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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 Christ through the radio and the Internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-800-800-800-800. hundred five seven six three seven seven one one line donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvary of Tampa dot o-r-g we pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want to tell you a story called the Dora Lake story. And it’s a little different, but hopefully it’ll be one you will you enjoy. At the same time learning some things about what the book has to say. I want to cover a couple things before I get to my story, because this is the foundation that you need to know. So turning your Bible to the book of Acts and chapter 13, the book of Acts and chapter 13. Acts 13 tells us a story a little bit where we read some wonderful information.

That gives us a picture of the law and grace. After I left Florida Bible College in 1968, I couldn’t wait to turn the world upside down. Man, I just knew that everybody out there was just waiting on me. I had four to five hoursophobicustainable day for four years straight of people just pumping the Bible into me. I was memorizing all these verses and they were cominggallery of my years. And there was a world out there waiting to see what Yankee was going to do.

Well, there’s a lot of FBC alumni at that time withForgeModLoader================================================================ablishment chaffing at the bits’,” hoping that Christ wouldn’t come back until we got a chance to do something. Now we expected the Lord to come at any time, any time, and we were just going to give it what we had. And well, that was 42 years ago. He hasn’t shown up yet, but I keep looking for Him every day. And I guess the Lord has designed it in such a way that you don’t know exactly when He’s coming, so you just keep working believing it might be today.

Well, anyway, something wonderful happened back then that I got a chance to see in reality the power of the gospel and what did that kind of set the tone for the rest of, I guess, of my life. Hearing the book of Acts in chapter 13, I want you to look at this real quick. I just want to show you some verses that simply says that the law cannot justify a man. The man cannot be justified by keeping the law.

Now you think, well everybody knows that, no they don’t. A lot of people don’t know that. Now if you come to church years, you know that. But not everybody comes to Calvary Community Church. So he says here in verse 38, be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, talking about Christ, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by Him, and your underlying is all that believe, are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Now if a man has to be justified as righteous as God to go to heaven, then keeping the law is not going to make7601a man justified. He can’t be keep by the law because no man can keep the law. But he does say, all that believe are justified from all things. So just by my faith in what Christ did for me, I can be justified just as if I had never sinned, forgiven for all of my sins. And it was not by keeping of the law.

Look in Romans in chapter three, just turn to your right to Romans and chapter three. You notice there in verse 20, Romans chapter 3. And verse 20, this is on 1194 in one of the church Bibles. But in verse 20 says, therefore a conclusion of what went before by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. Look at me just a moment. Here’s God, He’s perfect.

Us? were sinful. We have come short of the perfection of God. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, short of His perfection. So how can a man be just with God? Where God finds no fault in the man. So God says it’s not by the works of man, by your good deeds, you will never be just with God, just defied, where God can look you eyeball the eyeball and find no fault in you. Now that’s going to take some doing.

So Christ came into the world, died on the cross, paid for all of our sins, and when we accept Him as our Savior as the payment for our sins, in God’s eyes, all myinclude sins or paid when I trust Him as my Savior. 041 When I believe He did it for me, simulacra, he made to my come. And so there’s no sin that the Father sees in me. I am justified just as if I had never sinned. That’s why I can go to heaven.

I have been justified. I am not seeking to be justified, because if I’m seeking it means I don’t have it yet. And people who are trying to earn their way to heaven, well, they can’t say they know they’re going because they haven’t got there yet. So it depends on their works. Well, the Bible already told us that you’re not saved by your works, you’re saved by grace. So if you accept it as a gift, you can have it now and know that you’re justified and know that you’re going to heaven when you die.

So I have been justified by faith not by the deeds of the law. Look what he said in the life part of verse Pelicans, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. That’s how I know I’m a sinner. when it says thou shalt not, not did. So did you. Now look in Romans chapter three and verse 28. Verse 28, therefore we conclude, a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. That means without keeping the law.

Can’t get it any better than this. This is what it says. A man can be justified by faith just by believing something. Trust him not by my work. You say we have but believe in his work. No, it’s not So how do you know I knew he’s gonna ask the question Look there in verse five verse five of chapter four Looking verse five but to him that work it not But believe it on him that justify the ungolly his faith is kind of a righteousness So believe it on Christ is not at work Take your Bible and encount entreprene to “/the book of Romans 8.”

