Bibleline Radio Show – 2009-06-03

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So cherish the old God and God Till my truth is at last my native. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Hank Lindstrom, a ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Declaring God’s love through radio and the internet. 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. Thanks for joining us here today. This is Tom Perry for Bibleline Ministries. You’re just in time to hear Dr.

Hank Lindstrom’s teaching series on the Book of Revelation. We pray that Bibleline will be glorifying to God as well as edifying to you. through Bible-igns combination of teachings from the Word of God and real-life questions with answers taken straight from the Bible. We are continuing Dr. Lindstrom’s ministry of spreading the good news of salvation throughout the world, salvation through simply trusting Jesus Christ alone as your Savior. If you have not yet trusted Jesus, we encourage you to do so.

Please visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org for information that could change your eternity. pray that you will come to trust Jesus as your Savior and be saved to the glory of God. We hope that you will plan to open your Bible and join us for this verse by verse study of the book of Revelation. You might be familiar with the three major divisions of the book of Revelation. Things past, things present, and things future. During this series, these topics and more will be explored.

Don’t forget to tell your friends and family about Bibleline. If Bibleline isn’t being broadcast in their area, then ask them to visit our website at bibilineministries.org. If you miss any of the teachings in this series, then call our Resource Center at 1-800-576-3771. Now open your Bible to the Book of Revelation chapter 4 and join us for Dr. Lindstrom’s teaching for today. And in that sense, Satan, who also was a cherub, is considered an angel because he’s a messenger of false information.

He’s an angel of light, the Bible says. He brings false information. So he’s a messenger. So when you take the broad meaning of angel, then you have that. But otherwise, as you’ve heard me say before, angels don’t have wings. There are no female angels, no baby angels, and angels always appear as men. They don’t have wings. But here we do have these living creatures that have wings. Notice they’re different than anything else you’ve ever heard about, I’m sure, except unless you’ve read the Bible.

It says they’re full of eyes before and behind. That would be convenient, wouldn’t it? They have some eyes behind you when you back up that you wouldn’t bump into something? It would be nice to have a couple extra eyes in the back here and we only have two eyes, but these creatures have eyes in front and back. full of eyes, in fact we find, and I don’t know of another creature in the universe that would be able to be described like that.

Then it says in verse 7, the first beast was like a lion, the second beast like a calf, the third beast had the face of a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. Now these pictures are seen elsewhere in the Bible, and I believe that each one of them are these living creatures reflecting a different picture or portrait of Christ. For example, we have the four gospels, each of them uniquely paint a portrait of Christ different from the others.

Matthew presents Christ as a king. And here we have one of them that has the appearance of a lion, and the lion is called the king of the beast, and it’s a picture of Christ being a king. You’ve heard the lion king. And it says here, the second, like a calf, marks Gospel, presents Christ as a servant, and the calf is a servant animal, is a picture of Christ being a servant. The third had the face as of a man.

Luke’s Gospel presents Christ as a man, takes the genealogy all the way back to Adam, and demonstrates that Christ is truly a man. The last one, the fourth, like a flying eagle. eagle being above and seeing everything. A picture of divinity of God. And John’s Gospel presents Jesus as being God. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And John says we beheld His glory.

The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So these are four pictures. In the Old Testament, when God revealed Himself to the children of Israel in the tabernacle, in the night time it was a pillar of fire. they could spot it and see it. In the daytime it was a cloud above the tabernacle. God showed His presence. When God moved, when that pillar of fire at night moved or the cloud moved in the day, they packed their suitcases and they followed.

And they followed around the wilderness, they followed this pillar or cloud. And that was the very presence of God. But when they were encamped about the tabernacle, there were three tribes that would park on the west side, 3 on the east side, 3 on the north side, 3 on the south side. In each one of those were a tribe that was a standard bearer and had a flag that represented that particular tribe in those three tribes. And on the east was the tribe of Judah.

And what was the emblem on the flag of Judah? A lion. What do we learn later? Chapter 5 verse 5, Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah. So the three tribes on the east were represented by the lion. The same picture we have here by the four living creatures that are about the throne of God. On the west we had Ephraim as the representative tribe and you can find that Numbers chapter 2. I’m not turning back there because of time, but Numbers chapter 2 you can read about it.

And you had the ox or the calf and the servant animal, the ox or the calfwher and again the same picture here in the second beast. And then you have on the south, you have the tribe of Ruben and on that flag would be the picture of a man. And of course we know that that was to the south and it compares here to the third living creature who has the face like as of a man. And then Dan was to the north and on that flag was an eagle.

And of course, divinity. God we believe lives in the north. And don’t we believe heaven is in the north. We’ve talked about that before here. There’s a void in the north where there are no stars, and we believe that heaven itself is in the north in the universe. Psalm 75, 5 says, the salvation doesn’t come from the east to west or the south. Only if you want direction left to choose from, that’s the north. And there are numerous verses that hint at the north being where God is.

