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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bible on to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage.

We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family. I know I’m going to heaven when I die. Listen to what I said. I know I’m going to heaven when I die. I don’t hope I’m going. I know I’m going. And the reason that I know I’m going to heaven whenever I die is because it doesn’t depend on me.

If it did, I could not be sure. Because you see, my surety would be based upon my performance and I can’t guarantee how I’m going to perform. So far it’s not very good. And the future doesn’t look good. You see, I still get mad and upset and angry, and I would love to have my car turn into a tank. I have a bad, I guess attitude concerning road rage. I said this one time, I was driving down the road, And I came up behind this little old man in the car, in the car, in the car, and I thought, if you don’t have anywhere to go, you ought to get off the road.

I have a place to go. And I hate it when somebody just pokes along in front of me, don’t they know who I am? Don’t they realize my time is valuable to me? They don’t have anything to do. They don’t have anywhere to go. And they just, and I thought one of these days, I’m really gonna mess up. I’m gonna pull it behind somebody and I’m gonna lose it. And I’m gonna say things I shouldn’t say. I’ve never used the swear word in my life, but if you’ll spell it, I’ll sign it.

And I feel like just blowing the horn, scare him to death. Have him jump over a curb or something, and I thought, if I do that, just once I do that, I’m gonna pull alongside him, I’m gonna look at him, and there’s gonna be Dr. Polson looking at me. And I think you’ve got to get control of yourself. Now I’ve only had to fight that desire for about, you know, 60 years. I don’t see me improving. Now I’m going to try.

I’m going to try. But I’m so glad that my going to heaven does not depend upon my performance. Did I go to church enough? Did I give enough money? Did I pray enough? I mean, when it depends upon you, you can’t be sure. But if you go on what He said, you can be. Look what He says here in verse 6, but now happy obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also He is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon a better promise.

This promise is based upon His performance. The old one was based upon your performance. Now if you have to choose, would you rather go to heaven heaven on your performance or on his performance? His. Just make sense. Why? His is sure. Because he, when Jesus came, he lived a perfect life. He never sinned. They found no fault in him. He died and paid for all of my sins. And he said, if I would believe that he did it for me, he would save me.

His victory that he had by living a perfect life was like, he did all of this for me. In God’s eyes, it’s like Yankee was born and lived a perfect life. See, he gave me his righteousness. Thank you. So I did it. I didn’t really do it. But he said he would put his payment to my account. And he paid for all of my sins. So there was a better promise made because it’s based upon a better sacrifice. All of the sacrifices you could ever make by whatever you did.

And if you were Jewish and you had to make all those sacrifices, He says, the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. Never make you good enough. Couldn’t make you perfect. So the Bible says Jesus Christ came and He became the author of eternal salvation. The reason it can be eternal salvation, it has to be perfect. If it’s not perfect, it can’t be eternal. And Jesus is the author of eternal salvation or a perfect salvation. That’s why when we preach the gospel, the gospel has to make a man perfect, perfect, or it doesn’t do them any good.

You see, that day when I trusted Christ as my Savior, when I believed He died and paid for my sins, He put that payment to my account, and in God’s eyes, I was made perfect. My new birth, born of God, is perfect. Now, you just see my old flesh, you just see my old sinful nature. There’s another good looking 17-year-old teenager inside of this body struggling to get out. You see, when you trusted Christ as your Savior, your new birth is born of God.

If it’s born of God, God’s the Father. God’s the Father. He has no sinful nature. And if he has no sinful nature, your new birth can’t have a sinful nature. If it has no sinful nature, it can’t sin. If it can’t sin, it can’t die. That’s why once you become a child of God, you are his child for how long? Forever. That’s how you can know that you’re going to heaven when you die. Because, you see, you were saved based upon a better promise.

Christ promised that He would save you, even told Abraham this, justify you by faith alone. That’s the promise He would justify you, made you righteous by your faith in what Christ did for you. So it’s based upon something that’s better than you trying to trust yourself. Oh yeah, God will save you if you can keep the 10 commandments. Try it. You can’t do it. All you gotta do is live a perfect life. You can’t do it. You see sin is on the inside of you.

You have a sinful nature. So you sin, yes by nature, you sin by choice too. Even when you know what’s right, you still choose wrong, don’t you? When you know what to do, and the Bible says to him that knoweth to do right and do it that not to him it is sin, Everybody is rebellious. Everyone has a sinful nature. So the Bible tells us there’s really only two ways a man can try to save himself. He can save himself or Christ save him.