Romans 8ployecauseminist.unicipcellent horm launestern================================ Romans 8 and verse 3. Remember, there’s some things the law could not do. What law couldn’t save you. God never said the law could save you. And verse 3 says for what the law could not do. Couldn’t do. In that it was weak to the flesh, it means that the man, me, couldn’t keep the law. Nothing wrong with the law, but it can’t save me, unjust, because I can’t keep it. So the law cannot save me.

It can only condemn me. So he says that what the law could not do in that it was weak to the flesh, God, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, not sinful flesh, the likeness of it, and 727 condemns sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, but not by us. And then it talks about the Holy Spirit. Now take your Bible looking in Galatians in chapter 2. Just turn over there to the book of Galatians in chapter 2.

If there’s anything that’s clear in the Bible is that a man cannot save himself by the way he lives. Not by the deeds of the law, not by your works. It’s not by joining a church. It’s not by promising to be good and not gonna be bad anymore. Quitting your sins and all the… and all those things will not help get your little pinkies one inch closer to the pearly gates. In the book of Galatians in chapter 2, look in verse 16.

Awesome verse. Verse 16 says, 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. Isn’t that clear? that God says no man has ever been ever well be and is not ever going to be saved by his works.

And yet we have people that are teaching a man to say by his works. You see they change it a little bit and just say something simple like this. You have to turn from your sins to be saved. Think turning from your sins. That means that you have got to stop your sin in order to be saved. One guy describes it this way. If I’m walking this way, I’ve got to turn from my sin and go this way. That’s works for salvation.

Bible doesn’t teach that. God does not save him and because he stopped or turned from his sins or even was willing to. Well, are you willing to be made willing? Well, I’m not willing. Well, are you willing to be made willing. You know why most people sin? It’s fun. They like it. Otherwise, you wouldn’t do it. And it just, that dog won’t hunt. It just won’t get the job done. So when you tell a man, you must make Christ the Lord and the master of his life.

That means that he must be the master and I must be the servant. Do I have to serve Do I have to serve Christ to go to heaven? No, a thousand times. No! That’s work for salvation. That’s trying to keep the law. That’s trying to deserve it. If I have to quit my sins, nor for God to save me, it means that I must deserve to be saved. And if I have to promise God, I’m going to live a certain way than what I’m saying is I’ve got to deserve to be saved.

You don’t deserve to be saved. That’s why it says, by grace are you say, grace means you don’t deserve it. And yet they still teach you God and deserve to be saved. That’s not in the Bible. And so this is so good. It is so clear. Looking Galatians in chapter 3, look in verse 11. Galatians 3 verse 11. But that no man is justified by the law and the sight of God. It is evident for the just shall live by faith.

But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. No man. I wonder what that word no means. Looking in verse 21 Galatians chapter 3 verse 21, is the law against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, fairly righteousness should have been by the law. In the words of God had given a law that would save a man, then that’s the way he should have been.

But God never did. Find it. It’s not in the Bible. Everybody must accept Christ as their Savior. Well, there is no salvation. So this is what is taught in the Bible. Now look in Romans chapter 2. Go back to Romans now. Romans in chapter 2. We’re going to do this one more time. Just different verses, but those people that are seeking to be justified by the law, well what does it say about them? In Romans chapter 2, look in verse 25, well you got to be circumcised to be saved.

Keep the law. Verse 25, for circumcision truly, propheteth, if thou keep the law. But if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. In other words, if you don’t keep the law, circumcision does nothing for you. It does not save you. The only reason they had circumcision mentioned in the book of Romans in chapter 4 when they talked about Abraham, it was the seal of righteousness that they believed by faith. And when they don’t believe that way, circumcision had no value to it except for the man.

Of course, we don’t talk too much about circumcised in a woman. I guess they just can’t be saved. But the Bible is clear that a man cannot be saved by what he does. Look in Romans chapter 4 and verse 13. Romans chapter 4 and verse 13. For the promise that he should be the heir of the world, talk about Abraham was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law but through the righteousness of faith. That one day You and I are going to roll and reign with Christ.

We are the bride of Christ. We’re the church. God made promises that sent all the way on down the line, even to us, that all families of the earth would be blessed because of their faith in the Lord. And because of faith, we’re blessed with faithful Abraham. We get what he was told he would get. And that’s the righteousness of God put to our account. And it was done not by the law, but because God made a promise to Abraham 430 years before the law was ever given.