So the tribe that would be to the north would be Dan and the eagle would be on there, and that’s exactly the picture here. So we believe that these are four living creatures that surround the throne of God and they all reflect the person of Jesus, each giving us a different portrait of who He is, just like the four Gospels do, just like the children of Israel as they encamped about God’s presence. They also gave that type of representation that we have here with God upon His throne and the four living creatures giving us that representation.

Verse 8, and the four living creatures had each of them six wings. And these are unique creatures, aren’t they? Six wings about them, and they were full of eyes within. These are creatures that see everything, is what it’s saying. They have eyes that see everything. Nothing escapes their vision. And so they protect the throne of God and they see everything that’s occurring in this universe, nothing escapes them. And they rest not day or night, so they need no sleep.

And day and night they’re awake and alert and right there at the throne of God. And we find also they worship God upon the throne, saying what? Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. And don’t you remember him that we sing this by that title? And we sing about holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was and which is and which is to come, which speaks about this is God the Father, the eternal God who always has been and always will be.

chapter 4 verse 9. And when those living creatures gave glory and honor and thanks to him that set upon the throne, who lived forever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that set upon the throne, and worship him that lived forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created what all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

Now notice here some point out and make a point about casting their crowns before the throne. And therefore some conclude from that that we’re going to cast our crowns down. But it’s interesting, this is happening immediately after the Rapture before perhaps we’ve gotten our crowns yet because we’re getting the judgment of Christ which will happen when Christ returns. But it seems like if it’s talking about what we’re going to do, it happens when we get them and we lose them that quick, you know, it’s over with.

I really believe rewards are eternal and I just make a point of that because I’ve heard Many people say, well, we’re just going to toss them all back. And so I’m not too excited about serving the Lord because the crowns are going to be in and out of my hands so fast that it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to get excited about it. I think you would be making a serious mistake if you do that because the Bible talks about eternal rewards and about a crown that will not fade away.

And so I think we need to be careful not to diminish the importance of living for Christ and earning rewards because you may suffer an eternity of loss if you don’t live for the Lord here and now. So I think we need to say, I need to live for the Lord every day. I want to have him pleased with my life. I want him to say, well done, I’m good and faithful servant. I want him to reward me if I’m worthy of reward.

And I believe we’ll regret if we haven’t, we’ll suffer loss and I believe it’s going to be more than for a few seconds. I think it’s going to be for eternity. We’ll really be without what we could have had, although I believe it’s when we enter into eternity after the thousand year end of Christ that the sorrow will probably disappear because it says he wipes away the tears from our eyes. But apparently up until then we’ll have tears. That might mean that we might have tears and experience sorrow and regret right up until after the thousand year reign of Christ as believers because it’s not until chapter 21 when we’re in eternity that it says the Lord himself will come over and wipe the tears from our eyes.

So apparently there will be sorrow, at least up until that point, something to think about that we surely don’t want to have that happen. Thank you for joining us. You were listening to Bibleline with your host, Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Bibleline is a teaching ministry that is dedicated to reaching out to people with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are many resources available at Bibleline, such as Dr. Lindstrom’s DVD teachings on the topics of Saved by Grace, Baptism, and the Righteous vs.

the Unrighteous. In addition to many others, please contact our Resource Center at 1-800-576-3771. Now please join us for a segment featuring Dr. Lindstrom answering questions from callers. And we’re now going to go to Robert in the land, Florida. He is a new believer. My operator tells me and welcome to Bibleline. Thank you, Dr. Lindstrom. You able to hear us loud and clear up there in the land? I’m sorry? Are you able to get a good reception there? You can let you hear us loud and clear.

Perfectly, perfect. Oh, wonderful. I want to find out one question about salvation. possible we lose our salvation? Answer is no. And the reason why is because we don’t keep ourselves saved. Christ keeps us saved. If you read John 637, Jesus says, this is the Father’s will, which has sent me that of all of which have given me I should lose none, but raise them all up again at the last day. So Christ promised that He would not lose one and that that was the Father’s will.

So if one person in all of history were ever lost, then Christ would be a liar. So we as believers, as you know in Christ, right? Let’s say we will not lose our salvation. That is great. Now, if we sin, we will lose our salvation? No, you will not. But you will get spanked. The Lord says that he disciplines delinquent believers, and in some cases he’ll take you home to heaven soon and you’re planned on going. So you can lose your life, you can lose your rewards, you can lose your joy, you can lose your testimony, you can lose your effectiveness, and then we can list dozens of things you could lose, but you can’t lose your salvation.

because it’s a conflict over here between our parents and our family as well because their Christians as well. And some of them say yes, you do lose your symptoms, say you don’t. And my pastor says you will lose your salvation. Well then he’s wrong. You’re in a church where there’s bad doctor. Listen to this just a minute Robert and that is if you believe you can lose it, what are you saying? And here’s what you’re really saying. You’re saying that between right now and when you die, how you live your life determines whether you’re saved or not.

That’s works. It makes you the Savior and not Christ. That’s a false plan of salvation. The people who teach you can lose it are saying that if you live the Christian life out till you die successfully, you go to heaven. But if you backslide and sin and die, then you go to hell. So that means how you live your life ultimately determines your salvation. That’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that Christ is the Savior and he saves us completely the Bible says.

