Bibleline Radio Show – 2009-03-05

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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 rebroadcast. of Dr. Hank Lindstrom, host of Bibleline. Hi, this is Tom Perry with a listener update on Bibleline Ministries. First, we’d like to express our appreciation to our listeners and contributors for the prayers and the support that continue to keep Bibleline on the air.

Bibleline could not continue without you and we thank God for you. If you’d like to help support Bibleline, please contact our Resource Center at 1-800-576-3771 to purchase copies of Dr. Lindstrom’s videos or audio teaching series, such as the book of Genesis, John, or Acts, or you can visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org. We also want to let you know that Bibleline will be undergoing some format changes over the upcoming months. We’ll be giving you more details as the debut for the updated format draws near, but for now please rest assured that these changes will continue the work of Dr.

Lindstrom by spreading the gospel across the world. Now please join us as we listen to Bibleline with your host, Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Well, good morning and welcome to Bibleline. We’re glad to be able to be with you today. Thanks for tuning in. We want to welcome you and all of our listeners to the Bibleline program. And we hope you’re having a wonderful day. We’re going to be talking about the Bible in a moment. So get your Bible out. We’re coming to you from our studios at Calvary Community Church, and we’re located at 4811 George Road in Tampa, Florida.

We’re just a block west of Tampa’s International Airport. We’re just four tenths of a mile south of Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa. We’d love to have you come by and we hope that you’ll visit us. We’re here till three every day so you can just come by and knock on the door. If you want to come by for a worship service this Sunday we worship at 10.30 in the morning this Sunday so you can come as my guest. Bring your family and join us and be my guest.

So that’ll be this Sunday 10.30 come for the morning worship. We’d love to have you. But visit our website. We have our online bookstore there and you can look at almost everything we have available and we hope that you’ll take advantage of that and take a look at what we’ve got in there. We’ve got several wonderful things that can help you. I like the Jameson Foset Brown commentary, a three-volume unabridged commentary that covers something on every verse in the Bible.

What a treat. I go to it often and find out it has exactly what I’m looking for. Would you maybe consider getting that through your library? It retails for about 140, we have it for a gift of 90. We also have the Jay Vernon McGee commentary, retails for about 200, we have it for a gift of 105 volumes that covers something on every chapter of the Bible. the two of them, you’ll get a pretty good coverage on every chapter and every verse of the Bible.

That’s the Jameson Faucet Brown, five volume commentary, retails for 200, we have it for a gift of 100 to Bibleline. We also have the Jameson Faucet Brown, three volume unabridged commentary for a gift of $90 that retails for about 140. We also have the Zondervin pictorial Bible dictionary. That’s a wonderful one. I like pictures. I don’t know about you, but we have that available. Plus, we have the Zondervin pictorial encyclopedia. And we are letting that go for a hundred and a quarter, and it is something that retails for, I think, near $200.

That is beautiful. Lots of pictures. That’s what I like. the Zonnervin Pictorial Bible Dictionary 5, huge volumes, and that is a wonderful asset to your library, plus the Zonnervin Pictorial Bible Dictionary, which is a wonderful asset to have in your library. We’ve got lots of things, and we hope you’ll take advantage of what we’ve got, plus the CDs, DVDs of my teachings. Alright, we’re going to say a word about the fact that when you believe on Christ as your Savior, that you are sealed with Holy Spirit.

There are numerous verses that talk about this wonderful doctrine, and in Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, we have one of those great passages that says, in whom you also trusted Ephesians 1, 13. After that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. So we hear the word of truth, the word of God, the gospel in particular, and then it says, in whom also after that you believe. Now the tense is not right in the King James, and here’s where Schofield Bible helps, and I recommend the old Schofield reference Bible, and we have them available here in very inexpensive form.

But the notes are great, and it says in the center margin here, that should be translated, having believed you were sealed, Having believed you were sealed. Having believed you were sealed. In other words, being sealed with the Holy Spirit is simultaneous with belief. When you believe on Christ, when you trust Christ as Savior, you become saved. And simultaneous with that, you become sealed with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit, of course, is God. And He, the Holy Spirit Himself, is the seal.

So, you are a possession of God and you are sealed with the Holy Spirit himself. So, in order to be lost, somebody would have to be more powerful than the Holy Spirit to break that seal. A seal in the Bible signifies three things, a finished transaction. In other words, our salvation is concluded, finished. That’s why you can’t lose your salvation because you’re already saved as much as you’ll ever be saved at the moment you believe there’s a finished transaction that takes place.

I am not any more saved today than I was the night that I trusted Christ as a teenager at 18 years of age, nor am I any less saved today than I was that night that I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior. You can never become any more saved or any less saved. Get that now. You can’t ever become any more saved or less saved than you are at the moment you become Does that make sense? The moment you become saved is a finished transaction.

You are sealed at the moment of belief with the Holy Spirit, and therefore you can never become lost. Because you’re saved completely. It says over in the book Hebrews, saved to the uttermost, but the word in the Greek really means completely. We’re completely, totally saved at the moment we believe. And I was as saved as I would ever be throughout all eternity at the moment that I believe. the solace and the gift it’s received by faith and the moment we believe we receive it.

