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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, 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 Bibleline to continue on the air. 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.

So look up there in verse 22. And he went through the cities and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then said one unto him, Lord, are there a few that be saved? Remember that statement. There will be few that will be saved. And he said of them, strive to enter in at the straight gate for many, many I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able. Some want to go. Some are trying to get in and they can’t go.

Why? Why? Because they didn’t live good enough. They weren’t faithful enough. They were a bad stored. What’s the reason? No. If they thought they would and maybe you’re here and you think you will, what’s the difference? Now I know. I don’t even hope for a thing. I know I will be there.” And the reason is because I’m so good. You know it’s not because I’m so good. We’ll leave that dog alone. Look what he says again in verse 23, are there a few that be saved?

And then he says in verse 25, when once the master of the house is risen up and have shut the door, and you begin to stand without and knock at the door, say, Lord, Lord, open unto us, and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not, when you are. Then shall you begin to say, we have eaten and drunk and died presents and thou have taught in our streets, but he shall say, I tell you, I know you not, when you are, depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity and they are not going to get to go in.

Now some will, some will, but when what you read more people will be outside than inside. Shouldn’t that be a logical conclusion? That’s a sensible understanding of what he’s talking about? Yeah. Take your Bible now and turn to the book of Matthew chapter 7. And notice some similarities because these are very, very important. I want you to look there now in Matthew chapter 7 and look in verse 24. Verse 24, therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them I will liken him into a wise man which built his house upon a rock.

The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock. Verse 26, and everyone that hearth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended and the floods came and the wind blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. So here you have something also, two kinds of people, two kinds of results.

There’s a house built upon the rock and a house built upon the sand. Some people were wise and some people are foolish. Now, we’re going to be coming back to you in just a second, but take your Bible and turn it out to Matthew 25. Matthew in in chapter 25. I bounce around for a reason because I want you to stay awake, and you stay awake when you turn into pages. Now here in Matthew chapter 25, there is another illustration of what he’s talking about, and people call this the 10 virgins.

All right? How many were Bye! How many were foolish? Five and five. Uh-huh. Five wise, five foolish. The house on the rock and the house on the sand. Wise, foolish. I think there’s a pattern here. I think it’s a way of peachy. Remember he told stories, illustrations, but they got to mean something. Now I don’t talk to manufacture up every little thing. thing that it means, or I think it could mean, but I believe there’s a point to the story.

And it’s all about be ye ready. When the ten virgins were going to go to the wedding and next thing they knew they heard the cry go out at midnight, the bridegroom cometh go you out to meet Him. And five were ready, five were not ready. On the sand or on the rock, it means whether you are ready or not ready. When Christ comes back, though that are ready, though that are not ready, it must be important for people to understand the seriousness of it, or Christ would not have had to come to die to keep us from going to this terrible wicked place.

We spoke about that last week. Now look up there in verse 1 of chapter 25, then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto 10 virgins which took their lambs and went forth to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise and five were foolish. It’s the same principle in the story that we just read in chapter 7 of the book of Matthew, the wise and the foolish. And then you get down here in verse 10 and while they went into by the bridegroom came and they that were ready went in and with him to the marriage the door was what?

Shut. And then in verse 11 and afterwards came also the other virgin, Saint Lord, opened to us, opened the door so we can get in. And in verse 12, and he answered and said unto them, Verily I send you, I know you not. That’s exactly what we just read over there in the book of Luke. I know you not. I know you not. I don’t know you. I don’t know you. In verse 13, What’s there for for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man coming.

You only have time to trust Christ as your Savior in this life. And you don’t know when you’re leaving. Think about it. You don’t know when you’re leaving. But only in this life do you have the chance, the opportunity to trust Christ as your Savior. You don’t get it afterwards. Be ye ready. Before you die, you should be ready. I took care of this situation 53 and a half years ago. I trusted Christ as my Savior. I’m good to go.

I’m ready. I know I’ve been ready. I know He can never say to me, I don’t know you because He’s the one that fathered me. I am his child. I believed on Christ. He saved me, gave me eternal life. I am his child. And in Book of Timothy, we make the statement, we have this security, this foundation. The Lord knoweth them that are his. When he says, I know you not. I don’t know you. I don’t know you. You mean you are not his child.