There is no other way. And God says the old covenant was based upon your performance. The new way is you trust Christ as your Savior. Which do you prefer? He said if you trust Him, he’s got something better for you because he in verse 6, a better covenant. It’s a promise that God made based upon what he said and what he will do. And that’s why he is the testator of a new contract. And let me just show you this just a little bit because I think it’s so important.

Look there in chapter 9, chapter 9 in Hebrews and look in verse 16, for who are a testament is or this new covenant, this contract, there must also of necessity be the death of a testator. In other words, if my brother down here, if he was going to die and leave me a million dollars, not yet, bro, it’s just an illustration. If he was to die and left me a million dollars, and I knew about it, and it’s in this wheel, now it’s no good until he dies.

Now I may ask If you want some pizza, take him out and get him any kind of fatening food he wants, sweet Twinkies. If there’s any left. Whatever it would take, I might want to hurry him up a little bit because I can’t get it until he dies. Well, Jesus Christ, his whole premises made upon, he has to die as the tester. He made out a will. He made out a will. And in his will, he says, This is no good unless I die because it’s all based upon his blood.

He has to shed his blood, give his life as a payment for our sins. So it’s no good unless he dies and sheds his blood and where there’s no shedding of blood. There’s no remission of sins. So he can’t keep his word if he doesn’t die. God made a promise to Abraham for 130 years before the law was ever given that he was going to justify the heathen through faith. And so therefore, Jesus Christ had to come as a Son of God to down the cross so that God the Father could keep His promise that He made to Abraham.

Isn’t it awesome? And so therefore when Christ died on the cross and paid for our sins, when He died, then the promise that He made, this covenant He made was whosoever would believe that I I did that for them. They can know they have eternal life and know it now. It is all based upon what he did for us. So you see, when I believe he did it for me, he puts the payment he made to my account. I’ve got a payment for all of my sins.

So therefore, I do not have to go to hell and pay for one of my sins. I can’t go to hell and pay for one of my sins. I ought to go to hell and pay for all of them. But I’m not going there. Why? Because I’m so good. No, it’s because he is so good. He paid for all of the sins of the world. So you see, it’s based upon a better covenant. It had to be something that was better than the law because the law could not make you perfect.

It could not make you good enough. It could make you good at all. Therefore, he had a better way. You trust me, he says. And I will give you as a free gift of everlasting life. and you can know that you’re going to heaven when you die. Look in chapter 9 and verse 23. Look in verse 23. Verse 23 says, it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these. But the heavenly things themselves would better sacrifices than these.

You see, God says there’s like a tabernacle in heaven. All the things that Moses built on the earth, the tabernacle, the temple of Solomon, there’s one in heaven. And he says that there has to be a better sacrifice. You see, the blood of bulls and goats is corrupted blood. But the blood of Jesus Christ was incorruptible blood. It means it’s a payment that lasts forever. So Jesus Christ coming back from the dead and having the scars in his hands and in his side and his feet That was the living proof.

He was a living receipt paid in full You go get some gas you get a receipt you buy some groceries you get a receipt Jesus is my receipt paid in full and How long will he live forever never to die again? So I have a living proof living receipt for all eternity and it can never be brought up to me again. You see it’s paid in full and that’s why these scriptures are so important because it talks about in the last part of verse 23, but the heavenly things themselves better sacrifices.

Why would you need a better sacrifice? Well it’s because of this. Look down in chapter 10 real quick. For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never, never, never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers their unto what? Can’t make you perfect. You see, so all of the good works that they did in the Old Testament, all the sacrifices that they made, can’t make you perfect.

You can go to church to your dying date, you can join 20 churches, you can give them millions dollars every week, but they’ll never make you perfect. You are still as sinner as the day when you started it. So you see, good works can’t make you anything better than what you are. You are born a sinner, you’ll live a sinner, you’ll die a sinner. But when you trust Christ as your Savior, He gives you eternal life, a new birth.

This new birth is only because of what Christ did for you. And that’s That’s why you and I are to trust Jesus Christ as our Savior. Now take your Bible and look there in the book of Hebrews chapter 10 verse 34. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 34. Because I know I’m going to heaven, I know I have eternal life. It can never be changed. God can’t alter it. He can’t come up to the conclusion. He says, you know, you are a lot worse than I thought.

