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Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on Haw. on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

During the book of Romans in chapterazard, the book of Romans is a foundational book. That’s why it’s so important to learn the truth that are in this book, especially because it explains things. It tells us about creation. It tells you about God. It tells you why man needs to be saved and how he saved and what he has and what God wants us to do. All these things in the book of Romans, so it’s an awesome book. The first question is, shall the unbelievers make the faithfulness of God of none effect?

Now look at in Romans chapter 3 and verse 3. Shall the unbelievers make the faithfulness of God of none effect? No. I want you to look at verse 4. God forbid. You get let God be true, but every man a liar. God’s word says that God always tells the truth, does the truth, lives the truth, he is truth. Christ says, I am the way the truth. And they’re like, that’s who he is. He’s truth. And that’s what we’ve said before.

Any man anywhere in the world that will follow truth, truth will always lead back to the source of truth, which is the Lord. And verse four, let God be true, every man a liar, as it is written that thou mightest be justified in thy sins and mightest overcome one thou art judged. But if our unrighteousness come in the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God, here’s another question. Question number two, is God unrighteous who take vengeance? No, he’s not unrighteous.

The answer, of course, is obvious. God is not unrighteous to take vengeance upon a person who violates his will. Now the word of God has been given to us. We can either obey it or disobey it. But if I disobey it, God isn’t unrighteous because people sit in judgment upon God. That’s why there’s people today who do not trust Christ as their Savior because they believe that God is unfair. God is unjust. How do they know? Because they seem things happen in life and they’ve seen people who do bad things seem like they’re happier.

They got peace. They got money. They get away with murder and they can do something wrong and seem like they never get away with it. That’s not fair. And if God set this up, then God isn’t fair. And after all I do just as much good as somebody else and they’re rich and I’m poor. That isn’t fair. And I live better than they do and everything they do turns to gold and everything I do turns to coal. Nothing works for me.

I have all these health problems and they don’t have any, that’s not fair. So God is unfair. God is unjust. And God shows respect to person. Therefore I don’t like God because I’ve seen the results. So there’s people who set in judgment of God. And if the lost people will do that, don’t you think that’s even possible for Christians to do that? Do Christians set in judgment upon God? Yes, they do. And I agree with God on this, but I don’t agree with God on this.

So you live your life based upon your judgment. Instead of a person simply saying, what does God want me to do? And then do that without question. Because everybody has to perceive life from their perspective. They don’t look at it from a divine perspective, only from the human perspective. Because that’s what you see. That’s what you touch and feel. So is God unrighteous to take vengeance? No. There’s people who sin against God. So is God wrong? Because He judges you.

Because your judgment is wrong. Look there in verse 6. In verse 6, he says, God forbid, how then shall God judge the world? God judging the world is because God has taken vengeance upon somebody who was wrong. Vengeance is always from God upon those who did wrong. And if God doesn’t do it, then God wouldn’t be just so the guilty has to pay, the guilty must pay. And so that’s why there’s going to be this judgment. How can God judge the world if he doesn’t judge people because of the wrong they did?

How would you judge the world? I used to think that God said in heaven, and I always pictured him with white hair, and the scales would put out there in front of him, and he’d put all your good works on one side, and all your bad ones on the other side, and whichever outweighed the other, well, that would determine which way you went, whether you went up or whether you went down, based upon how many good works did you have more good works than you had bad work, and so that would determine which way you went.

I thought that for years. I find that a lot of people think that, but that’s not true. And yet the Bible does tell us in the chapter 2 of Romans, those that do good go to heaven and those that don’t go to hell. But the conclusion of the whole matter was nobody has done good. There aren’t anybody good. If you could, great, but there isn’t anybody. He came to the conclusion all have sinned and come short of God’s profession.

So nobody has ever met the qualification. Nobody’s good enough. Nobody’s perfect. The next question, number four, Romans chapter three, look there in verse seven. The last part of verse seven says, why yet am I also judge as a sinner? Why would God judge me as a sinner? All right, let me ask you something. Are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? You say, well, I don’t know. How do I know I am or not? Well, are you perfect? Well, no, I’m not perfect.

Okay, you’re a sinner. See how easy that was? A sinner is somebody who misses the mark of perfection. Means that you’re not perfect. So if you’re not perfect, you have come short of perfection. And so you miss the mark, Harmatano in the great means to miss the mark. So you have sinned, I am a sinner. Or if God’s gonna judge us, He’s gonna judge us according to the sins that we’ve done. So the Bible teaches that there is a God in heaven, there is gonna be a judgment, God’s gonna take vengeance, And he’s not unrighteous to do so.