You don’t belong to him. Everyone born into the world is not a child of God. He is not your father unless you trusted him as your Savior and been born into his family. If you’re trying to earn your way to heaven by your good deed, your righteousness, and put any confidence, any trust in it, you’re not totally trusting Christ. You’re trusting in your works to to get you to heaven. You trust in your works. There is no salvation. It can’t be both ways.

Salvation is by grace for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourself. It is the gift of God not of works, lest any man should boast. You can’t add anything to what he did. None of your works has ever saved you and none of that you’re doing keeps you I’m saved. I’m saved by grace. I’m kept by grace. There is no other way. There is no other salvation.

Go back to the book of Matthew, chapter 7. You’ll notice, and I brought this out before, in verse 24 of chapter 7, where it says, therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, the word therefore is going back to what is written before it. And so when you go back and you look and see what did he talk about, and you’ll see those same words that he just mentioned in the book of Luke, and later on in the book of Matthew in chapter 25.

It all runs together. You see, in the beginning of Christ’s ministry, the Bible says that in John chapter 3, which is the beginning of his ministry, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. The whosoever believe it in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. God tells us something so simple, but people can’t believe it can be that easy. You can’t tell me all you have to do is just simply believe it. Well, if you won’t listen to me and you won’t listen to God, you’ll have to go to help because there is no other way.

It is that easy. It’s called it’s free and people can’t believe. It’s too great. I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to help. No, he doesn’t want your help. Now look what he says in verse 13. Enter ye in at the straight gate. This is like what we read a while ago. And then he says, for why does the gate, broad as the way that lead to destruction, many which be there, they go in there at many. And then notice the next verse, because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which a leader than the life.

Few. Remember when he says, well, if you be saved? And so he explains to them, there’s a day coming and the kingdom of heaven. See the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of God’s rule upon the earth. The kingdom of God is the spiritual ram when you trust Christ is Savior. Remember when he says in John chapter 3 that you must be born again. You cannot see the kingdom of God. Then he says you cannot enter into that kingdom of God unless you’re born again.

So the kingdom of God is that spiritual realm where we’re born into the God’s kingdom by the new birth. So those who have the new birth will also be in the so-called kingdom of God and he gonna have us in the kingdom of heaven upon the earth. So we get into the kingdom of heaven by being in the kingdom of God. We’re in his family. He is my Father. When he tried to explain it to the very he says the new birth, the kingdom of God, It’s within you.

It’s a new birth. It’s inside of you. But he was the king and he was setting up a kingdom upon the earth. So now notice what he says. He says, few there be that find it. And verse 21, not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” So, evidently what he’s saying in verse 22 was not the will of the Father in order to get into heaven.

He says, the only one who gets there is those who do the will of my Father. Well, then verse 22 says, but many will say to me in that day, Lord, O have we not prophesied in thy name? He didn’t tell you to prophesy in his name to go to heaven. And when He says, we have in thy name cast out devils, He didn’t tell you to cast out devils to go to heaven. And when it says, we have done many wonderful works, He didn’t tell anybody to do wonderful works to go to heaven.

None of that has anything to go into heaven. Where did that come from? It comes from those false teachers that you see there in verse 15 beware of false prophets. False prophets or false teachers they have a false message and they cause people to trust in their works. And that’s not what Christ said about how to have eternal life. How to go to heaven whenever we die. And if you’ll take your Bible and you look there in John chapter 6 verse 28 hold your place right here.

John chapter 6 I want you to see John chapter 6. And notice this wonderful, wonderful verse tucked the way over here. In John chapter 6, looking at verse 28, then said they unto Him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? That’s a good question. Verse 29, Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God, that ye, hmm, believe on Him whom he hath sinned. You mean that’s all? That’s it. You have never met a man that’s been saved because he lived a good life.

There is no such person. There’s not one in the Bible that was ever saved because he deserved to be saved because he lived a certain way. You see, I’ve had people make this statement. You can’t tell me that if a person trusts Christ’s Savior and God will save him and he can He’s going to be a blessing, and he’ll still go to heaven when he dies. Now of course they expect me to say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

And the only thing I can say is, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, praise God. Isn’t it amazing that we teach that you’re saved by grace? Which means unmerited favor, unmerited. You don’t merit it. So I can lie here, and I can be all this bad. do all these wicked, wicked things and I can come in here and say, oh, I’m so sorry, I did all these wrong things and I can trust Christ as my Savior and God will save me in spite of everything that I’ve done.