So the Holy Spirit seals us and a seal in Scripture is a picture of a finished transaction. It’s also a picture of ownership. The fact that you are sealed means that you belong to God and you are his and he’s marked you out as being his. You know in the book of Revelation, during the tribulation period after the rapture, God will seal the 144,000. It says in Revelation 7 and 4, and I heard the number of them that were sealed, and they were sealed, 140 and 4,000 of all the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Oops, I’m sorry about that. They’re sadly mistaken to think that they are the 140,000, they’re not. Or I heard the number of them that were sealed, 144,000 of the seven-dad banis. Did you know that they also claim to be the remnant, that special group that will be saved in the tribulation period? Of course, they claim it now. again wrong, wrong, capital W. R. O. N. G. wrong. The 144,000 are all Jewish. It says in Revelation 7 and 4. I heard the number of them that were sealed and they were sealed 140 and 4,000 of all the children of Israel.

And then it goes on to mention 12 tribes and 12,000 from each tribe and 12 times 12,000 is 144,000. If you’re going to be one of the 144,000, you have to be Jewish. These will be the evangelist after the rapture during the tribulation period. In Revelation chapter 14 we also learn that they are all men, no women, no women in the numbering of the 144,000 witnesses and they’re all virgin men. Look at that. So somebody comes knocking on your door and they claim to be one of the 144,000.

I say, oh, you must be Jewish. No, I’m not Jewish. Well, I’m sorry then you cannot be one of the 144,000. They’re all Jewish. What tribe are you from? Oh, I’m not. Well, then you can’t be one of the 144,000. If it’s a female, I have to say I’m sorry, nothing against you ladies, but the 144,000 are all men. And if it is a man, and he’s married. I’m assuming that he’s therefore no longer a virgin, so it can’t be somebody who’s married.

You have to be Jewish, you have to be male, you have to be virgin, to be one of the hundred forty-four thousand. Remember that the next time that somebody comes to your door claiming to be one of them, be ready for them. Revelation 7 and also chapter 14 gives us those three significant thanks about the hundred-four to four thousand that will be God’s witnesses during the tribulation. So basically God is sealing them with the Holy Spirit in the tribulation period, marking them out as his guys, his witnesses, his evangelists.

So he is saying here that they belong to him. It signifies ownership. And we belong to the Lord and are his possession from the moment we believe. Thirdly, the seal is a sign of security. In other words, you are sealed as God’s possession. And in order for you to ever become lost, somebody would have to be more powerful than God the Holy Spirit to break the seal. Because the seal is the Holy Spirit Himself, God Himself, the Holy Spirit.

Isn’t that wonderful? I’m saved and I’m saved forever. And you’re saved and you’re saved forever if you’re saved. But to be saved, you have to exclude all works and simply trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2, 8 says, by grace, by mercy, unmerited favor, are you saved through faith? And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is the gift of God. Verse 9 says, not of works, not of works, not of works, not of works, not of works, not of works, not of works, lest any man should boast.

Most means brag. I heard a country song years ago, it said, if anyone makes it to heaven, Lord, surely I will, surely I will. If anyone makes it to heaven, Lord, surely I will. Then he goes on to brag and boast about all the wonderful works this person did I thought boy whoever wrote that Hadn’t doesn’t have a clue and you know there’s a lot of folks that don’t have a clue And I was one of those folks that didn’t have a clue I was raised in church and was misdirected to think that works could save me and I was working climbing Sunshine Mountain gaining new heights every day.

I was on my upward way. I Heard that little chorus Jesus wants you for a Sunbeam and I I tried I didn’t know how to be a Sunbeam, but I tried. I gave it my best shot. Jesus wanted me for a Sunbeam. I was gonna try. Didn’t work. Couldn’t do it. It’s not of works. Ephesians 2 9 says, not of works, not of works. And what does that mean? What’s the interpretation of that? It means it’s not of works.

I’ll talk to people and say, oh, yeah, you got to work your way to heaven. And I said, well, here’s my Bible. You interpret this verse. What does the phrase not of works mean? Duh. Not of works means not of works. It means not of works. What does it mean it’s the gift of God? Did it’s not the gift of God? It is the gift of God. I read John 3 16 to a fellow one time and all I did was read the verse and he says that’s your interpretation.

I said, wait a minute. All I did was read the verse to you. I said, would you tell me what it means? You interpret it. for God so of the world that it meaning hated the world, that he gave his own begotten son that means he gave Michael the Archangel and not Christ, that whosoever believe is what does that mean? I mean really, whosoever believe within him means whosoever believe within him. When it says should not perish, it means should not perish.

When it says have everlasting life, it means have everlasting life. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out John 3 16. Salvation is the gift of God, it’s not of works just by faith. whoever would believe or trust in Christ would not perish, but they’d have ever lasting life. Good news, isn’t it? Ephesians 1.13, you ought to write it down. Simultaneous with belief, you possess the Holy Spirit and He seals you. S-E-A-L-S. That’s a hard word to hear because we talk about the sealing above our heads in our houses and that’s C-E-I-L.

This is S-E-A-L. So we’re talking about being S-E-A-L-E-D, sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, the one that the Old Testament prophets had foretold would come. We’re going to go ahead and go to the phone lines. And we’ve had a number of topics here that have been coming up here regularly here lately. But you know, the most important doctrine in the Bible is that of your salvation. Because if you don’t have that right, you don’t get anything right. If you don’t have that right, you’ll go to hell.

It’s very important that you understand how to be saved. Did you know that the unsaved person can’t really make good sense out of the Bible? It says in 1 Corinthians 2, 14, the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness of them. Neither can he know them. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. When somebody tells me that the Bible doesn’t make any sense, a flag goes up. 1 Corinthians 2, 14, probably not saved.