The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 7 that we’re saved to the uttermost, or saved completely by Christ one time death at the cross. And our salvation is secure and forever because he not only saves us, but he keeps us saved as we just mentioned in John 6.39. But then we are to live the Christian life, and that is where we can earn rewards. And one day we’re going to be held accountable and we can suffer loss of reward, or we can have rewards there in heaven because we’ve lived faithfully for Christ.

But our salvation is never in question. But if you become a believer, then God becomes your Father for the first time. And it says in Hebrews 12, 6, for whom the Lord loves, he chases or disciplines every son or daughter whom he receives. So when you’re received into God’s family by the new birth, all of a sudden it’s a new ballgame and God becomes your Father. And if you’re delinquent, he’s going to spank you. He might say, I’m going to take you home to heaven early because you’re embarrassing me down on the earth and you might lose your life.

The Bible gives many examples. In 1 Corinthians 10, it mentions 23,000 Christians that God took home in one day because of their disobedience and willful sin against the Lord. So you don’t wanna do that. You wanna live for Christ and, you know, when I was raised at home with my mom and dad, I was their son, whether I was obedient or whether I was disobedient. Had nothing to do with whether I was their son. But if I was obedient, then I got my allowance.

I got privileges on the weekend and so on and so on. But if I was disobedient, I was restricted. I might lose my allowance. And so there were consequences to my actions, but it didn’t affect my sonhood. Even though my parents have passed on into eternity, I’m still their son. That’ll never change. And once you become born again in the God’s family, there’s no provision for you to become unborn. You’re stuck. You have to go to heaven whether you like it or not.

You might want to get my, if you’ll just ask my operators, I’ll send you a copy of my CD, how permanent is your salvation? This I think will resolve it for you forever. I greatly appreciate that. Okay, hang on, maybe I can get the operator to pick you back up and we’ll send that out to you. And that is our caller from the land, Florida. We’re now gonna go to Larry and he’s in Palm Harbor, Florida. And Larry, welcome to Bibleline you’re on the air.

Yes, Dr. Heich. I have a question as far as the church elders. I know in 1 Timothy chapter 3 it talks about electing our qualifications for elders of the church. Is this my church just elected some women in the position? Has there ever been women in that ministry in this? No, I think you’re absolutely right that women are not to have those positions. If you read Titus chapter 1 and 1 Timothy chapter 3, it doesn’t say a thing there about women being in the position of elder or deacon.

Yeah, and that’s why I was three. We’re really going a little bit nuts-o here in Christianity today. We’re ignoring the Bible and making our own rules as we go along. We’re not enduring sound doctrine. And one of the things that these two chapters teach, First Timothy 3 and Titus 1, is that the elders’ responsibility is to guard the purity of doctrine in the church, to guard sound doctrine and rebuke those who would bring unsound doctrine into the church. So obviously whoever is in charge right now is not guarding the sound doctrine of the Bible and is allowing unsound doctrine to persuade them to elect women to these positions.

That’s certainly wrong. Yeah, so well that’s what I was been pondering for the last three weeks we’ve actually changed churches just because of that and I was just wondering if I did not. I think you have and women pastors again is another thing which is out of line with scripture. You know 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 12 says that women are not to have that position nor do you serve authority over the man and it’s quite plain that God intended for men to do that.

And he gives two reasons there in Timothy chapter 2. The first is that Adam was not deceived, but Eve was. And so apparently men and women were created differently, and we complement one another, and it doesn’t mean that women are inferior. But in spiritual things, women are more easily deceived apparently, because Adam wasn’t deceived, it says, but Eve was. And that’s because women have a tendency to think more emotionally. It’s amazing how many cults have been started by women, LNG White, the Seventh-day Adventist, and Mary Baker Eddy, the Christian scientists, and so on.

Mary Baker Eddy said, I just can’t imagine a God who would send anybody to hell. Why that’s just horrific. How could we ever believe in a God like that? So she said there was no hell. And then she wrote a book called The Key to Science and Scripture and Health. And she tells you what passages you can believe and the other passages that you can’t believe, the passages that are truth and the passages that are error. And she was really way off.

Right. That’s what happens. Yeah, I think if you’ll put me back over to you operate, I’m gonna get that pamphlet on your sound doctrines for churches. Wonderful. Okay. That’s I think that’s called basic. I can’t even think here. But anyway, I think they wouldn’t know it is a basic doctrines that a church ought to believe to be a sound church. Well, so do that. Okay, we’ll turn you back over to the operators and you will be able to get that belief that matters what I think I call that.

You can. And we’ll send it up to you free if you have internet access. You can download that right off of my website. We now have Helen and Helen was listening on the radio and we’re going to try to fix that Helen so people can listen on the phone while they’re waiting. Helen, welcome to Bible Lab. Oh, hi. I have a couple of questions. The first one is how do you know that the devil can’t read your mind? Well, there’s a great verse in first Kings.