But grace won’t keep me saved if I continue to do it. Wait a minute, He can save me because I was that bad. He can save me by grace. I don’t deserve it, evidently. But now do I have to deserve to stay saved? If I have to deserve to stay saved, then it still comes back on to me. I’ve got to deserve it. So then I can’t say when I get to heaven, I will say by grace, I will say because I deserve to be saved.

I was not saved because I deserved it and I don’t stay saved because I deserve it. I am saved by grace, beginning to end. I may trust Christ as my Savior and not stay the same, but get worse. And I’m still going to heaven. That is salvation by grace. My works, how I live, have absolutely nothing to do with me going to heaven. I’m going to heaven because of what Christ did for me. Well, don’t you think you ought to serve the Lord?

Look at my life. You watch my life. I’m not the same person I used to be. I have to believe this because it’s the book. And I serve the Lord because I want to serve the Lord. I do believe that every child of God ought to live a life above reproach, that he ought to be a live a pure life and love his wife and love his kids and do right but not to get to heaven. Not to keep me good enough to go to heaven.

Now I was saved by grace and that will never change. God can never cast me out and never lose me. That’s because He loves me that much. This is why so many people won’t get in because they’re going to say, well, say by grace, but I’m going to keep myself saved by the way I live and now they’re going to trust their works. They never really trust the Lord for their salvation. They just think it’s a good starting point and God’s going to help me live good enough to make it now.

No, He is my Savior past, present, future. Now go back here to the book of Matthew in chapter 7. And you’ll notice that he had said this in the other scripture when he made that statement. She now in verse 22, many will say to me, in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? Thy name cast out devils, done many wonderful works. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me that work iniquity.

But look at all those good things it did, but it’s a work of iniquity for you to trust in your works and not in the work of Christ. That’s the greatest sin you’ll ever commit is not to believe on Jesus Christ. Believing on Christ means you believe who he was, he was the Lord. He was God in the flesh. He came into the world. He had no sin, didn’t have to die, but he died for you. Came back from the dead and said if you’ll believe that he did that for you, he did that for you.

Then you don’t try to earn your way to heaven because he did this to get you to heaven and He said I’ll give it to you free and because of that great love for me I I want to serve him for the rest of my life, but I’m not serving to pay him back. I can’t pay him back. I be seated therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God it means in view of what he has done for us. We are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is a reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world means you didn’t have to do it.

be a transform means your life wasn’t transform just because you got saved. It gave you eternal life and you’re born in the God’s family. What transforms your life is the applying of God’s Word to your life. My life has been transformed because I renewed my mind to think the way God thinks. God’s Word is God’s mind on paper. So when you trust Christ as your Savior, He gives you eternal life and you get to go to heaven whenever you’re dying.

And that’s why he says over and over again, those that do not believe, they will not believe it. Weeping and wailing and gnashing of peace when others are there and they’re not. And it’s not because they couldn’t be, just because they chose not to be. They would not do the one simple thing that the Lord told them. You know, in the garden, you realize that sometimes people don’t think about all the things Adam and Eve could do. All the trees from which they could eat, they concentrated on the one they couldn’t eat from.

You think about this. I’ve had people say, well, when they get saved, you can’t do this, this, this, and this, and this, and this. Yeah, I think it can. But see, I don’t do that because I don’t want to. I don’t do that because I don’t want to. See, God has helped change my want tooth the where I want to serve Him. And I want to please Him. People say, you mean you can’t do this and you can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t, Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

You ought to see what I can do. I can serve God now. I couldn’t do that before. I can go to church and please and bless God and him bless me by the reading of his word and telling people the best news in order. I can do a lot of things I couldn’t do before. But I do them now because I want to. And I got so much that I can do, I don’t worry about a few of those little things that don’t Mount the hill of Baines that are not a good for me anyway.

Anytime God says, don’t do that, he means that’s gonna hurt you. And he loves us and he doesn’t want you hurting yourself. The reason God says, thou shall not commit adultery is because it’s not good for you. It’ll hurt you and he loves you. That’s why you don’t do it. Look up here. This isn’t representing you and me. Now, all of this got to be put together and understand it now. He came to save us. This hand is you and me, the wallet, with all of our sins.