The natural man, that’s the unsaved man. That’s the unregenerate man. That’s the man who doesn’t know Christ who is not born again. Says, does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. There are foolishness to him. How many times have you had somebody say, oh the Bible is a lot foolishness. It says neither can you know them. Can’t understand the Bible. Well, first Corinthians 2, 14 tells us they’re not going to understand the Bible until they get saved because this is a book that is illuminated by the Holy Spirit.

I didn’t say inspired, although the Holy Spirit is the author, and we know that all scriptures given by inspiration of God and the Holy Spirit is responsible for bringing to us the word of God. But the word I used is illumination where our insight to the scripture is illuminated by the Holy Spirit and it begins to make sense once you get saved. It’s like the light switch is turned on. I don’t know about you but I know but before I got saved my mom tried to force me to read the Bible and I began a Genesis and I read so and so began so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and he died and he died and he died and I got bored and

I just closed the Bible. When I got saved, wow, I was reading the Bible on purpose. I wanted to. I was going to church on purpose. I wanted to. And it was really just quite a change in my life as I chose deliberately, not to be saved, but I chose to do that because I wanted to. I wanted to learn more about God’s Word. Well, we’re going to go to Clearwater. We have Ken waiting on the line. and I got a couple people one guy that was one that’s eight and one at eight thirty.

I don’t know if you ever hear any of those people, but I got a little bit confused. The first person was on an eight. He kept saying, if I interrupt. right to be safe we had to interest christ if i understood what he was saying right and i think that’s sort of like the opposite of what you said because that would be like uh… If you define repent as turn from sin, obviously we must repent to be saved, but it’s a change of mind, and it’s included in our trust in Christ, because when you trust Christ, you do change your mind from whatever you were previously believing or trusting in to trusting in Christ.

But you know, it’s amazing. Most of Christianity has got that wrong. And Satan must be jumping up and down. As I pointed out on our program, the Greek word, you can look it up, anybody can look it up. And this is not a truth that’s exclusive to me, But even my Scofield Bible points this out in 1909 in the notes on repentance, but it comes from the Greek word metanoia, meta meaning changed, Neuia meaning mine, and the Greek word means change of mine.

It does not mean turn from sin. But as soon as you say it means turn from sin, then you’re adding works to salvation because then you have to change your life before God will save you. It doesn’t say in John 3, 16, for God so loved those that change, that turn from their sin. It’s such a bad soul. I don’t know if I have it wrong here, but when I was saved, I think it was just almost like an automatic thing that I wanted to do better things with my life to help others and maybe hopefully prepare the ground to help bring somebody else to Jesus.

That’s the order because… I was almost automatically at the same time that I was saved. I got a different attitude about life. Well you get a new birth and the Holy Spirit then convicts us of things in our life that we need to change and then he gives us the power to be able to bring about those changes in our life. And the second thing I want to bring up I think was that when we die we die in faith.

It’s again works for salvation. I’ll tell you most people teach works for salvation and unfortunately that’s not correct. Yeah, I think that an understanding from you and from reading the Bible it seems like You know they can’t find that in the Bible that is a teaching that is the fifth point of Calvinism and and so people oftentimes are quoting authors or reformist or theologians and They don’t quote the Bible There was one phrase in the Bible has been confusing to me.

I’m sure you’ve gone over a million times I think it’s a Yes, in Clauseen Chapter 2. Could you explain that to me? Sure, I’ll be happy to. Okay, thank you. Alright, thank you for that call. If you aren’t discerning, you can certainly be tossed to and fro. The Bible talks about new believers tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and Satan is out there working to just blow you back and forth. And most people are only as sound as the last sound biblical message they’ve heard.

A lot of people, because they never get into the Bible for themselves, they are… Not not their suede. They’re tossed back and forth. They’re tossed around and they’re not sure of what’s going on Well, it says here in verse 22 of Colossians, chapter 1 I was wrong. I said chapter 2 Colossians chapter 1 it says in the body of his flesh through death speaking about Christ How he died for us to present you wholly and unblamable and unprovable in his sight If you continue in the faith grounded and settled this is talking about our actual state and It talks about how that as we continue in the faith, grounded and settled, that we’re not moved.

As we talked about it just a moment ago, moved away from this expectation that the gospel is given to us and therefore we are going to be living lives that he can reward at the Joseph’s date of Christ. So believers have to distinguish in the Bible between salvation, which is God’s gift, and and then the Christian life where one day will stand before the Lord and be accountable for what we’ve done, not for salvation, but to determine the degree of reward that we’ll receive.

And if we’re going to stand there unblameable and have God say, good job, well done though, good and faithful servant, we’re going to have to continue in the faith grounded and settled. So it says in the next phrase, verse 23 here, that you be not moved away from the expectation of the gospel. So, we should be steadfast, unmovable, and as a Christian, like a rock, because we’re built upon the rock, which is Christ. And so, as a believer, we shouldn’t be tossed to and fro.

But many Christians are just back and forth in whatever they hear. They just adapt without checking it out from Scripture. They listen to a preacher and what he feeds me I will swallow. I recommend you don’t believe anybody, not even me. Believe your Bible. And check out what I say and what everybody says against the Scriptures and you’re going to come out just fine. But the problem today is that people are swayed by the people that they hear. We’re going to go to Bob in Sarasota and Bob, welcome to Bibleline.