I’ll give it to you. Are you ready? I ought to charge money for this. This is such a good one. I’m TZM course. I’m just getting people’s attention but in the first Kings chapter 8 in verse 39 it says For thou speaking of the Lord even thou only knowest the hearts or the minds of all the children of men That’s first Kings 8 39 so okay Satan might guess what’s in your mind because our body language sometimes reveals what we’re thinking but otherwise he doesn’t know your thoughts isn’t that great yes okay so you got it the other question i had was on the books that it talks about in the bible like dude eronomy twenty nine twenty and psalm sixty nine twenty eight for instance are those books referring to the lambs book of life or is there other other books like books for god documents

Our good works are you know so that we will have get have rewards when we get to heaven are there those books apparently There are you know in the book of Revelation in chapter 20 We have the great white throne judgment and it talks about how that God opens the books and then he opens the book of life and the ones that are judged there are unsaved and and therefore they’re judged out of the books and not out of the book because their names are not in the book of life because they’re lost.

So they are assigned a degree of punishment in hell based upon their works which are recorded in these books. So you’re absolutely right. There are apparently volumes whether they’re on a shelf or not or whether God just has them all you know in his mind. But basically he has recorded everything that you and I have ever done. but our salvation is based upon whether we’ve trusted Christ and if we trust Christ, our name is in the book of life forever and We’ll never be stricken and we can be certain of going to heaven But if you’re not saved then the unsaved for example will be judged out of the books Because they’re not in the book and they’ll be cast into hell a sign degree of punishment But there was also the recording of the works of the believers and we’re going to be judged separately and given a degree of reward

based upon our works Well, what about I don’t know where it is right now, but where it talks about Are your person’s name being deleted out of the book? Well, that’s a person who dies without trusting Christ as Savior So if you die as an unbeliever at the moment of death your name is stricken Otherwise your name is in the book from the beginning from the get-go God intends for everybody to be saved, but you must trust Christ if you trust Christ Revelation 3 5 promises Your name will never be blotted out.

So once you become a believer, your name is guaranteed to stay in the Book of Life. But if you die as an unbeliever, your name is stricken at death. Uh-huh, okay. All right, well, thank you so much. You have a great one. Uh-huh, thank you. All right, that was Helen. We hope that you’re learning with us. As you listen to this question and answer segment featuring Dr. Hank Lindstrom. If you’d like to hear today’s program again, then please visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org There, you’ll be able to replay today’s program in our audio archives, as well as access other resources, including an, Am I Going to Heaven quiz?

In addition to many other resources in our online store, it’s time for us to take a short break now. When we return, we will continue this question and answer segment and then hear more Bible Don’t go away, 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.

We’re going to go to 1 Corinthians and we’re going to take a look at chapter 3 where we have the judgment seat of Christ. The judgment seat of Christ which is the judgment coming up for all believers. It will take place at the event of the Rapture. And that’s when the believers of this age which began at Pentecost and will end at the Rapture are going to be judged according to their works to determine the degree of reward that they’ll receive in heaven.

This is for believers only, and if you are an unbeliever, then you’ll stand at another judgment that occurs a thousand years later called the Great White Throne Judgment, where all of the unsavably brought up and judged according to their works and assigned a degree of punishment in hell. So we learn according to the Bible, when you trust Christ as Savior, you become saved and you will go to heaven. But you will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ as to your works for degree of reward or loss of reward, but the unbeliever who will go to hell because he is an unbeliever will be judged according to his works to determine the degree of punishment that he will receive in hell.

Well, 1 Corinthians chapter 3 describes this judgment where it says in verse 11, for other foundation can no man lay, then that is laid which is Jesus Christ. So the foundation is Christ and only believers have this foundation, and so only Christians will be standing at this judgment. It then says in verse 12, if any man built upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, it mentions six different kinds of building materials here. The gold, silver, and precious stones represent things that are lasting, that will endure the flames that will test these works, and the wood, hay, and stubble represent things that are done for self and our temporal will be burntCompat and bring no reward in heaven.

Verse 13 says, Every man’s work shall be manifest or made known for the day shall declare it that is the judgment seat of Christ, because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try not the man, but every man’s work of what sort it is. So the fire will sort out your works. It will all be piled up, fire will hit it and those things which are done for self, wood hand stubble will be burned up and nothing left that ashes, but those things which are done for Christ will last and be rewarded and you’ll have rewards in heaven.”

Verse 14 says, If any man’s worked abide which you have built there upon, he shall receive a reward. So in other words, if the fire tries your works and you’ve done things that are worthy of reward, things that are represented here by goals over precious stones, they’ll be purified and they’ll remain and you’ll receive a reward. In verse 15 says, If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss that is loss of reward, but he himself shall be saved, yet so has my fire.

What is so interesting about this verse is obviously it implies here that somebody could live out their whole life and do nothing for Christ, zero for Christ, have their works all burned up, suffer the loss of reward, but yet it says here very clearly they would still be saved. they would still be saved. I hear all the time that unless your life changes, unless you gain new heights every day as you’re on your upward way, that you won’t make heaven.

That’s craziness. The Bible doesn’t teach that. The Bible teaches that you’re saved at the moment you believe forever based upon the finished work of Christ at the cross, that He paid our sin debt in full, and once you trust Him, you receive that gift of eternal life. It’s offered completely free. And here it tells us in verse 15 of 1 Corinthians 3 that at the judgment seat of Christ when believers will stand there and give it account for what they have done since they have been saved.