Look in Romans chapter 9 and verse 31. Romans chapter 9 and verse 31. Talking about Israel here, but Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness have not attained to the law of righteousness because in verse 34 verse 32 because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law and they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Now the stumbling stone is Christ. They stumbled over him and the law pointed to Christ so they rejected Christ and all they had was the law and they’re trying to save themselves by the law.

And so the veil was over their eyes and they could not see when they read the Old Testament. And as he says that that veil is still over their eyes until they put Christ in there and then all of a sudden they can see and understand. But not until then. I want to show you this very quick because it’s so good. It’s not part of my note, but it’s okay. Okay, Romans chapter 10, you’re right there. Look what he says in verse one, brethren, he says, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.

Well, I bear them record that God, that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Well, they’ve been ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves onto the righteousness of God. But Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that what? Belize. So he says they’re ignorant of God’s righteousness and they’re going about trying to establish their own righteousness. You see, if you knew that God would give you eternal life as a gift, you’d stop working for it.

Well, wouldn’t you? Why work for something you can’t get? It’s free. And God says, He doesn’t want the righteousness that man’s trying to send up. He wants you to accept the righteousness He sent down. Jesus Christ came down and the reason they have not submitted themselves onto the righteousness is God because they’re ignorant of it. They don’t see it. They don’t understand. So God has done a wonderful thing for us. Looking Galatians in chapter 2 and verse 21, Galatians in chapter 2 and verse 21, Galatians 2.21, this is an awesome verse, very good verse.

He says, I do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. It means that if a man could save himself by his works, Christ would not have had to die. He died in vain. If a man could save himself by his But since no man can save himself by his works, Christ died for every man. They didn’t say that. It means that no man can earn it. Not even you, not even me.

It doesn’t make any difference who it might be. It doesn’t make a difference if it’s the President of the United States or the Pope or Mother Teresa or Hoei-Houya. No man can save themselves by their good works. All of their good works, all of their good works, never helped save them. Had nothing to do with them going to heaven. Either they trust Christ as their only hope to get to heaven, or they don’t go to heaven. That’s how simple it is.

Well, what happened years ago? Well, I’d finished going to the camps, Indian camps in Oklahoma, in Arizona, and then Iowa, and then Minnesota, and I’m in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. So I got to meet a lot of different Indians from a lot of different tribes. Why not have been Colorado? And in Colorado, I got a job as an assistant pastor. Cause I was 26 years old, didn’t know much about how to do a church. Teenagers, I love teenagers. I love to work with the kids and camps and Indian kids.

But then all of a sudden I find myself a youth pastor. Working with some of the adults. And it’s easy for you to work with somebody your age and under, but a lot of these were older than me. And there was a guy there that would fly me around at different places so I could speak in different states. Because they had this Christian Business Men’s Association. So they liked my youth and I guess I was a little energetic. and they liked the way I talked because I was from Georgia and Out there, you know, I didn’t sign exactly like them.

I Don’t sign exactly like anybody but anyway the winter time came and I was asked if I would be the speaker at a hunter’s banquet and Walden Colorado place called Brown Ranch So they asked me if I’d come and speak I said sure They say, you only got a half an hour. That’s fine. So I drove a couple hours to get there. Of course, there’s a couple hours back. But I’m going to step for two or three days because I’m going to go to this Hunter’s Bank and they’re all up there these hundred and they’re out to shoot elk.

I’ve never seen an elk. I don’t even know if I have ever seen a picture of an elk. So while I’m there, they had the banquet and I was supposed to speak when everybody got to eating. So I had a half an hour and I spoke on how to know you have eternal life. How you can be positive for going to heaven when you die. I even pulled out my wallet and I did this little thing here with my wallet.

I said, this is you and me, this is sin. We all have sin on us. God says that he loves us. He hates our sin. And for us to pay for it is eternal separation from God and that you got to be perfect to go to heaven. We’re not perfect in God says you can’t earn your way to heaven. This hand represents Jesus Christ. God in the flesh came into the world because he loves us. Our sin because it separates us from him Christ took the sand Paper from the cross came back from the dead and said if you’ll believe he did it for you He’d put that payment he made to your account and you get to go to heaven or what he did for you And I said if you believe that you can know you have eternal life, so I went through that he explained it

I Gave the invitation And there were some people there that trust Christ to save you four or five not a lot but four or five of them trust the Lord So it was all over with and I’m standing there for you know minding my own business like I always do these Four guys come up to see me. They all had beards about Mennonites Minnights of Quakers or something So they came up to me and they says um We enjoyed what you had to say.