And why is God gonna judge me? Because I personally, I have sinned. Now I wrote three things down here, letter A, from a Jewish point of view, because God gave them the law and they broke the law. God said, I’m gonna judge them according to the law. Well, what about the Gentiles? Well, the Gentiles didn’t have the law. They didn’t have the Bible. So how’s God gonna judge them? He said, I’m gonna judge them according to their conscience, The reason he uses creation, the world that he made, as the evidence to convince them that there is an eternal God, and he says he has placed it within man that they know that they’ve done wrong.

So God says he’s going to convince the Jew that he’s broken the law, so he’s a sinner, and God gave the world and creation, and therefore man knows because God placed it within him, God’s going to use his conscience to prove that he’s guilty. How can you do that? Because anybody who ever accuses or excuses anyone or anything show signs of judgment. That means you can decide right from wrong. You can discern something. Have you ever noticed that little children, when they’re real small, they don’t reason.

They don’t reason. You don’t have to tell a little child real small why you’re doing what you do. You just tell them. But if they begin to get a little bit older, they’ll come out with a question called, W-H-Y. Why? Why? Go over there. Why? Time to go to bed. Why? Everything. Everything is why? Why? Why? I said so. But just because you said so, that’s not good enough. They want to know why. They want to think. They want to reason.

You had a reason. What is that reason? Why I have to go to bed? Why do I have to do my homework? Why do I have to go to school? Why do I have to take a bath? I’ll just get dirty again. Why do I have to make them bed? It just gets messed up again. Why do I gotta wear clothes or wash clothes because they just get dirty in? But you’re always asking why, because you’re learning the thing.

And then by the time a child gets to the, you know, 13, 14, 15, 16, they get all the answers. They have now judged everything that mom and dad says, whether it’s right or wrong. They have moved to that stage. They know everything. Don’t believe it? Just ask any teenager. They know everything. They can now judge whether mom and dad is right or wrong. And now they have got enough evidence backed up in their corner. And now they get to the place where they’re leaving.

Challenge your wisdom. I don’t agree with that. Well, I don’t see why I can’t. You just don’t love me. You can never let me do what I want to do. Never. You can let them do a thousand things, but if there’s one thing that you won’t let them do, you just never let me do. You never let me go. Everybody else does. See, those are judgment calls. Paul had been accused that if you teach that a man is saved by grace, you just teaching people a license to sin.

You’re trying to tell them you can just go out here and just live like the devil, and it doesn’t matter. many people have walked into this church and hear me preach a sermon on salvation by grace, that you cannot earn it, you can’t work for it, you can’t buy it, and when you’re saved, you have eternal life and God will never cast you out in evolution and they know it. They hear what I’m saying. They know a part of what I’m saying is that you can go out and live like you please and still go to heaven when you die.

And it’s true. There’s a price to pay, correct? But there’s a lot of other things that can happen to you. And there’s a lot of advantages to serving the Lord if a person will do so. So He makes this statement in verse 8, and not rather as it be slandrously reported and as some affirm that we say, let’s just go out here and sin all we want because it don’t make any difference. You’re going to go to heaven anyway.

And God paid for all my sins, so why not? They don’t hear God going to hook the car out of you. Maybe take you home before your time. And so there’s people who have slandered the gospel of grace. Have you ever heard me make this statement? If you love the Lord with all your heart, you can live like you please. You ever heard me say that? If you love the Lord with all your heart, you can live like you please.

Because if you love the Lord with all your heart, you’re gonna live to please who? The Lord. If you love Him. And if you don’t, God’s gonna have to chase Him you. In chapter three verse nine, he says, what then are we better than they? Who is better than who? Have you ever seen people who just know that they’re better than others? Let me ask you a question. Do you believe that the white folks are better than the black folks?

You’re not. The Indian isn’t better than the brown, and the brown’s not better than the white, and the black’s not better than anybody else. There is no difference. There is no racial difference in quality of people. none in God’s eyes. But we sometimes think we’re better than somebody else. No, we’re not. No, you’re not. And you can’t use the Bible to prove it. When it comes to individuals, in God’s eyes, He says, there’s no difference when you compare a person to perfection.

That’s our standard perfection. Who do you know that is? You’re all Aunt Susie. Well, God bless, dear Ol’ Aunt Susie, but I can tell you right now, she wasn’t perfect. My granny knows she wasn’t perfect. You might have loved her with all your heart and she’d give you the shirt off her back. But dear Ol’ Aunt Susie and grandma ain’t going to heaven because they give you the shirt off their back. And because they were nice and sweet and kind everybody, that doesn’t get you a little pinkies one inch closer to the pearly gates.