How are you doing today? Good. Let me turn this down. i have a friend listening would ask you a question on tongues like to have you broaden it would you touch on the issue of the interview and uh… one of his points was that poll you know since i speak in tongues as much as you all touch on that too and what i think of tongues and all the possibility of counterfeit tongues and uh… he’s really concerned he’s a wonderful man and i think he needs to hear your perspective All right, we’ll do that.

Thank you, Bob**************** And in 1 Corinthians, Paul is talking about languages that were understood. But because the Corinthians were like children and wanted to show off their new toy, like a childhood, we’re misusing the real gift of tongues by speaking in the wrong language for the ones that were in the Church and Corinth. In other words, they should have been speaking Greek to the Greek listeners in the Church at Corinth. and they were speaking another language that was unknown to the Greeks, a real known foreign language, but not the language that the people could hear.

So Paul says in verse 18 that he speaks with more languages than any of them there, yet he says in the church, in the church, in the church, in the church in verse 19, in the church I’d rather speak five words with my understanding. Now he defines what that means, that by my voice I might teach others. So with my understanding means that what I’m thinking and what I’m saying in the language I’m speaking in might be communicated to the one who’s hearing it so that he’s taught and is able to understand.

Then he says I’d rather do that than to speak in 10,000 words in a language unknown to the here. So nobody would be taught, nobody would understand. In other words, if you had a choice, let’s say, well, my congregation, we preach in English here because they all understand English. But if I were to preach in Swahili, nobody would understand a word I said, and I could preach 10,000 words, but nobody would understand it if I did it in Swahili or some other word language.

But he’d rather speak five words. To an English speaking audience in English, then 10,000 words in some other language like Russian Chinese or German or French or some other language like that. And by the way, you can say a lot in five words. I would rather say, trust Christ and be saved. How many words is that? Four? Four words? Wow, what a powerful message. If we just hammered that one out every day, we’d be in great shape. Trust Christ.

But the Corinthian church was missing. By the way, nobody speaks in tongues today. What is being done today is a gibberish. It is not understood by the hearer nor is it understood by the one speaking it. I had a little lady that went with me on one of my many trips to Israel and she claims she spoke in tongues. And I said, do you understand what you’re saying when you speak in your gift of tongues? She says, I don’t have a clue.

She says, my little tongue gets going so fast I have no clue what I’m saying, but she says it feels so good. And that’s what a lot of people do it for it. They get a good feeling. They get a euphoria. Back in the 60s when we had the hippies, they were saying that they got high on Jesus. What they meant by that was that they got a euphoria by speaking in tongues that was free. They didn’t have to buy drugs to get the euphoria.

So instead of LSD and marijuana and getting high on drugs, they said, now we get high on Jesus and what they meant was that they were speaking this gibberish and they got this ecstasy, this feeling that came as a result of it. That is not the real gift. The real gift, notice first nine, the key verse in 1 Corinthians 14 is, so likewise you expect, except you speak by the tongue of words, easy to be understood. How shall you know what is spoken?

In other words, you’re to be understood by the hearer or you don’t have the real gift and you should be using the right language with the right person. I’m Dr. Eing Lindstrom, we’re going to go ahead and go to break. We’ll be right back to answer your questions, so don’t change that dial. I’ll be right back in just a moment to answer your questions, so stay tuned right here to Bible on. The Bibleline will be back in a moment.

To pledge your support for Bibleline, give us a call at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Alright I’m Dr. Englund, Sherman. We’ve had fun bringing this program to you all week long and here we are coming up on the weekend. This weekend is of course the highest holy day for the Christians in the world, the fact that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus again from the dead. You can watch our Sunday worship service by going to the internet and go to BibleLineMinistries.org.

Click on the camera if you do that about 11 o’clock or shortly thereafter, you’ll actually be connected to our Sunday morning worship service live. If you want, you can go there anytime you want during the week and click on the archive button and you’ll get all of the past servants last Sunday, Palm Sunday. You’re sitting there waiting for you to watch. I think you’ll really get some understanding into the stage being set for Christ’s crucifixion happened all on Palm Sunday and the significance of the raising of Lazarus from the dead and how it played into that.

You’ll find it very interesting. I hope you’ll take a look at our website and click on the camera on the homepage. You’ll get our worship services and you can get the Sunday Resurrection service live by going there around 11 o’clock on Sunday morning, Eastern Standard Time. If you have any questions, please call us. We’ll try to answer those as we get to them. And also, don’t forget, we have some great books in our resource center. We mentioned today, new age Bible versions, about 800 pages that really gives you some insight into what is happening in these modern translations and how our Bible today is becoming more flawed every time they come out with a new translation.

So be careful when you get a new translation, make sure that you are a good student and pay attention to what you’re getting. And this book will really help you. It covers about 20 of the new translations. And for $20, you can get this 800 page book that will really help you in understanding that. We also have the NIV quiz. We’ll be glad to send you free of charge and also the Chris fiction week chart free of charge and a resource sheet If you want of our materials you can call and get that free of charge So check that all out we pray that you have trusted Jesus as your Savior Because there’s only one way to heaven and it’s Jesus and you have to trust him and his death and shed blood is the only means of Your salvation and when you do God saves you and saves you eternally

That is truly exciting. Well, I’m Dr. Englund-Sherm and it’s great to be with you. And we’re going to go return now to stations that have been on break and do the second half hour of Bible end. So keep you ready to right where it is, and we’re about ready to join those stations. So hold on to your radio. Here we go. The second half hour of Bibleline right now.

