it, is in all the world religions. The Buddhists do the gibberish to people in Islam do the gibberish and the Buddhists do the gibberish and all the tribes in South America and Africa and the Australian aborigines and Eskimos do the gibberish, even the cults do the gibberish, the Mormons do the gibberish. It’s not of God because obviously God doesn’t give it to all those groups that don’t even know the Lord is their Savior.
But tongues was to come to a cease. 1 Corinthians 13, 8 through 10, says that tongues and the gift of knowledge and the gift of prophecy would cease when the New Testament record was finished. Verse 10, 1 Corinthians 13, that’s evidenced in history. Tongues went off the scene even before the New Testament record was complete. When you read Ephesians chapter 4 where it lists the gifts, tongues is gone already. When you read Romans written even later chapter 12 where it lists the gifts, tongues is gone.
It was already gone. And Church History verifies that. Church, the early Church Fathers wrote a lot about Christianity and no tongues through the 4th century. And then right through the dark ages, no written record of people speaking in tongues. Then you have the Reformation, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, Swinley, all the great reformers of the Reformation, nobody spoke in tongues. Then you have the great evangelism time of the 18th century and then the great evangelists like Billy Sunday and D.L.
Moody and Charles Spurgeon and many others, none of them spoken tongues. The modern movement began in 1906 and it’s a counterfeit movement and it is the gibberish and I believe that nobody on the planet earth speaks in the genuine biblical gift of tongues today. This is a false movement and tongues really doesn’t what really bothers me, but usually most of those people believe you can lose your salvation, which I believe is a major doctrinal error and means that they’re not saved.
If you believe you can lose your salvation, my friend, you’re saying that something that you do in your future… Or that you do not do in your future will determine your salvation. That makes salvation by works. That makes you the Savior, not Christ. And my friend, you’re not saved. To be saved, you have to look back to the cross where Jesus paid it all. And you’re as saved as you’ll ever be at the moment you trust Christ. You can’t become more saved.
The night I got saved at eighteen, I was saved forever. I have eternal life, not temporary life. I can’t get any more saved than I was that night. I can’t get any less saved than I was that night. I was saved, delivered from hell to go to heaven by the Lord Jesus Christ the moment I trusted him when I was 18. Hope that helps answer that question. We have Sean in Richmond, Virginia. Sean, welcome to Bibleline Year on the Year.
How are you doing, Dr. DeWitt? Thank you. First one, I had a handout about the emotions. I came across a question and talked about Romans and I know that exactly where you were. I know you were not saying that the Bible was wrong. I was wondering if you could elaborate about that. It’s the way people take that verse and they try to make it a condition for salvation that you have to publicly confess Christ. But if you read verse 10, which answers verse 9, it says that you believe with the heart and are made righteous.
Of course the heart there being your mind or the center of your thought processes. And then it says with the mouth confession is made unto, not to obtain but unto salvation. In other words, once we believe in our righteous then we witness. Then the confession there is proclaiming to men how we became saved and witnessing to them how they can be saved. And if you read the following verses it talks about how can people call upon the name of the Lord and ask they hear and how can they hear except somebody be sent and how beautiful those whose feet are take them to bring the gospel to those that are lost and confess Christ to them.
But we don’t confess Christ to be saved. Verse 10 needs to be read in conjunction with verse 9 and so people that make verse 9 stand by itself will try to say that you have to walk down the aisle in the church. That’s what they claim is the confession and make it a condition for salvation or that you audibly confess Christ in order to be saved. That’s not true. That would be up yourself. Salvation would be of works if you had to do that and also it would make that all deaf mutes would automatically go to hell.
They wouldn’t be able to do that. So we just might as well write those people off and say they’re going to hell with no chance because they can’t give an audible confession of Christ. and the wonders, people that pray, and I’ve prayed before, and asked, you know, God, if this is your will, you know, let this happen, then sometimes it will happen. And one thing about that is that foolishness, or is that really an accurate way to pray? I’m looking for your answer.
I’m going to let you hang up. Thank you. Okay, you have to really be careful today. What you need to do is to follow the steps that God gives you and be careful what you even ask for. Sometimes you’ll get what you ask for, but it won’t really be a blessing to you. back in Psalms, it tells about how the children of Israel in the wilderness lusted after meat, and they prayed and really insisted that God provide meat for them in the wilderness, and God provided it.