If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss that is loss of reward, but notice he will be saved. Because he is not saved by his works. He is saved by trusting Christ as Savior. And so he is saved because he has the foundation of Christ by trusting him as Savior, but But his works might be burnt up, and he will suffer the loss of rewards for eternity in heaven, but he still will be saved, yet so as by fire.

Verse 8 tells us in this wonderful chapter, every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. So we know that believers are going to be held accountable one day, and they will receive their own reward according to their own labor. Not their good intentions, but what they actually did, whatever you do for Christ will be remembered. Whatever you do for Christ will be recorded and rewarded, but it has nothing to do with your salvation. The Bible tells us our salvation has nothing to do with our works, but rewards have to do with our works.

And that’s what this verse is saying here. Every man, verse 8 of 1 Corinthians 3, shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. We’re going to rejoin the stations that have been on break into the second half hour, by the way. If you want 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. And now back to Bibleline. Welcome back from the break. We hope that you’re learning with us as you listen to Bibleline and hear real-life questions with scriptural answers from Dr.

Hank Lindstrom. Please make plans to join us and open your Bible as we also present in-depth studies covering a variety of biblical topics. Now let’s return to our question and answer segment and then we’ll hear more Bible teaching from Dr. Hank Lindstrom. We have Alan in Petersburg, Virginia. He’s calling from a job site and he is anxious to say something to us. Alan, you’re on the air. How you doing good? I’m calling mostly to okay, you know what I’m saying.

I agree that Okay, sure My understanding of scripture is that being born again is Nothing to do with salvation Salvation is a gift that comes because of it. Salvation is a gift and it’s received at the moment you believe. Right. I agree on that. At the same time to me being born again is something that takes place that we’re on this path that the devil’s got set up for us and that’s the path that we’ve been walking. We come to a point in that path for receiving that little bit of light and we make a decision at that point to open the door and let Jesus come in at that point and now we’re on a new path.

But walking that path doesn’t have a thing to do with our salvation. It has to do with rewards and blessings. In other words, when you become born, for example, into my parents’ family, when I was born DragonMagazine that family, I became their son, my mom and dad’s son. whether I was obedient as a child or disobedient as a child, I was still their son. But if I was obedient, I got privileges and I got an allowance and there were certain things that went along with being obedient.espie If I was disobedient, I was restricted and maybe I lost my allowance and so on.

So there were consequences to not being an obedient child in my home, but I was always their child, regardless of how I behaved. And this is, I think, the same thing the Bible is saying here, that when you trust Christ, you become born again in your God’s son or daughter, and that’s with disregard to how you behave. But if you are obedient, God is going to bless your life and reward you. If you’re disobedient, he might spank you, and you’ll suffer the consequences of loss of reward one day when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

So we definitely are responsible, and we’re all going to give an account one day, but our works have nothing to do with whether we make heaven or not okay now here okay uh… may becoming born again period try to bear with me i’m a little hillbilly i guess and i didn’t think they had hillbillies uh… in the virginia there uh… they have when you become born again uh… to make it one way I can describe it is like a Christmas tree.

Okay. In the woods, when the tree is standing out in the woods, we just call it a pine tree. When that pine tree is cut down and brought into the house, it’s transformed into a Christmas tree. But what $\the evidence of that being a Christmas tree while they decorate it and they put things on it, and there’s evidence of it. I see what you’re trying to say. But let me just say here that God knows when you become that believer and become born again.

And the evidence only has to do with our impact upon others and our impact upon others is what brings about rewards as we live for Christ and we share the gospel message and become a light to those that are lost. God will reward us and bless us. but God doesn’t need any evidence. He sees our heart or our mind. And when we believe, he knows that we’re his. And I’m up again. What I’m trying to say is that I believe that you can’t So-called be born again without having any evidence.

Well that that is not true. I would disagree with that. Well the evidence doesn’t need to be seen by God. I like and Alan maybe you want to write this down but first Samuel 16 7 says that man looketh on the outward appearance that’s evidence but the Lord looketh on the heart. So God sees when you place your faith in Christ and from that moment on you become saved. on the outward appearance. So works for the believer after your saved will give evidence to them that you are a believer and will give you an opportunity to bring the gospel to family members and friends and others that you are trying to reach.

So our evidence has nothing to do with our salvation. The evidence is only for the benefit of men, not God. First Samuel, 16-7, men look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. God knows the moment you believe and from that moment on God says you’re saved, you possess eternal life, you’ll never be lost, you’ll never cast you out, he’ll never lose you. But if you want to be impacting others and get in on the blessings and rewards that come by living for Christ, then you have to have works.

So Alan, I hope that helps a little bit. I know you’ve been very patient to hold on the line here. But thank you for calling in. Does that help? Alan, are you there? Maybe I need to re-punch up that line. Are you there, Alan? Yep, I’m here. Thank you. So, basically, God looks at the heart. He knows the moment you get saved, and from that moment on he promises he’ll never cast you out. He’ll never lose you. John 6.37, John 6.39.