No, nobody is better than anybody. Have you ever heard me make this statement? Don’t look down your long fair, still, connosed other people thinking you’re like Kellogg’s cornflakes, just a little bit better. Look there in verse 10. As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. Last part of verse 11 says there is none that seeketh after God. Last part of verse 12, there is none that doeth good, no not one. That’s the conclusion of the whole matter of everybody in the whole world.

We’re all centered. Now look in the last part of verse 19. Verse 19, last part of verse 19 says that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before who? Before God. So this is what God says. Now the next question I want you to look at is chapter three and verse 27. Verse 27. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. Look at the question. If a man is saved only by believing where is boasting then?

If he is saved only by believing where is boasting? And the answer in verse 27 it is what’s that word excluded. It’s excluded. Why? Because it’s not by your work. If it was by your works then you could boast or brag in what you have done. Let me show you something before we get too much further down the road. Over there in verse 7, when it makes that statement, why am I also judged as a sinner? I want you to hold your place here, but turn there to the book of Galatians, the book of Galatians, because the question came up, well, how come the Jews are still called sinners?

They had the Bible. They’re not supposed to be like the Gentiles. They’re better. Well, they thought they were better, but they were not better. So in verse 15, the Apostle Paul in speaking to the great Apostle Peter, Says, we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles. In other words, we’re not sinners according to the rules of the laws of creation and conscience like the Gentiles are. We’re sinners because we have the law and we broke it.

So God can judge us by the law and prove that we’re sinners. And the Gentiles, well they’re sinners because they’ve rebelled against God for the same reason, but it was because of nature. the revelation that God had given to the Jews and the creation that God had given to the Gentiles. So the Jews had an advantage. But now, notice what it says in verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

So if mankind has never been saved, never done good works, never kept the law, never even obeyed their conscience or the light of some kind of creation or nature, they never obeyed. Well then how can a man be saved? How is he made righteous? So God says it’s not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Then He makes the statement of verse 17. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. In other words, you are not supposed to say, well, I’m trusting Christ as my Savior, but just in case I’m gonna still try to earn my salvation by my good deeds, then that means you’re seeking to be justified, and if you’re seeking something, you don’t have it. If you’re seeking to be justified by your works, means that you are not now justified by grace.

Because why are you trying to earn something you’re supposed to have already had. If I trusted Christ as my Savior and God saved me and justified me, declared me legally righteous, what am I trying to seek by my works? Am I saying that I’m not really saved then? And I still have yet to be saved, yet to be justified, yet to be saved? Then I have a know the purpose of Christ dying on the cross. What do I need him for if I’ve got to earn it?

So the question was, where is boasting? Have you ever heard of a verse? This is awesome verse. I’ll quote it for you. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God not of works list. Any man should boast. Why salvation free so that you can’t brag? You can’t say I’m going to heaven because look who I am. You are not righteous. You’re not perfect. You’re not good enough to get to heaven.

And so as a sinner, I believe he died on the cross, Christ, paid for my sins. I trust him. He gives me eternal life. I go to heaven on what he did for me Or who gets credit for that? He does. I can only brag on the Lord because I wasn’t saved by my works. I am not kept saved by my works. In verse 27, let’s look at first of all in verse 27, to declare I say at this time, his righteousness.

Or you don’t have any righteousness. In other words, you’re not good enough to go to heaven. So you accept Christ as your Savior. He gives you his righteousness. Now, if God gave you His righteousness, that would make you as righteous as who, as God, that He might be just and the justifier of Him which believe it in Jesus. Okay, that would refer to me. I believe in Jesus. So the Lord justifies me. But if He justifies me, He has to be just in how He does it.

No word God has to do right. God just cannot overlook the world and say, I forgive everybody. Forget it. about it. God can’t do that. His son had to pay for it because he God made a law. His law was thou shalt not. If thou do this, thou shalt die. God’s bound by his law. His law is part of his character. That’s the way God is. And God can override that. So whenever he says you have to die because of a law that’s been broken, only other way is if somebody pays that penalty and satisfies the law.

That’s what Christ did. He satisfied the law so that when God the Father justifies you, makes you righteous. It’s okay. All your sins are forgiven. You get to go to heaven free. Don’t cost you anything. That’s because I made somebody else pay for it. Christ paid for it. Gives you eternal life. verse 27, where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law of works? No, blah, blah, blah, blah, faith. No word because you accepted Christ as your savior.

You didn’t do any work. He did it for you. Therefore in verse 28, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by what? Faith without what? Without the deeds of the law. If you understand, You cannot save yourself by your works. When you trust Christ as your Savior, grace means grace means that God will give it to you without you earning it, without you deserving it. It just shows you how good he is, not how good you are. So God saves you and gives you as a free gift, what kind of life?

Eternal life, everlasting life. And how long does it last? Forever. And God says he’ll never cast you out in evolution. Now if God can save you by grace without any words, why can’t God keep you saved for the rest of your life without works? If you can be saved by grace, why can’t God who saved you without your works keep you saved without your work? Why can’t he do that? He can. why once you trust Him as your Savior you have eternal life and how long are you saved?

Forever. Because you were saved by grace and if He gave you the power to be saved, He can keep you saved all the way through. Now anyone who believes that you can be saved by grace, but if you do something wrong and you can lose it, don’t believe you were saved by grace. God said, He saves you by grace and He gives you eternal life and you’re going to heaven because of His power. Here’s you. You’re in His hand.

He saves you and His job is to take you where? To heaven. And He says He’ll never cast you out, never lose you. You’re in His hand and you are going to heaven when you die. And there’s nothing that you can ever do from that point to the only turn that could ever alter that. It can never be changed. the greatest news and all that’s what makes it good news, good news. Another question in verse 29, is God the God of just the Jews?

Or is there another God of the Gentiles? How many gods are there? One God. One God, one judge. One judge, one creator, one roller. There’s only one God. this one God the Bible says in verse 30, shall justify the circumcision, that’s the Jews by faith, and on circumcision that’s the Gentiles through faith. So Jews and Gentiles which represents everybody in the world all are saved the same way. How? by faith. In verse 31, do we then make void the law through faith?

In other words, if I just simply believe, what was the purpose of the law? Why did God give the law? Do I destroy it? I annul it? Did I set it aside? Why did God give the law? The law is for the knowledge of sin. It’s to let you know you’re a sinner and you cannot save yourself by your works. The first commandment, let’s, we’re gonna have to go further now. Now shout, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, body, soul, and strength.

You ever heard that one? And you don’t. So we’ve broken the law. Why did God give it? To show you how righteous you have to be and how unrighteous you really are. So the law serves its purpose is to convince you not to trust your good works to get you to heaven. And only by trusting Christ as your Savior, He gives you eternal life. Now let me give you this one verse in closing. Galatians 2 And verse 21, it says, I do not frustrate the grace of God.

For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Can you understand what that verse says? You just read it. Can you understand it? I do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. He died for nothing. If righteousness comes by the law, if you can earn your way to heaven by keeping the law, you wouldn’t need Christ and He didn’t have to die. And salvation wouldn’t be by grace.

Because if you had to earn it by keeping the law, grace means unmerited. It’s the opposite. Either you got to earn it or By grace is free. And if it’s free, then where does anybody get the right to tell people they have to live a certain way to get to heaven? This is you and me. This is sin. We all have sin upon us. God loves us. Keep that in mind. God loves us. It’s the sin that’s the problem.

It separates us from the Lord. And the Bible says we committed the sin we ought to pay for it as eternal separation from God. To go to heaven we have to be as righteous as God. No sin. Perfect. Nobody qualifies. We’re all in the same bone. Nobody’s any better than anybody else. This hand represents Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us. So what did He do? He took our sins and He paid for them.

Came back from the dead instead of we’ll believe He did it for us. He’d give us as a free gift everlasting life and we would go to heaven on what He did for us. That’s the best news in all the world. And when he saves you, he saves you from hell. I mean, you can’t go there. He gives you eternal life that lasts forever. Says he’ll never cast you out and never lose you. So then ever you die in this world, you go to heaven.

And you can know that now. That’s such a wonderful blessing to know. Despite everything else that goes on in this whole world, I’m glad I’m going to heaven when I die. Let’s pray, shall we? Every head bound, every eye closed. Nobody looking around. I’m not gonna have you forward. not going to embarrass you, don’t want anything from you. But I do want you to receive something. All if I offered you a million dollars today and you didn’t have a million dollars, wouldn’t that be nice?

If I offered it to you, would you accept it or reject it? If I totally offered it to you and it was totally free, no gimmicks, you could have it, walk out that door, you’d have a million dollars. I’d Romo to say not a one of you would turn it down. But I got something better for you. The Lord is standing in here today And he’s watching you and he knows what you need. He knows you need eternal life.

He says it’s free, it’s a gift. To live forever, to go to heaven when you die, best news in the world. He offers it to you as a gift. A gift is to be received. He doesn’t want you to do something. He just wants you to receive something. He don’t want you to promise anything. He just wants you to accept what he’s offering you. So right now in the kindness of this moment, if you’ve never done it before, would you say yes, I know I’m a sinner.

I believe Christ died on that cross, He paid for my sins, and I will trust Him to take me to heaven when I die. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free 1-800-576-37GoldMagikarp.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage. If rg you’re in the area, we welcome you to visitespie. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryuptampa.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon. And just keep looking up.