Would you like to help Bibleline 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 the break and this is Bibleline and we’ve got people waiting on the line. We’ll try to get you up as quickly as we can. We want to thank you for tuning in today. And we’re going to go right to the phone lines. And then we have Monica from Spring Hill, first time caller.

Welcome to Bibleline. Thank you. I want to call and just express some disagreements, I guess, about interpretation of salvation versus sanctification and redemption and all those things. All right. And what I hear you saying is that once you’re saved, that’s it, that there is nothing else that needs to be done as part of the sanctification process that works. Well on sanctification there’s two aspects of it. There is our position in Christ and we’re sanctified forever at the moment we trust Christ according to Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14 it says, by one sacrifice he hath perfected us forever.

And yet in our daily walk we are, we’ve got a long way to go, each of us do, no matter where we are in our Christian lives, to try to strive in our practical application of sanctification in our life to always be striving toward becoming more Christ-like. But salvation is a gift and positionally. We’re seen by God at the moment that we get saved as justified, sanctified, and all of those things. Right, but there’s also verses that I’ve seen that say that you should remain in Him and that you should not be ashamed when she comes.

And then it talks about how if you continue in Him and if you do the work that He has prepared in advance for us to do, then you will be saved. It seems into the salvation itself comes when he appears. And it says do your utmost to remain in him. Make sure you hang on to your reward that it will not be taken from you. You’re reading the book of Revelation. That’s talking about rewards though, and you mentioned the word of reward in your sentence.

Salvation is a gift and can never be lost, but rewards can be lost. Your testimony can be lost, your joy can be lost, your effectiveness can be lost. There’s a lot of things we can lose and we’re to hang on to those things absolutely. And we hope to have, as it says in 2 John, verse 8, to receive a full reward, a full reward, a maximum that we could possibly receive. It talks in Hebrews, it talks about shrinking back.

Make sure you don’t shrink back. Otherwise, you will not be pleased to talk about making sure you hang on to it so that the things. He’s not talking about loss of salvation. He’s talking about loss of reward and how that you’ll give an account one day and be ashamed because you didn’t live for Christ. And he’s going to be ashamed of you as a believer that you just didn’t live for them at all, but you’re still going to be saved.

I know, but when you’re sure we’re talking in the parables, he was talking and saying that, you know, when you’re given the talents and you weren’t doing what you should have done with them, and he came back. It says that that servant, it called him a servant, would be appointed a place with the unbelievers, where they’re sweeping and gnashing at peace. So obviously, there is something there where we have a responsibility to do something where the father then is there and please.

So that third guy though was never saved. If you read… No, it says it calls him a servant and he’s appointed a place with the unbeliever. Yeah, well let me go to Matthew 25 and talk about that with you. I mean Monica, because in Matthew 25 we have the three different persons and verse 21 it talks about the first one being a good and faithful servant and verse 23 it talks about the second one being a good and faithful servant.

Then in verse 26 it talks about the third one and it calls him a wicked and slothful servant. Now, if you read your definitions from the Bible, the Bible says there’s none good, no, not one in Romans 3 and 12. And so a person who’s considered good in the Bible is one that has been given God’s righteousness or goodness. It’s been credited to their account by faith in the finished work of Christ. And so even in Matthew 19, the rich ring ruler comes to Christ and he said, Good Master, what good work should I do that I may inherit eternal life.

Jesus stops him immediately and says, why do you call me good? There’s none good but one and that is God. We’re not talking about him, but the thing is, is that he’s good. Well, let me finish here for a second, because what we have here is that he’s good, but then there’s a second doctrine going on here. He’s also faithful. And verse 21 of Matthew 25 says, because he’s good, he enters into the kingdom, but because he’s faithful, he’s gonna be made ruler over many things.

The same is true of the second guy, but the third guy is wicked, and wickedness is equated with unbelief Because if you, you could be a church member. No, and you know, because it says servants though. Yeah, but see, you’re missing. He also was given the ability to do something with his service, and he didn’t. And then if you read it, it says, throw that worthless servant outside with the, I mean, There is a definite distinction of the Bible.

See, this is an error and interpretation on your part because the fact is this document Christ coming back as a king, everybody in the kingdom is a servant whether they’re saved or lost. And two of the three here are saved. The third one is wicked which means he’s standing before God in his own righteousness which is wickedness and because he’s wicked he’s cast out. And if you go to other verses you could not possibly have him as a believer because Jesus is a believer.

makes a promise to believers that he would never cast out a believer john six thirty seven but what about you were talked about you know when you’ve taken of the gift and you’ve done all these things you’ve participated of the spirit in he was in and it’s very clear it says that if that person it says if you fall away right but what is it all your way from back to repent right there is a definite responsibility that we have a believer at once we accept you sure that they were that were the work that you have to go on a time here the cost of being a disciple.

There is a definite journey but it makes it seem as if hey, if we just… Well Hebrews chapter 6 is the one you’re referring to and it’s really saying that once you get saved, it’s impossible for you to become saved again. And what was happening there… No, no, no, no. It’s saying that it’s impossible for you to fall out of that and basically… What do you mean it’s impossible for you to fall out of that? What do you mean it’s impossible for you to fall out of that?