He says that you have eternal life, John 3.16. The evidence is simplyacebook for the simply for the benefit of men who look on the outward appearance. I was a secret believer, Allen, for the first year after I got saved. Nobody knew that I was a believer. And yet I was inside concern for the lost. But it wasn’t until I opened my mouth and let people know that I was a believer and attempted to lead people to Christ that something happened.

And I was at the University of Florida living in the dorm and amazing. I was shocked how God used me there and I was leading people to Christ left and right. Out of that developed a Bible study and the Lord used all that to bring me to where I am now. Our Bible study grew out of the dorm. We moved into a professor’s home. We had as many as 50 college guys coming every Saturday night to learn the Bible.

That was while I was still in college. Before I graduated, we had eight of those that went on in a full-time Christian work. That really convicted me because I was still headed toward a secular career. When I had people, I was challenging that were going into full-time ministry. One of them is a distinguished professor at Nalistheological Seminary, one of those first ones that I led to Christ. And most of those original guys that I’ve kept in contact with are still living through Christ and are doing a great job and I’m so proud of them.

But they’re saved because they simply trusted Christ. But the evidence is so that others benefit as we share with them what we have in Christ, and that’s where the rewards come in. So you don’t have to have any evidence as far as your salvation God knows the heart. 1 Samuel 16 and 7. But man looks on the outward appearance. That’s what James is talking about. That’s what believers ought to be doing once they become saved. And I’m glad I made my second choice a year after I got saved, when I chose to live for Christ and to witness and share the gospel with others and that’s been a wonderful experience for me ever since.

I’m still doing what I chose to do a year after I got saved, about 19 years of age. My understanding when I read my Bible and all is that we before we are born again, we are serving the devil one way or another. The things that the devil has got in the world, you know, well. But a believer can still serve the devil. A believer can still serve the devil. So you have to make this decision to become a disciple.

You know, Peter, by the way, I don’t like that term conversion used with salvation because Peter didn’t get converted until three years after he got saved. Peter didn’t get converted until after the resurrection of Christ. If you read Luke 22-32, Jesus prayed for Peter and Peter says, pray for the appeal that thy faith failed not. Satan hath desired to have you to sift you like wheat, but after you are converted. The and it turns out that that was the night that Peter denied Christ three times and was a coward and hid, but yet after the resurrection, apparently then Peter’s life dramatically changed and he stands before the very people that had crucified Christ, the very ones that he was afraid of, just a few weeks earlier and now becomes the bold witness that Peter became.

So conversion has to do with the Christian life has nothing to do with salvation. I was saved but for me my conversion experience took place a year after I got saved. I was saved and then I got converted a year later. I think kind of described. Well what happens is that people are not I guess it’s my engineering background, I graduated in electrical engineering, and you have to define the terms right and you have to get them the definitions from the Bible.

And if you’re not careful, this is where all the confusion comes in. Basically, salvation is a gift and received by faith alone, whereas the Christian life is where we work and serve, and God will pay us, he’ll reward us. And so rewards are earned and they’re based upon our works and of we’re going to be effective, our works provide evidence to people we’re witnessing to, that we are genuine, that we’re real, and that the message we are bringing them is one that we’re passionate about.

We believe that they’ll go to hell without Christ. And so that’s what that’s all about. I hope you’ll keep listening and call back again. We’d love to hear from you. That wraps up to these question and answer segment. As believers in Jesus, there is no other topic that is more important to us than the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it was Dr. Hank Lindstrom’s mission to spread the gospel. Through your prayers and ongoing financial support for Bibleline, you too can help spread the gospel of Christ throughout the world and reach others with the message of salvation through Jesus.

Please, prayerfully consider supporting Bibleline by visiting our website at BibleLineMinistries.org getting copies of any of our resources, such as Dr. Lindstrom’s audio CDs on the books of Matthew or Genesis, plus many others. Join us now as we continue today’s teaching series from Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Apparently, there will be sorrow, at least up until that point, something to think about that we surely don’t want to have that happen. Chapter 5, are you ready? And I saw on the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne.

So here we have the throne seen. We have God sitting upon His throne. We see the emerald rainbow about the throne. We see the 24 other thrones which are the 24 elders. And then we see these four living creatures that surround the presence of God. We see the worship there of these creatures and of the elders of the God upon the throne, the God the Father. And then it says, I saw on the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne a book, really a scroll written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.

So we have a piece of parchment, a scroll, and it’s written upon, rolled up a little bit, sealed, rolled up a little bit more, sealed, rolled up a little bit more, sealed, and so on. And so to read the book, we break the first seal, we read a little bit, and then we break another seal and then fold it a little bit more and read a little bit more and so on until we break all seven seals, which we’re going to do in chapter six.

But what is this book? Well, We’re going to find out, I believe. It says, I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book and to lose the seals thereof? Answer, no man in heaven, nor in the earth, neither under the earth was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. Whoa, here’s a scroll and nobody’s worthy to even touch it or look at it or to open it. And John begins to cry.