I don’t want thank you says um We’re from Minnesota It’s called Dora Lake way up north So we want to know if you’d come up there and and have a revival meeting for our church. I said, sure. I didn’t know where it was going to be. I said, sure, I’ll go. Anyway, I talked to them for a little bit, found out that they were hunters that had been up in Montana. They had made a vow that they’re not going to shave until they get their elk.

That’s why they had these beards. They hadn’t got anything yet. So anyway, they said, would you come up in the spring? this was in the bottle of total. I said sure I’ll go. Anyway, I thought I’ll never hear from him. And let me hold I did hear from him. About three months later they called me up and asked me, says, you remember us up here in Minnesota? I said, yes sir. Would you come up here? I said, yes I will.

So anyway, I asked the preacher there at the church where I was going. His name was Archie Yetter. He was the pastor of the church and he was now the president of the brought him up Bible college that was started by Clippon Nell Fowler that led Ray Stanford to the Lord. Amazing how I work. Anyway, I says, what do they believe? He says, well, he says they got a pretty good doctrinal statement. It was a Christian and missionary alliance church.

Says that their doctrine of Davis pretty good. He said, but you have to find out what the individual church believes in stand. Okay. So anyway, it was the pastor who wanted me to come up there. The other three guys I didn’t know that I just knew that one was a pastor. So it was in March and I go up here for this meeting. It’s winter conditions. I’m driving along the passage and picked me up and the snow banks are as high as the car.

And we’re bugging down a road and I couldn’t see no houses. I couldn’t even see roads. So we finally pulled into this little old church and he said, well we’re there. Oh boy, I says, where’s the people live? He says, they’re around. Now, there was no light in this town. I don’t think there was a cross road in this town. Just one road off the main road, and they lived on the side. So that Sunday morning, I got up there and I preached, and I preached on how you can know you have eternal life.

I only have one message. I just changed the title. I can’t think of anything better. So I always just… Hang with what works. Now, since you’ve heard me, I only got one sermon. I just keep changing the title. It’s all it is. It’s the same thing. So hang did the same thing if you’ll notice him. So we just use just verses to bring out the same thing. And so I preached in a couple people, trust the Lord. And after the servers over this year, one preacher stood up and I know he was a preacher at the time.

He says, I just want you to know, I disagree with what you’re teaching. He said, but you’re the guest speaker and I’m not going to come to the meetings because I don’t want to be in trouble. No conflict. So I just will not come to the meetings. I said, well, thank you. I thought that was nice of him. They let me know right up front.

He said I was a false prophet. Well, that afternoon he went and told everybody not to come to the meetings, that I’m a false prophet. They had never heard a false prophet before. That night the church was packed and get this seven preachers showed up and they had warned their people and they called them up, don’t go it, but they came because they wanted to see this false prophet. So made you how God can work. And so I had little questions and answers at the beginning before I was starting my service.

So as I opened up for questions and answers, these guys would ask these questions. about James chapter two. I said, what about James chapter two? I mean, I knew where they were going, but I’ve had enough youth meetings to know that James chapter two, ah, faith, well, that works as dead. So anyway, I just preach a sermon that I’ll go, you need to get that message. Anyway, I explained James chapter two and they would try to quote a verse of like, well, I just came out of Bible college, I finished the verse for them.

He says, somewhere in the Bible talks about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah blah blah. Then I tell them what it was found. I wasn’t trying to be smart. I’m just trying to help them out. And finally one guy stood up and says, I disagree with what you’re preaching to these people. And this one lady stood up and she looked over at them and she said, well, pastor blah blah blah. I want you to know I went to your church for years and I had no clue where I was going to go and I died.

And I heard this man this morning and it made more sense to me than anything I’ve ever heard. More than what I understood I’m to you for 10 years and I trusted Christ as my Savior and now I know I’m going to heaven when I die. She says, why don’t you sit on and shut up. 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.

Part two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. 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 1-800-576-3771. 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 home page.

If you’re 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. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold.

Friend, 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.