No, what you’re saying is you can’t lose your salvation. I’m saying no, you can’t lose it like a set of keys and say, oh, where are my keys? Where’s my salvation? No, but you can certainly say, I don’t want to take part in this anymore. Now, once you’ve done that, you’ve trampled on the foot, the blood that sanctified you. Okay, you’re jumping around now from Hebrew 6 to chapter 10 then. But in chapter 6 of Hebrews, this is a person that’s genuinely saved, five evidences of the fact that he’s saved, he’s tasted of the heavenly gift and was a part of the Holy Spirit and so on.

But it says, if they fall away, it’s impossible to do what? To renew them again under repentance. What it’s saying here, and And by the way, I talked to one lady and she said she had lost her salvation seven times. And she used, I said, show me a verse that says you can lose it even once. And she said, well, Hebrew six, and she used this verse. And she said, if they fall away, it’s impossible to renew them again to repentance.

And so all of a sudden I said, well, I’ll take your interpretation. You know, I feel badly for you because according to this verse, if you fell away once, it’s impossible for you to go back through the repentance or change of mind that occurs when you get saved. And so you’re going to hell. There’s nothing you can do about it. I can do about it. It’s impossible for you to become saved again according to this verse. So all of a sudden she changes.

I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about an actual outright rejection of what was done for you and then the appreciation of that, the proof of your love for the Father. This is not even what this verse is talking about Monica. No. No. Just listen for a few minutes on the radio and I’ll talk about this passage and we’ll go at it again. And that’s Monica in Spring Hill and Hebrews chapter six and verses four through six is talking about a believer.

You cannot fall from salvation. That’s impossible. Too many verses make that very clear. But like Peter says, you can fall from your steadfastness. You can fall from your confidence. You can obviously, you know, fall away from serving the Lord. And what happened with the Hebrew believers because they were the mindset of going back to the temple and offering another sacrifice, they thought they might have to come back and start all over again. And this verse is correcting that and saying, if you fall away from your confidence, your steadfastness or from serving the Lord, it’s impossible to be saved again because the one time sacrifice of Christ at Calvary saves you forever.

It says over in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 14 by one sacrifice, he had perfected forever the one that is sanctified. So when you trust Christ, you’re perfected forever. If you’re perfect for forever, you couldn’t be certain of going to heaven. But what it’s talking about in the following verses after this, in Hebrew 6, is it’s talking about the things that accompany salvation. And how in verse 10 that God is not unrighteous to feed your work and your labor of love.

And so rewards are to be earned. And if you are not serving the Lord, then you’re going to lose out. So he’s saying, you don’t have to go back and become saved again, but you do need to get back serving again. He says in verse 12, don’t be slothful. Don’t be like a sloth. It just kind of is an animal that represents, I guess, laziness because although I guess it was designed by God to move slow, but we take it as an illustration in the Bible of being a lazy person, be not slothful, but followers of those who are going to inherit the rewards that God has promised by serving Him.

But salvation is a gift and it cannot be lost. Jesus said he would not lose one person, John 639. If one person, Monica, were ever lost once he became saved, Christ would be a liar. He said in John 639, he would not lose one and it was the father’s will. And in John 637, he would not cast out one person who came to him. So you can never be cast out, you can never be lost. And in the parable of the talents in Matthew and in Luke is talking about someone who is a servant, yes, but just like right now, we’re all citizens of the United States.

That doesn’t mean you’re saved, but a lot of people in America think that they are automatically a Christian because they’re born in this country, which of course is not true. Any more than if you were born in a garage, you’d be made an automobile. Once you trust Christ, you then are born again. Then you have salvation. The phones are ringing and we’re going to try to take these calls as quickly as we can. And so just keep dialing and we’ll get you through as quickly as we possibly can.

We have Todd in Tampa. Welcome. Hello there. Hi, good morning. Good morning. Under each dispensation in the Old Testament and New Testament, God has showed his mercy unto mankind, but also with his mercy he’s brought judgment even in the Old Testament under the different dispensations of human government, law, the age of innocence. So my question to you is if God is equal in his wrath and his mercy through grace, already sent the believer in the new testament to have passage into heaven if he’s living in the life of full of sin.

Okay. Good question. And the answer is that God disciplines the delinquent believer. And in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 30 it says, because many of the Corinthian believers were living in sin, many of them were made weak, many were made sickly, and many of them died. And it says in verse 32, but when we as believers are judged, We are chastened or disciplined of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. So the believer is going to be dealt with differently than the unbeliever.

And the unbeliever will be cast into hell, but the believer will be disciplined. In other words, Hebrews 12 or 6 says whom the Lord loves, he chastens and disciplines, every son whom he receives. When I was raised at home and was with my mom and dad, when I did wrong, my father would discipline me. But my mom and dad never ever kicked me out. I don’t ever remember my dad saying it to the door and saying, look, we’re bolting the door and you’re not welcome back here ever again.

That never happened. My dad would stand at the door and say, son, get into the house, get into the bedroom. He’d have me lay down over the bed and you take his belt and give me a warm welcome. So our heavenly Father does the same. He doesn’t kick you out, but he might call you home to heaven soon and you’re planning on going. So a Christian cannot live as they please. The Bible says that God interferes in the life of a believer when they’re delinquent.

When the Jews came out of Egypt, they saw the miracles and the signs and the Bible says that they’d be crucible in the day of provocation and that they angered him. And then when we read different instances where people wrote up against Moses and then they’d get their adultery and fornication, God brought judgment upon them and destroyed them. I believe the same thing happens today. And the believers as God took those, I believe those were redeemed people, came into any of Egypt because of the blood of the Passover Lamb, a picture of their salvation and how they had crossed over through the Red Sea.

And when they disobeyed God, he didn’t send them to hell, but he did not allow them to enter the Promised Land, which is a picture of their loss of reward. And they wandered around until they died in the wilderness. And that was, of course, the discipline of God upon that generation. The Bible warns us in Hebrews not to be like them, or the same thing could happen to us today. A lot of Christians are just wandering around today. They don’t have any victory.

They don’t have any joy, and they’re miserable because the Lord is discipling their life because they are not living for Him. The Bible features that there’s a red direction of the on just of the wicked and that they’re brought back into their body or new body for the judgment of God. Yes. And then they enter the lake of fire and that new body. So in a sense they do have eternal life because they will suffer forever. Oh, absolutely. Exactly.

They’ll be separated from God Almighty in the future heaven or future earth. So what would be the difference of a person committing sin and confessing Christ if only they can obtain eternal life as true Christ but they remain disobedient to Him? How could they have the fruit so God interlife? Well here’s what happens and I’m going to describe the different fate of the believer and unbeliever. If you’re a believer, you go to heaven, if you’re an unbeliever, you go to hell.

But believers will all stand at a judgment called the Judge and Seed of Christ and there we will receive a degree of reward as we enter heaven. So there are degrees of reward for believers based upon our works or our deeds. And for the unbeliever, they go to hell because they’re unbelievers, but just before they’re cast into hell, they’ll stand at a judgment called the Great White Throne Judgment, and they’ll be assigned a degree of punishment and hell based upon their works.

So works don’t determine destination, belief or unbelief in Christ determines that, but works determines what happens at destination for the believer degrees of reward in heaven, for someone might have all their works burn up and suffer loss for all eternity in heaven of reward. But the unbeliever will have a degree of punishment and help based upon his work. So the unbeliever, who is better, I guess a nicer guy than another unbeliever, will not have it as bad in hell as one who is a very wicked unbeliever.

But there are degrees of punishment and help for the lost in degrees of reward for the believer in heaven. And as believers, we are constantly urged to earn crowns and to earn rewards. And Christ says, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. So we ought to be busy bees here in this life, laying up treasures in heaven by spending of our time and our talents and our treasures for God while we’re still here, so that we’re not going to be ashamed and say, have the Lord say, you’ve been a wicked and slothful servant, but he’ll say, well done, no good and faithful servant.

A lot of people I meet at work and other places, I’d say the majority of them believe in God and a lot of them might even trust and pray. But I don’t think that’s trusting in somebody’s going to save you. I think you have to be born in the Holy Spirit. Well, you are. The moment you trust Christ, you are born again of the Holy Spirit. It says in 1 John 5, 1, who, so ever believe it that Jesus is the Son of God is born of God.

And that happens at the moment you believe. And then, for example, when I trusted Christ, I was so turned off by my church that I told God I would never serve Him. And I was a secret believer for a whole year. But you know, nobody knew I was a believer except God did, and I knew I was saved. And during that first year while I was at the University of Florida, God finally brought me to my knees where I dedicated my life, all alone in my room, to serve Him and tell others about Jesus Christ.

And there was nobody to follow me up, nobody even knew I was a believer. But you know, from that moment on, I have faithfully tried the best I knew how to serve Him. And I’m still doing that from that moment when I got all my knees in my dorm room and of the Lord from now on I’m going to live for you, I’m going to serve you. But nobody followed me up, nobody even knew I was saved. But God the Holy Spirit followed me up.

He knew I was saved and the Lord says that He will deal with His believers, His delinquent sons or daughters. And He certainly got my attention as a young believer and I made my decision as I wasn’t going to fight God anymore. I was going to cooperate with Him and I was going to do what He wanted me to do. And I’m so glad I made that choice. Wouldn’t it be safe to say those that we must follow the word of God okay?

It’s according to it We ought to everybody we ought to do that sure, but we don’t do that to become safe That’s the whole point Salvation is a gift that God has purchased for us that we simply receive you don’t pay for a gift You don’t earn a gift a gift has already been purchased by someone else and they give it to you free because they love you But the Christian life is where we earn rewards and God wants to He still rewards upon us, but he cannot reward evil.

So he chases and disciplines us to bring us around so that we’re living a life that he can bless and reward one day when we enter into his presence. And so salvation is a gift and cannot be lost, but rewards can be lost, joy can be lost, your testimony can be lost, your effectiveness can be lost, and we can list off all the things we can lose, but we cannot lose our salvation. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you Todd for your call.

That was Todd and Tampa. By the way, we have several first time callers all the time, and if you are a first time caller, we send you a free gift too. So if you are thinking about calling, become a first time caller and we’ll send you a gift. These calls have been a little bit longer today, so we haven’t been able to get everybody up on the air. We’ve had people calling, but we’re trying our best. We have another caller off the air, but he says that, would I expand a little bit more on tongues?

Apparently he felt that I left some unanswered questions. The gift of tongues was assigned to reach unbelievers with the gospel. First Corinthians 14-22 says, Tons are for a sign, not to those that believe, not to those that believe, but to those that believe not. So if you have the gift of tongues, you should be using it with unbelievers. Nobody that I have met wants to do that. I have met so many people who claim they have the gift of tongues, and I tell them, get in my car.

Why? We’re going to the mall. Why? and I’m going to introduce you and I want you to demonstrate your gift of tongues. And if you have the real gift, it’ll be assigned to unbelievers. We’re going to have revival in them all. All of a sudden I see them perspire. I see their hands become cold and wet. I see their heart thumping so loud that almost wants to jump out of their chest. I’ve had nobody go. I even offered to buy them dinner when we get done.

Nobody wants to use this around the unbelievers in them all. They know that it will not be well received and they’ll be mocked or laughed at that or maybe they’ll be carted away. But the real gift of tongues was a known foreign language gift and it was to be used to reach lost people with the gospel. The gibberish today doesn’t work. And so therefore nobody today has the gift. And if they had the gift, they ought to be able to go to the mall and have revival.

The Bible says that the gift of tongues was assigned to unbelievers. We’re going to go to George in Tampa and George. Welcome to Bibleline. Good morning, Dr. Hank. Help me find out if I’m on a right track or not. Maybe this will help your moniker, your last caller. But I’ve been reading the Bible for the last six months, listening to you for the last six months. months and rightly dividing the word and you also taught on the radio that if you take a a text or take a verse and you can find one that’s in clear explanation that if you know that you should take one that’s clear but I’m going to get the impression that the Bible does not contradict itself and that a person that’s getting two different definitions of the Bible must be interpreting it wrong or not rightly dividing the word would you talk

on the contradictory aspect of the Bible which I know it’s not and just expound on that and I’ll hang up and listen. Okay, very good. He’s talking about a very good hermeneutical principle and what that means is the study of interpretation of Scripture. You always, if you have a difficult verse, interpret the difficult verse in the light of a clear one. Jesus said in John 1035, the Scriptures cannot be broken. What that means is they don’t contradict themselves. You cannot pit one Scripture against another and make the Scripture break down.

And nowhere does the Bible contradict itself, so it’s in harmony. We have to recognize that, but it is from God and it is in harmony. And so therefore, if you take a verse that you don’t quite understand and you make that contradict a very, very, very verse, a verse like John 647, he that believed it’s on me has everlasting life. When you believe on Christ, you have everlasting life. It’s everlasting. So you’ll have it next week, next year, 10 years from now, 100 years from now, a million years from now.

And that’s clear. Then there’s a verse, for example, that people bring up in John 8 where Jesus said, in John 8 in verse 31, he says, if you continue in my word, if you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed. Now they take that verse and they say you have to continue. But you don’t read the verse carefully if you’re saying that because it says, if you continue in my word, then you’re my disciple. A disciple is different than being saved.

You’re saved by simply trusting Christ. You become a disciple by following after Christ. Christ, when he enlisted his disciples, he made it clear what he was asking them to do. He said, follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men. So we trust Christ to be saved, but then we follow Him and we continue in His word in order to become disciples and a disciple is a learner, a follower who is pursuing becoming a fisher of men Christ that follow me and I’ll make you a fisher of men.

So if you continue, which is important as a believer after your saved, then you are a disciple. But if you don’t continue, then obviously you’re a believer, but not a disciple. So there’s a difference between being a believer and being a disciple. Not all believers are disciples and not all disciples are believers. Let me give you an example. Judas was a disciple but he was never a believer. In John 664 Jesus said he knew from the beginning who it was that believed not and who would betray him.

He’s talking about Judas. Judas was never a believer. Judas went to hell because he never believed. He wasn’t saved and then lost. Judas was never saved at all. So you can be a disciple of Christ. You can be religious. You can go to church and you can pray every day and wind up in hell. And so you have to divide between salvation and the Christian life which is called a discipleship and you can be a believer and then not a disciple.

In any case, I hope that helps a little bit, but you always take a difficult verse. For example, the fellow that was cast out that that Monica called a servant, and the scriptures, of course, defined as a servant. If you knew nothing else and you take a difficult verse that would be considered, interpret it in the light of a clear verse, Jesus said, Him that cometh to me, I will know I was cast out. So, this could not have been a believer without even reading the context because he was cast out.

And Christ promises in John 6, 30, 70, he’d never cast a believer out. when you read the context of the passage more carefully you see this person although it was a servant of the king who comes back to rule on the earth. He was not a believer in the kingdom. He was a servant of the king because everybody under the under a king is a subject of the king whether you know he agrees with the king or doesn’t agree with the king or accepted the king or didn’t accept the king.

But here is an unbeliever. He is an unbelieving servant and therefore he is cast to help because of his unbelief. And you knew that even before reading carefully the text to determine that. Thanks again to all of you who support Bibleline. If you think this program is fulfilling a need, I hope you’ll pray for us and join our Bibleline family. And if you could support us, that would be great. We require weekly and monthly contributions to keep on the air.

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I’m Dr. Anglican, this has been Bibleline, we’ll be back tomorrow at 10 a.m. In the meantime, keep looking up. Jesus is coming. 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. Bible Lines 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. All right, I’m Dr. Englund-Serman. We’ve had fun being with you today. We had a bunch of callers that we never could get to today. We apologize for that, but we’ll try to get to you tomorrow if you’ll call back. Thanks again for tuning in to Bible and today. We are excited about what God is doing through Bible and not only on radio but also on television, also on the website.

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Unfortunately, we need to make people alert to what’s happening there because it shouldn’t be happening at all. I’m Dr. Inchlinson, I’ve got to run, but keep looking up. Jesus is coming. Join me again tomorrow, which will be Friday, and have a great day. God bless, and we’ll see you tomorrow here on Bible Eye. You’ve been listening to Bible Eye, a presentation of Bible Eye Ministries of Tampa, Florida. For donation to Bibleline makes it possible for this ministry to continue in your area.

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