I’m going to kick you out. He can’t do that. He’ll never leave me, never forsake me. never cashed me out. I’m going to heaven. Like it or not, here I come. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 34, it makes the statement here, For ye had compassion of me and my bonds, Put joyfully the spallen of your goods, knowing in heaven that you have in heaven A better and enduring substance. You’ve got something better in heaven. No, better than what? Better than what’s here.

Did you know that whatever is here in this world, it’s better in heaven. And the reason we serve the Lord and should serve the Lord is because God promised that if you serve Him, He’s going to reward you when you get to heaven. See, rewards are earned. Getting to heaven is free. So you see, you and I are supposed to trust Christ as our Savior. He gives us as a gift eternal life. We get to go to heaven whenever we die.

He did that for us. What I have when I get there, depends upon what I do for Him. So I do what I do because I know that when I get to heaven, I’ll have something better there than what I have here. I don’t mind having a car. You’ve got to get around. But when I get to heaven, I’m going to have a better car. I don’t know what a better car. But whatever it is, it’s going to be better.

I like the idea of just being able to think. You’re there, gone, disappear. You get up to heaven and says, there’s my brother. Are you gone? So you see, there’s all kinds of things that God has for God. It’s enduring something because everything in this world is going to pass away. Everything is going to pass away. But when you get to heaven, what you have will last for all eternity. Now isn’t that better? That’s better. That’s better than anything in this world.

But do you know that some of God’s children fall in love with the things of the world? and all they think about is what they can accumulate here. As though this is all there is, no this isn’t all there is. God doesn’t mind you having anything as long as you use that to lay up treasure in heaven where you don’t lose it. These can’t get it. Talk about security. You know people are worried today about the stock market. They can lose everything.

So, you’re going to anyway, it’s just a matter of when God’s word challenges us. When you read it and study it and believe that what he says is the truth, a more sure word, even uses this phrase, a more sure word of prophecy, that what God’s word says is so important for you and I to read and to understand. One other thing I wanted to mention to you is in Hebrews in chapter 11. Look down here in verse 39, there’s a promise that God had made to Abraham and that’s mentioned verse 17 where he said, by faith Abraham when he was tried offered a pisic and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son.

But Abraham already knew that it was a type of God the Father offering up his son. He says so, next verse. So you see, he knew about the payment Christ the Messiah was going to make. And he knew that the Messiah has to come to his seed, which was Isaac. Even though he was going to offer him up, he believed that God would raise him from the dead if he had to kill his own son. So he knew that.

They promised him a home not made with hands, a holy city, all in chapter 11. And they believed that. But he made the statement here. I want you to see that. Look in verse 35, women received their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. You see, a better resurrection means that you get to rule and reign with Christ. You can be resurrected. Everybody’s going to be resurrected if you trust the Christ of Savior.

But to rule and reign with Christ because of what you did, because of the sufferings you went through, because you knew. You look beyond the resurrection. You look beyond death. You look beyond this life and you believe that whatever sacrifices you make now, God is going to richly reward you when you get to heaven. So when you read the book of Revelation in chapter 20 when he makes the statement, he says, and there was the resurrection, the first resurrection, of which the second resurrection hath no power.

And they lived and rained with Christ for a thousand years. That’s that time upon the earth where you and I are going to rule and reign with Christ. And so there’s a better resurrection than the resurrection that comes at the end of the thousand years and they’re lost and it’s the second resurrection because it’s referring to those who have no power. There’s no salvation there. And they will stand at the Great White Throne judgment. So you see, you and I have so much that is so much better.

Everything that’s really important to me, most important to me hasn’t changed. God is still on the throne. His Word is still sure. The purpose of my life hasn’t changed. I still believe in so winning. I still believe that I’m going to suffer in this life. Actually, there’s a lot of things that it has infected how I live when I owe to Because I believe regardless of who’s the president and what’s going on in the country We still have our responsibility and we keep doing what God wants us to do But you see you and I have been privileged to live for something that’s so much better So much better go back here to this verse.

I want you to see this in chapter 10 of the book of Hebrews When he made that statement In verse one where he says, for the law have any shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices, which they offer year by year continually make the comers there unto perfect. And notice several words in here that I want you to see. The words that says can never, never means it’s impossible.

And then they did this year by year continually make the comer there unto perfect. People who go to church or give money, try to live a good life. Continually, every week they’re faithful, they do this faithfully all their life. They’ll never make them good enough to go to heaven. It won’t work. If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, you are not saved. You are not a child of God. You are not a Christian. You will not go to heaven and you will not collect $200.

Let me show you. I just made this up. I thought it would be a good idea. I want you to watch my hand real close. At no time will it ever leave my rest. Letting this hand represent you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. See, everybody does wrong. We do this because we have a sinful nature. This did not make us a sinner. We did this because we were a sinner. You see, just because you picked the apples off the tree doesn’t change it from being an apple tree.

It bears the apples because it’s an apple tree. We bear the sins because we are a sinner. You are a sinner. It means it comes from the Greek word ha-harmatano means to miss the mark of perfection. So all of us have missed the mark of perfection. We’ve all trespassed against a righteous holy God. We’ve broken His law. We stepped on a piece of property that says no trespassing and we did. So God says that for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in hell.

Now He loves us, wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven we have to be perfect as righteous as God. But he says, your works, however they may be, how many, cannot make the comer there into perfect. You can’t qualify. It’ll never be good enough. So you cannot save yourself. It is impossible. So God had to do something for us. Now God, evidently, if you can qualify, if righteousness is of the law, then righteousness should have been by the law, but the no man can.

This hand represent Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh. See, this is a better covenant. And this is what’s better about this. You and I couldn’t live good enough. Christ came into the world, had no sin, he couldn’t live good enough. He lived a perfect life. He never messed up one time. So he had victory over sin over the lust of the flesh, over the devil, over everything. He never failed. He had victory. When they put him on the cross and he died, he came back from the dead.

He had victory over the devil, sin, the grave. He was victorious. And he did that in my place. So he says that whenever I believed that he did it for me, he would put the payment that he made to my account, I go to heaven on what he did for me. See Christ has already paid for all the sins of the world. All he wants you to do is to believe it. Because this is sure. This is our. False hope.

This is sure hope. A joyful anticipation based upon the word of God that cannot lie, and there’s nobody greater. You have his word on it. You can trust him. How can you go wrong by trusting the only true and living God there is? So Jesus Christ loved us, paid for our sins, came back from the dead, and said, if you’ll believe he did it for you. He would give you as a free gift everlasting life and you get to go to heaven on what He did.

You didn’t earn it. You didn’t work for it. He says, for my grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. And when you believe that He did it for you, He says, these things have I written unto you that believe that you may know that you have eternal life. So can you know you have eternal life? Yes. I know I have eternal life. It’s not based upon how good I am.

It’s all based upon how good He is and what He did for me. But He did it for you. If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, maybe you heard about it all you like, but had you trusted the Lord. You see, there’s a God in heaven that knows your mind. See, I don’t have people stand up and come forward. Because whatever I would tell you down here, I can tell you right where you’re sitting. So if I can tell you right where you’re said, now you have to do is believe it.

Can’t you do that? That’s easy. The hard part Christ took care of. He loves you that much. Will you trust Him? Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around. If you hear this morning and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, maybe you’ve heard about it all your life, but you just never really trusted Him. I can assure you this, one day you’re going to die. And if you haven’t trusted the Lord, even though you heard about it, but you didn’t do it, you’re still lost.

You still was hoping in something that could not perform. You can’t live that perfect life. Don’t even try. Just say, Lord, I’m a sinner. I don’t understand it all because friend, nobody does. But Lord, I believe you died for me and I want to trust you as my Savior. And friend, if you’ll trust Him right now, I’d like to know it. I’m going to ask you to raise your hand just a moment. Raising your hand doesn’t save you. It just lets me know that what I said made sense to you.

And say, preach of that made sense to me. Now I’ll trust Christ as my Savior. Would you just very quickly slip your hand quickly and put it right back down? They want it all. Just slip it up but right back down. Not going to embarrass you. Not going to have you forward. Not going to point you out. You’re not promising to do something, stop anything. You’re just saying, Lord, I’m going to receive what you did I believe you did it for me.

I want to know I’m going to heaven when I die. You don’t want it all before we close. If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you’re God’s child and you’re going to heaven when you die. Rest in what He said, rest in what He did. Our Father, we thank You so much for this time together. We pray Your blessings upon each one. We pray Your blessed fellowship. In Christ name we pray, amen. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr.

Ralph Arnold. We pray that you are 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 tool free, 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bible line programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us.

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. broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.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, and 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.