But it was, in fact, it says that they didn’t ever want to eat meat again. sent them so many quail that they were three foot deep in quail for a day’s journey in the direction of which they couldn’t even lay down. They had to stand up and they couldn’t they had so much it just stunk in their nostrils and so on and so on. But let me read an interesting verse to you from the Psalms where it says that he in verse 15 of Psalms 106 it says he He gave them their request, but he sent leanness into their soul.
So sometimes you can get the request you want, but it may not be the right answer. So you need to be careful to say, Lord, I want your will in my life. I want to follow what the Word of God says and not demand. He gave them their request but he sent leanness into their soul. Wouldn’t you rather not have your request met but yet have God really bless you and make your soul fat and rich with spiritual blessings and that’s I think the way we ought to go.
Thanks for calling in. I hope that helps. We have Jan in Tampa, Florida. with spiritual blessings and that’s I think the way we ought to go. Thanks for calling in. I hope that helps. We have Jan in Tampa, Florida and Jan, welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air. Thank you, Dr. Lynch. Sure. How are you doing today? Good. Thank you. My family and I were reading through the beginning of Genesis the other night and as we read the six day it appeared to us that God created Adam and any plan of the Garden of Eden He brought the animals for Adam to name, then he decided to create Eve and that was all on the sixth day?
Yes ma’am. Okay. Then when the temptation occurred by Satan, was that also the sixth day? No, I think that was after that. We don’t know when. It might have been even weeks later. But it was definitely a subsequent event, not only the sixth day. Okay, it just seemed to occur the beginning of chapter three just right after all of that So we weren’t sure if it was the same day or not. I’m thinking I said real busy day. Yes, it was No, I think I think the temptation big place later Okay, and all right.
Well, thank you for your call and thanks for listening to my own Yeah, all right. That was again in Tampa, Florida. We got some off-air questions Let me just try to get a couple of these here. We have Christy and say, Petersburg calls in, says, the Bible says those who call of the name of the Lord will be saved. Can it be that simple? And of course, the answer is it is that simple. Second Corinthians 11-3 says that Satan would use the fact that the message of the gospel is simple to cause people to stumble over it and not trust the Lord as their Savior.
In any case, when it says to call upon the name of the Lord, his name is Jesus, and the name Jesus literally means God who would save you. And of course, the gospel message that we’re to believe is that Jesus is God who came and gave his life for our sins on the cross by his death and shed blood was buried in rose again from the dead. When you call upon that Jesus, the Bible describes as the Savior who died for you, shed his blood, paid your sin dead and full up the cross with the beard and rose again from the dead, God will save you.
Here, Christi says, some people say, Jesus, help me, does that count? Well, that’s not how you’re saved, you have to say, Jesus saved me, not help me. You have to trust Him as the means of your entrance into heaven, trusting Christ as your Savior to deliver you from hell to take you to heaven when you do that, you become saved. I’m not sure if I’m reading this last part right, but what if someone asks Jesus into their liver? Apparently that’s what the question is.
into their liver, their heart, or their pancreas, or whatever it wouldn’t. That’s not the gospel. You have to trust that Christ died, Christ to be saved, and that is, of course, the correct answer. Thank you for that offer your question. We have anonymous in Tampa, Florida, calling in. I understand you can’t be saved by asking Christ in your heart, but I did ask Him too, but only after I accepted him as my Savior. Well, that’s just something you don’t have to ask for.
When you trust Christ as Savior, you don’t have to ask Lord take me to heaven because He automatically takes all those that trust Him to heaven. When you trust Christ as Savior, you don’t have to say Lord deliver me from hell because all those that trust Christ are delivered from hell. So there There are many things you don’t have to ask. Like earlier today, I said you don’t have to ask Lord go with me today or go with me tomorrow because once you trust Christ he indwalls you and he goes with you wherever you go.
So a lot of questions or a lot of requests that people make are just non-essential and are meaningless because in a sense they’ve already been answered when you trust Christ of Savior dozens of things take place that we don’t have to ever address again. I hope that answers your question, Anonymous in Tampa. We have Kent in Venice, Florida, and he says, according to the scripture, what is your position in the church? Is the pastor the head of the church?
As Christ is the head of the church? What is the deacon’s role, position, and all this and so on? Well according to the Bible there is Christ is the head of the church. And we, of course, in the physical church, there are pastor teachers, and there are elders and deacons. And the pastor is in the category of an elder, but there is usually a teaching elder who is the pastor. And obviously, he gives direction to the church, but yet he’s accountable.
there are different forms of church government and of course the Roman Catholic Church has a form of government where the people have no say whatsoever. It’s totally decided by the Pope and by the leaders of the church. And then there are other positions where it’s pretty much a congregational led church where the congregation has total power and then there are those that are kind of in between. The Bible of course lays out elders and deacons and that the elders and deacons are appointed by the church and responsible to the church, they at least in the New Testament appears that the elders took care of the spiritual things of the church, the preaching of the Word and prayer and the spiritual aspects of the ministry.
And the deacons came along to handle the physical things that needed to be done as you see in Acts chapter 6 and they had a lower role but yet also were to have the same spiritual qualifications. I hope that answers a little bit. If you have a Schofield Bible that has some excellent notes on Deacons and Elders and these spiritual roles that they have, that’s why I like the Schofield. It is so wonderful. Francis in Tampa calls in and asks for a summary of Ezekiel chapter 23.
It’s kind of a parable about Israel and how they departed from the Lord and got themselves into spiritual fornication or adultery. There were two daughters that were born and one represents Samaria and the other represents Jerusalem. And it talks there basically how the northern tribes of Israel that sinned were carried away and God’s judgment by Assyria in the captivity. And then later Jerusalem or the two tribes that were there were carried away in the Babylonian captivity. And this was God’s judgment upon them because of their departure from his word.
So here Ezekiel is laying out how God was very upset with what Israel did in departing from him spiritually and that God brought the Assyrians and the Babylonians against Israel to punish them. First the northern tribes represented by the one daughter and the southern tribes were in Jerusalem or in that area of Jerusalem by the Babylonian captivity. that answers the question for you. Mike in Albany, New York calls in and says, as a Christian, how do you justify living in known sin?
Does this mean that you are not a Christian? Is this a sin that you struggle with? Okay. Well, in any case, Christians do live in known sin, unfortunately. If you read the two letters to the Corinthians, you see that they were committing all kinds of sins. The Bible is pretty strong there, warning them that two things would happen. Number one, the Lord would chaste and or discipline them, maybe even take them home to heaven early if they continue to live in non sin against the Lord.
Number two, they would stand before the judgment seat of Christ. First Corinthians 3 gives a good dissertation and give it a count. And if they had all their works burnt up, they would suffer loss of reward and eternity for not having lived for Christ here. But if they would only dedicate their lives and live them for Christ, they would have rewards in heaven. So those two things are pretty serious things to deal with as far as trying to justify living in unseen.
You don’t want to do that because you don’t want to have God’s thank you. Number two, you don’t want to lose on rewards in heaven. So hopefully that helps Troy in the kind of beach. Yes, hi Doc Tank. Yeah. I need to know first month of the Jewish calendar and Abig, Abigah, which is in June says it’s the eighth week. And I’m kind of confused on that with the birth of John Abbot. Let me give you a quick answer.
The first month of the year was when they came out of Egypt. It was in the springtime about mid-March. And the course of Abiyyah in Luke was the eighth course. So that turns out to be the middle of July. We got to go. Keep looking up. Jesus is coming. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a presentation of Bibleline ministries of Tampa, Florida. Now more than ever, your regular monthly donations to Bibleline make it possible for this ministry to continue in your area.
Please contact us today and lend your prayerful and financial support. Bibleline’s address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Or visit Bibleline Online at BibleLineMinistries.org. Be sure to tune in to another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Well, I’m Dr. Englund, Striman. I’ve enjoyed being with you all week long. I hope you’ve enjoyed Bibleline. If you have you can go back and listen to it again and again on the internet just go to Bibleline Ministries not org Or come you can also catch our television programs there as well.
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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.