John says, I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and read the book or needed to look there on. They couldn’t even look at it. And then one of the elders verse 5 says unto John, John, don’t weep, behold the lion of the tribe of Judah. Who is that? Jesus Christ. He is the king that would come out of the tribe of Judah that would one day rule as king over the earth and king over the universe.

And it Adinida he is the root of David. He came out of the lineage of David. And we find his genealogy in the Bible. He hath prevailed to open the book and deludes to seven seals thereof. And then all of a sudden, verse 6 says, then I Be held in low in the midst of the throne. And of the four living creatures in the midst of the elders stood a lamb. Now the lamb is a picture of Christ’s first coming as he comes to be slain to pay for our sins.

And the lion is a picture of his coming at the second coming to rule and reign as king. But notice here for Christ to come as a lion, he first had to come as a lamb. Because as he came as a lamb and had victory over Satan, and by his death and shed blood, had victory over death and over the penalty for sin, he became the conqueror and can come down as a lion. This is an important distinction to make also as we talk about salvation.

You must receive Christ as a lamb before you can receive him as a king. In other words, you have to trust Christ to be saved. And then you make a second choice to serve Him and yield to His authority of your life. So we’re saved by simply trusting Christ. But there are preachers today that will twist that around and ask you to do things that have to do with discipleship and lordship to be saved before you get saved. And that, of course, reverses it and is a false message.

So Christ had to be lamb first before he could be king. And so Jesus came as a lamb, and we must receive him as that lamb, the precious lamb of God that was slain in order to be saved. And then we choose to serve him and let him be king of our life. Then it says here, he stood as a lamb as it had been slain, referring obviously to Calvary, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are, and here we have it again.

told you we’d see it again which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. So Jesus when he came as a lamb as a man humbled himself and came a man he was empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the things that he did. And that empowerment took place at the baptism of John when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Lamb of God. Remember John introduces him as the Lamb of God and the Lamb is what?

empowered by the Holy Spirit who came from heaven and ascended upon him. And there if we have a snapshot picture, we have God the Father saying, this is my beloved son. And we see Christ with the Holy Spirit descending upon him. We have God the Father, God the Spirit, God the Son, all present one snapshot picture, one instant of time at the baptism of John. And here the Lamb was empowered by the Holy Spirit. And he was obedient unto death.

Verse 7, notice he comes and he took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. What is the significance of this? I believe that this seven sealed scroll is the title deed to the planet Earth. And for Christ to come back and rule and reign, first step is he has to take title to the earth. He is the rightful owner because he defeated Satan at the cross when he came as a lamb. Let’s see if we can’t support that with other scripture.

This is the way you interpret the Bible. You find that it all matches up when you have the right interpretation, and it doesn’t make any sense if you have the wrong interpretation. Let’s go to Luke chapter 19, are you ready? Jesus had been in Jericho, and we find that in the first 10 verses it talks about a wee little man that couldn’t see Jesus because of the the crowd and he climbed up into a sycamore tree. And what happened is Jesus passes by, he says, sick he is, come down from that tree.

I’m going to have lunch with you and salvation has come to your house. And he was a despised man and yet the Lord took note of his desire to know Christ. And as a result, the key has got saved. And he was a Jew. Says in verse 9 here that he was the son of Abraham. He was in the lineage of Abraham. He was a Jewish man, but he was a despised man in Jericho. Now verse 11, Jesus leaves Jericho.

His disciples are following, are you ready? Luke 19 verse 11. And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable because he was near to Jerusalem. So he’s leaving Jericho. By the way, Jericho is about 1200 feet below sea level. It’s desert and dry and Jericho is like an oasis because there’s a spring there that Elijah purified that flows to this day that waters Jericho. But otherwise everything is brown and desert except for a green area that’s Jericho.

And it’s still green today and you plaint still see the water flowing out of the ground from the same spring that aligns you. He was purified in the Old Testament, still waters the town of Jericho today. And so it says here, he was near to Jerusalem he was moving up now. Jerusalem is about 3,000 feet above sea level. So this is going to be an ascent now from Jericho to Jerusalem of over 4,000 feet, going up through the hills, and heading up to Jerusalem.

And notice he spoke this parable because in verse 11 they thought, they thought, and they’re thinking was wrong, they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. They didn’t realize that, oops, it wouldn’t because the nation of Israel would reject their Savior and it would be postponed until after God had called out a people for His name out of the Gentiles, which is the present age which we’re living. So he speaks this parable to them because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.

Why he was the king? Where was he going to rule from? Jerusalem. Logical in their mind, we’re going to watch this thing happen. He’s walking up to Jerusalem and the kingdom is going to begin. And they were wrong because they didn’t know what we know that Christ would be rejected and go to the cross. So look at what he says in verse 12. He said, therefore, a certain nobleman, referring to himself, went into a far country. That’s Jesus going back to heaven.

And why did he go back to heaven to receive for himself a what? Kingdom. And then what would he do? He’d return. Well, that’s exactly what we see happening here. We see Jesus rejected going back to a far country, which is heaven, receiving a kingdom in heaven and then coming back. And so Jesus cannot come back to rule this earth until He receives the kingdom from the Father. Let’s go to the book of Daniel. Let’s see if we can find more that tells us the same thing.