God says we have all sinned and to pay for sin is eternal separation from God. In hell. So we’re all condemned. Christ didn’t come to condemn us. We were already condemned. That’s in John 3 17. The Bible says that God loves us and wants us to go to heaven but because of sin we can’t get in. So we’ve got to do something about this. So people think if they do enough good things, it’ll cover up all these bad things they do.

See there? You can’t see them. Now it’s under there. And God doesn’t see our good work. He says, all of your good works are filthy rags. So we can’t save ourselves. So therefore it cannot be by works. This sin represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us, hates our sin, because our sin separates us from Him. So Jesus Christ took all the sin of all the world, paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead.

And He says the only thing anybody in the world has to do to go to heaven is to believe. That he did it for them. And if you’ll believe he did it for you, he puts the payment he made to your account. You have a payment for your sins. See, I can’t go to hell because I don’t have any sins to pay for. I have a payment for mine. They’re all paid. He did it for me. Right, because I’m so good.

No, because he loved me. I don’t deserve to go to heaven. I’m a dirty lousy thinking rotten sinner. I’ll go to hell and I know it. And you do too. But God loves us. And He wants us to go to heaven. So He went and paid for our sins. And the only asking, will you believe it? If you’ll believe it, you’ll be right there along with all the good guys. You’ll be there with all the Old Testament prophets. You’ll be there with Jesus.

You’ll be there with David and Joseph and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and they’ll come from the north to east to south and the west. We’ll all be together. But there’s some coming beyond the outside they can’t come. Weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and thrown into the furnace of fire. It didn’t have to be that way. That’s why he pleads over and over and over again. And he told the stories where they can understand it. They don’t listen to him.

Do you know we have people today that still can’t fathom this? And even after their toll, it’s free. I’ll never believe that. You make it too easy. Okay, well, I’ll try to make it hard. God does love us, pay for our sins. Would you believe he did it for you? How many of you in here have already believed it? Let me see him. All right, put it in time. They’re not going to heaven because they’re good. I know some of them.

It’s because they believed that when Christ died, he died for them. You can do this. Let’s pray, shall we? Every headbound, every eye closed, no one looking around. be cried and said this moment, no one looking around. What’d you write now? Just say, look, I don’t understand at all, but I believe that when Christ died, I believe He died and paid for my sins. And I don’t wanna be left out. I don’t want the weaving, the wailing, the gnashing of teeth.

I don’t wanna be thrown into a furnace of fire. I don’t want that. So right now, the best I know how I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. And for in God’s sake, if you’ll believe it, He will save you and give you eternal life. Would you trust Him? I pray that you will. God loves you so much. But I’m gonna ask you in just a moment to raise your hand, raise in your hand, doesn’t save you. It just lets me know that what I said made sense to you.

I’d like to have prayer for you. I really would. So we’ll hit by a nice close. Anyone else before we close? So yes, Richard, that made sense to me. And I will trust Christ as my Savior’s. My only hope of going to heaven would just slip it up very quickly, better up back down. Gene with it all. If you have already trusted Christ as your Savior, your God’s child, but chances are you know people that never understood, never trusted the Lord.

It’s a serious thing. Follow me. Thank you so much for this opportunity to teach your Word and pray your blessings upon those that are watching by Internet and those in the auditorium. Help us understand your Word and to take it to where we should believe it. and cautioning. You’ve been listening to another great message from Pastor Arnold, and we at Bibleline, thank you for tuning in. In appreciation to those who support this ministry financially, we would like to send to you the Dora Lake story.

It is a true story about the splitting of a church in Minnesota after a young preacher taught a gospel message that contradicted the theology of Calvinism, and can you guess who that young preacher was? Yes, it was Pastor Arnold. In this book, Pastor Arnold thoroughly discusses the dangers of the five points of Calvinism, and this book is offered to you as a free gift for your donation in any amount. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address as well.

We are pleased to be able to give a little something back to you for your financial support. So for this month, receive the Door Lake story with your financial contribution of any amount, And thank you for helping us reach the world with the Clear Gospel. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4 D-811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold.

Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. And we will be changed. up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.