It says here in verse 13, I saw in the night visions and behold, this is Daniel chapter seven verse 13, I saw in the night visions and behold one like the Son of Man came to with the clouds of heaven and He came where? To the Father upon the throne. Thanks for listening to Bibleline with Dr. Hank Lindstrom. We’d like to continue with Dr. Lindstrom’s teaching, but we are out of time for today. We hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s program and that you are learning from it.

If you missed any part of today’s program or if you’d like to hear it again, please visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org Where you can either listen to today’s program again or if you prefer you can get the entire teaching series through our online store. If you have any questions or comments about today’s program please call us at 1-800-576-3771 or you can write us at Bibleline Ministries 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 3, 3, 6, 3, 4. It was Dr. Lindstrom’s ministry to spread the gospel of salvation by telling all who would listen about the shed blood, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus to pay the sin debt that we all owe but cannot pay for ourselves.

If you have not yet trusted Jesus as your Savior, we encourage you to do so. Just visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org and watch Dr. Lindstrom’s seven-minute video that will greet you there. If you have already trusted Jesus as your Savior, then we encourage you to develop and strengthen the foundation of your Christian life by spending time reading your Bible and learning with us about God’s Word by listening to Bible line. We’d like to say thank you to our audio team for their work on today’s program.

Until next time, this has been Tom Perry for Bibleline Ministries. We invite you to join us again for another edition of Bibleline and as Dr. Lynchroom would say, keep looking up. Jesus is coming. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, the presentation of Bibleline Ministries of Tampa, Florida. Your regular monthly donations to Bibleline make it possible for this ministry to continue in your area and on the internet. Please contact us today and lend your prayerful and financial support. address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634.

Or visit Bibleline Online and BibleLineMinistries.org. Be sure to tune in to another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Every man, verse 8 of 1 Corinthians 3, shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. So rewards are based upon labor. Salvation is in every case presented as God’s gift. So obviously, salvation has nothing to do with our works, and a person could live out their Christian life and not serve the Lord one day, not do one thing worthy of reward, and still be saved, but yet they would suffer the loss of reward.

reward. I’m glad. I’m glad I learned about this as a young believer because I realized, whoa, my life was not involved in doing things for God. And so I was going to enter heaven as a believer with no rewards. And I decided I better do something about that. So I chose to start living for Christ. As you live for Christ, as you give of your time and your talents and your treasures to the Lord, you’re laying up treasure in heaven.

And the Bible says that that is treasure that will be there forever. You can’t take it with you when you die, but you can send it ahead if you live for Christ. And Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 6, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. The way we do that is by living for Christ here. So what are you doing on earth for heaven’s sake? In other words, what are you doing in this lifetime that will bring about an eternity of reward.

One of the five martyred missionaries down in Ecuador many years ago said he is no fool. This was Jim Elliott, one of those that were martyred. And he says he is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. What a great quote. He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. You and I, we can’t keep anything that we have here.

We’re going to leave it behind when we die, but we can spend our time and our talents and our treasures here and be laying up for ourselves rewards in heaven for eternity. And of smart believer will be serving and be doing things that are going to count for eternity. And God is going to reward everything you do. Nothing will be forgotten. I always marvel at the story of the little widow that when the disciples were at the temple They saw rich men offering huge offerings into the treasury there at the temple in Jerusalem during Christ’s day.

They were just pointing it out to Christ and with their tongues hanging out of their mouths and they were just in awe at this giving by very rich people a large offering. Jesus takes her eyes away to a little woman, a widow, and he says that she gave more than these rich men because she gave all her living. She had only one coin. It was the last coin that she possessed and she gave it as an offering. And God has immortalized this woman by letting us know that this woman’s gift was greater because percentage-wise she gave 100% while the rich men still had much left over that they kept for themselves.

And so whatever you give is going to be remembered just like God saw that little woman give her might and she is remembered through scripture now for these thousands of years since and we know that God notices everything we do and no matter how small or insignificant it might seem to you or to me God sees your heart and he sees what you have given or what you have done and he’ll reward that in heaven one day. And the Bible tells us that we ought to be living here, recognizing that what we do for Christ is going to count forever.

But what we do for self will be burned up and will not last. Everything on this earth and the earth itself will one day be burned up by fire. And only the things that we’ve done for Christ will last. Will you have any treasure in heaven? My friend, you can start today. Start reading your Bible. Start sharing it with others. Start living for Christ and you’ll have rewards in heaven. In any case, we’ve got to run, but we’ll be back tomorrow.

So keep looking up. Jesus is coming. We’ll be right soon. God bless. Have a great day. We’ll see you tomorrow here on Bible Eye. You’ve been listening to Bible Eye, the presentation of Bible Eye Ministries of Tampa, Florida. Your regular monthly donations to Bible Eye make it possible for this ministry to continue in your area and on the Internet. contact us today and lend your prayerful and financial support. Bibleline’s address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Or visit Bibleline online and BibleLineMinistries.org.

Be sure to tune in to another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida.