This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calbreak Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the Internet. Your regular prayers and mutha- and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us was told free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you’ll 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.

If the people in America want God to bless this nation, We still need to do right as a nation. We’re going to get the kind of government that we deserve. And the reason that we can accept the fact that they can go trillions of dollars in debt is because most Americans are already in debt. We have broken the biblical principles of finances and we break the laws of physiology where we don’t do right by our bodies. We don’t eat right.

We just do whatever we want to do and pop a pill. We’re on drugs. We’re pathetic. And we are a wicked nation. We’re tolerating things in this country. We should not tolerate. Because we want to be politically correct. We don’t want to offend nobody. We want to show how well we can get along with everybody. Lot. Remember lot? A believer who went to Sodom. Second Coronicals. And look there in chapter 7. Many people read this verse and many preachers do.

I have. And I will. But remember, Israel was under a theocracy. Means they were under God rule. God made a covenant with Israel. So now you’re talking about Solomon that built a temple. They’ve had a dedication service, and the Lord appears to Solomon. See there in verse 12, and the Lord appeared to Solomon by night. He said, I’ve heard your prayer. He says there in verse 13, if I shut up heaven, that there be no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, see God can do all of those things.

14th, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, pray, and seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then when I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land. This is not a promise to America. We are not in this verse. This is a covenant God made with Israel. If Israel will do this, this is what God will do. We can pray this and hope that God might spare our land. I’d like to see America stay free to the rapture.

But buddy, we’re on a slippery slope and we’re going fast. We’re becoming a very wicked nation. Every man is doing that which is right in his own eyes. I don’t see anything wrong with this. I don’t see anything wrong with that and that’s the problem they don’t see. So you see, you either see things from a divine perspective, gods, or a human perspective. Man, you either believe in what God said or humanity, humanism, how you see it. Has nothing to do with how God sees things.

Wickedness is what God calls wickedness. And he makes this statement in verse 17, As for me, if thou wilt before me, is David thy father wilt, talking to Solomon, and do according to that, I have commanded him, and shall observe my statute, my judgment, then, while I establish a throne of thy kingdom and so forth, and there shall not fail to have somebody rule, but Israel did. And there hasn’t been a ruler on that throne for over 2,000 years in Israel.

aaashim God does know what’s going on in nations. God knows what’s going on in this nation. God knows the hardships and all this coming down the road. But we have violated the principles of what God has given to His Word. Because people in churches and God’s people, if they fail to give to the Lord’s work, what they’re supposed to and take care of one another, okay, then thy pax is, they’re going to take it from you and they’re going to give you that just a little bit.

And they always take from you more than they want. will ever give back. And you know, a democracy is whenever you see that you can vote for yourself money out of a treasury. Then you’ll always vote for the person who promises to give you the most and because of greed, getting something. Take care of me because we’ve lost our trust in God. We’ll feel more comfortable if government will take care of us from that cradle to the grave. And it won’t matter as long as they take care of me, let my grandkids and all the rest of them, let them all go to hell then.”

Not a believe in that philosophy. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Mark chapter 1. The book of Mark in chapter 1, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Not all of them at one time just Mark right now. The book of Mark. John the Baptist came on the scene. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. And it says in verse 4, And John did baptize in the wilderness, preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

Verse 8, And I indeed have baptized you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. What was this baptism of repentance? If you believe the message that John the Baptist preached, then you were baptized in water. And it was a picture that when Christ came, He’ll baptize you with a holy ghost. So they were baptized in water because they looked forward to the baptism that Christ would give them. That’s what He said. Some people like to make it a lot more than that, where if you’re willing to turn from all of your sins and stop all your bad stuff, then God will save you.

That’s not what He said. And God will forgive you if you’re sin. That’s not what it said. help you understand what he said. Looked there in the book of Acts in chapter 19. Acts chapter 19, the apostle Paul had come through the coast there of Corinth and on down to Ephesus found certain disciples. And in verse 2 he said unto them, Have you received the Holy Ghost since she believed? They said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

And He said unto them, under what then were you baptized? Because then baptized in water is because you’re looking forward to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. That was before Christ died. After Christ has died, we’re baptized in water because we have been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ when you trust that Christ is your Savior. See how easy it is? But now look what He says in verse 3. And He said into them under what they were your baptizing.

They said, under John’s baptism, then said Paul, John barely baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus. So John the Baptist preached that a person to be baptized by him had to believe on Jesus Christ who was coming after him. True or not? It’s not hard, it’s not complicated. But people like to twist things and make it more complicated. And how to tell a lost man that he’s got to be worthy of salvation.

You’ve got to do this and this and this and this so that you’ll be good enough for God to save. Like you’re too bad that God can’t save you, but you’ve got to be good enough to him to save. No. Salvation is the gift of God. It’s not of works lest any man should boast.” Let me show you something. You’ve probably never seen this before. This hand represents you and me. This wallet represents sin. Now we all have sin on us.

You see, God says that He loves us. He hates our sin. And the wages of sin is death. Eternal separation from God. In hell. But He loves us and wants us to go to heaven. And to go to heaven, you have to be perfect as righteous as God. None of us are perfect. None of us are righteous. all sinners because of sin, we can’t get in. Everybody’s in the same boat. Nobody can save themselves. It’s not by your works.

You’ll never be going to, you don’t have to promise God you’ll quit your sins because when you go back to your sins, you’ll think, well, God never really may be saved me or he’s lost me now. That has nothing to do with it. Christ is going to take care of your sins because you can’t. This end represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh, came into the world because He loves us. Now He hates our sin because our sin separates us from Him.

So Christ, who had no sin, took hours. All of it and paid for it. See, that’s why we don’t have to pay for it. Say what? He did. He paid for how many of our sin, all of them came back from the dead and said that if we would believe He did it for us, He would put this payment to our account and we go to heaven on what it did for us. You see, many people think they can save themselves by their good work.

God says you need to repent. Change your mind. That is not true. Change your mind. Think differently. Reconsider. Look now in the book of Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13. Matthew, Mark, Luke. Luke chapter 13. And notice what he says here in verse two. People came to Jesus and they had thought that something, but it wasn’t true. What they thought was it true. So he says in verse two, and Jesus answered instead of them, suppose ye. Now look up here, suppose, think.

Has to deal with the way a man’s mind is. is. Just talking about what he’s thinking. And he says, suppose you that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things. I tell you, nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise, repent, change your mind, think that that’s not true. They were believing something that wasn’t true. The reason people are deceived today is because they believe something not true. You can listen to a man with flowery words, and it sounds so good and sounds so believable, but if it’s not truth, it’s still not truth.

So then he says in verse 4, or those 18, upon whom the power in Silom fell, slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem. I tell you, nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. There are people who died physically because of this. They died physically. He said, you think that they died because they were worse. He says, repent, change your mind. That’s not true. And yet most evangelists take these verses where it says, except you repent, you shall all like life pairs and then scare everybody half the death of you.

If you don’t stop all your sins, God’s going to send you to hell. That isn’t true. That’s taking it out of its context. You see, you don’t turn from sin to be saved from hell. Now if you want to be delivered from the chasting hand of God as a child of God, yes, you better watch your step. Because he makes the statement there in Timothy, he said, and it is the will of God that everyone who claims the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

So is it the will of God for his children to turn from sin? Yes it is, but not to be saved. But if you want the blessings of God upon your life, you better walk the walk and you better talk to talk. Or your heavenly Father’s going to beat the tar out of you. And I hope that you want the blessings of God and not the chasing hand of God. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew.

Matthew, in chapter 21, Matthew chapter 21. look how the Lord explains repentance. The reason this is so important because there’s so many people who are telling people they have to do something in order to be saved. And what they mean by that is that you’ve got to deserve to be saved by stopping certain sins in your life. And then if you go back and do those sins, that means you never really meant business. So you’ve got to start all over again.

That’s not the Bible. what he says in verse 28. It’s on page 10 and 29. But what? And here’s those two words. Think ye, you ought to underline those two words. A certain man had two sons. He came to the first and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and he says, I will not. Sound like your kid? I will not. But afterwards he did what? He repented and he went. He changed his mind and he went.

Then he says in verse 30, and he came to the second and said, I He answered and says, I go, sir, but he went not. He repented too. He didn’t go. So in verse 31, which of the two did the will of his father? They said in him the first, Jesus said in them, barely I send to you the publicans, tax collectors, and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him, not beleaved him, You didn’t believe the message.

But the publicans and the hardest believed him. And ye, when ye had seen it, repent, did not ask, or you didn’t repent, you didn’t change your mind. Now get this, that ye might, what? Believe him. You didn’t repent that you might believe. The reason you’re repent is to change your mind so that you’ll believe it. So the reason you can study the whole gospel of John, and you never find the word repent mention, because it uses the words he that believe it, and he that believeth not, he that believeth not, he that believeth not.

If you’re an unbeliever and then you believe, what did you do? Change your mind. You didn’t believe it and now you do believe it? You repented. I repented the day I trusted Christ as my Savior because I realized I cannot save myself by my works. And all I had to do was trust Christ as my Savior and He gives me the free gift of eternal life. It’s not something you earn. You cannot work for it. You cannot buy it.

Repent means to change your mind and see that you cannot save yourself by your works and you’ll put your trust in Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross for you. Turning your Bible to Acts chapter 2, the book of Acts and chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 and look in verse 38. This is on page 1151.

He says here in verse 38, then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. These are the people on the day of Pentecost that had crucified Christ. They crucified Him. They didn’t believe He was who He claimed to be. And so He says in verse 22, a ye man of Israel, here are these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man proved by God, proved to God, among you by miracles and signs and wonders, which God did by Him in the midst of you all, as ye yourselves also know, you know this.

You have taken by wicked hands have crucified and slain the next verse. So after they heard this message, then in verse 36, he says, therefore let all the house of Israel, look he’s talking to him, and there’s those two words, no assuredly, what you know that God hath made that same Jesus whom you have crucified both Lord and Christ. He is the Lord. He is the Christ. Well, what are we supposed to do? And it says, and they were pricked in their heart.

He says, Repent, change your mind. See that he was who he claimed to be. Jesus is God in the flesh, and he died on the cross and paid for the sins of the world. And by believing it, you can have as a free gift everlasting land, repent and be baptized. And that every time you see the word baptize, it does not mean in water. It means to be cleansed, to be wellmed, submerged. It means here simply and be baptized.

As I read the verse, then Peter said unto him, change your mind and be cleansed every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sin. And you have no problem because you take and study it in the context with what your understanding is of the word of repent. No man has ever turned from any sins in order to be saved. And I would venture to say 98% of all preachers teach it. Now I ain’t lying to you, I’m telling you the truth.

But it’s not in the book. It’s because we get sick and tired of sin that carelessness, the calluses of God’s people not serving God and doing right. So we got to doctor up a little bit and scare you half the death and maybe Todd it convinced you you’re not really saved because if you were really saved you wouldn’t live like that. So you never really meant business so you’re really not saved so we got to get you saved all over again.

I don’t believe it. I believe you can trust Christ as Savior just like you are. I think it’s a shame that God’s people don’t serve God and live right but I’m not going to change the gospel message in order to do it. The way Paul corrected the problem is he taught proper doctrine. That’s why you have the book of Romans in the book of 1 and 2 Corinthians, where the churches had problems, but they dealt with a doctorate. They didn’t say, that means you were not really saved.

You don’t find that in there, in the Scriptures. Take your Bible and turn to Acts 20. Acts 20. These things, even though you might not think are as important, it is important. It’s a heaven and hell issue. In Acts 20, look what he says here. He says, I have not kept anything back from you. verse 20. I want to get back to nothing that was profitable unto you. But I’ve showed you and I’ve taught you publicly for house to house, testifying both to the Jews and to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Change your mind. About God been a big old mean, wicked God who gets up every morning and looks over the banister of heaven, so I got it in for you, buddy. God is a good God, a loving God, and He’s done something about our sins. And all that you have to do, it’s all that you can do, is to accept the free gift of eternal life. You don’t change your life to get it. You don’t have to deserve it.

Grace means undeserved. It’s undeserved. You don’t deserve it. Advantevious. He said, you mean to tell me if I, all I got to do is trust Christ as my Savior in the hip. Give me turn life and I go to Him and I die. And I said, that’s right. He said, we don’t deserve that. I said, that’s the point. That’s what grace is. Grace means you don’t deserve it. It is by grace. Look in chapter 17 of the book of Acts, chapter 17.

Paul had preached on Mars He says, I want to talk to you about the unknown God. And he says, there’s a God that made everything. And he says, I want to talk to you about that one. Look down in verse 29, for as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not, and here’s that word, we ought not to think, that the Godhead is likened to gold or silver or stone or graven by art and man’s divisive.

the times of this ignorance, God winked at, but now commanded all men everywhere to repent. And here’s why, because he had to point it a day in which he will judge the world and righteousness by that man whom he hath to ordain. Talking about Jesus Christ, he’s going to judge the world by this one man. Did you or did you not? Did you trust him as your Savior? That’s the only thing that’s going to decide. Did you go to heaven or do you go to hell?

What did you do with Jesus Christ? He is who he claimed to be. And there’s a lot of people can think whatever they want. And there’s a lot of religions. And they’re deceived. But they think that. They need to repent, change your mind. If they don’t put their trust totally in Jesus Christ, they will spend an eternity separated from God in a literal fire burning hell. Now in the book of Hebrews, you won’t take time to look at it, but I just want to mention this to you.

In the book of Hebrews in chapter 6, it says, or shaking or leaving the first principles which be the oracles of God and the foundation of repentance from dead works. Repentance from dead works. You see, God says salvation is changing your mind about trusting in dead works to give you spiritual life. Works cannot produce eternal life. It is a gift of God. Eternal life is in a person, it’s in Christ. It’s not the result of good works being done.

Now, we live in difficult times. It is, I would say, a lot more difficult raising children today than it was years ago. When I was, I was saved when I was 18, but before I was saved, I had higher standards, I believe, than majority of Christians do today as the lost man. There was a certain amount of things that we consider to be right and wrong. And you knew what was right and what was wrong. You knew it was black and what was white.

Today everything’s becoming a dirty great. People are losing their way, losing their direction. You know what’s right and wrong anymore? Got to get back to the book, back to the Bible, and let God lead and guide us. Let what God say be right, and what God says is wrong, let that be wrong, and do right. I hope that you have trusted Christ as your Savior. If you have not, the only thing you need to do is to admit between you and God God, I’m a sinner.

Everybody else in here already knows it anyway. You ought to know you are a sinner and you cannot save yourself and you’ll trust Jesus Christ as your Savior. And God said if you’ll trust Him, He’ll give you a free gift, eternal life, and you’ll go to heaven whenever you die. As a child of God, there’s many things God wants us to do. There’s positive and there’s negative. There’s saying He doesn’t want us to do because it’ll bring a curse upon our life, but not talking about heaven and hell.

There’s things He wants us to do because it’ll be a blessing and God can bless you because God’s deal will bless right. Even if a lost man does right God will bless him. If a wicked man does wicked, thank God’s they’re going to chasten him. There’s a price to pay. We as a nation and as a church and as a family. And as an individual, keep your life clean. Do right. Live a holy life. Do right. Put your confidence in God and let him be the one that leads and guides you.

And God will richly bless you for it. If you want God to bless our nation, God doesn’t bless disobedience and rebellion. He doesn’t bless sin. So I would say as his people, put God for you. and honor Him and let God bless you. And if there’s enough of us, maybe God will bless our nation. Pray for those in place of leadership, whether they want to or not and pray that they’ll make wise decisions so that the rest of us can live in peace and in safety.

Let’s pray, shall we? Every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around. If you hear this morning and maybe you’ve never trusted Christ as your savior, I’m not gonna have you forward. I’m not going to embarrass you. I’m not going to have you stand up. I don’t want you to sign a card. You don’t have to do anything. Just talk to the Lord and say something simple like this, Lord, I don’t understand it all. Lord, I know I’m a sinner.

And I believe Christ died on that cross and paid for my sins. And right now, the best to know how I’m going to trust Him, to take me to heaven when I die. And friend, God said, if you’ll trust Him, He’ll save you and give eternal life. Would you do that? You need to repent, change your mind, and trust Christ. If you’ve never done it, would you do it right now? I’m gonna ask in just a moment to raise your hand.

Raising your hand doesn’t save you. It just lets me know that what I said made sense, and you say, yes, preacher, that made sense to me. And I wanna trust Christ as my savior. Would you just dip your hand very quickly and put it right back down, is anyone at all? I’m not gonna mock you and make fun of you, opinion against the wall or do anything to you. I just wanna know if what I said made sense to you, You say, yes, I’ll trust Christ as my Savior and I’d like for you to pray for me.

You that no Christ is your Savior, God bless you, sir. I appreciate that. Anyone else? Say, there’s no tricks to this. There’s no gimmicks to it. I’m not trying to get you to become a religious hypocrite, claiming to be something that you’re not. You that no Christ is your Savior. Are you playing in sin? Are you godly? Are you doing right? Are you asking God to chasten you? If there’s things in your life that you know that you’re doing that’s not right, correct it, change your mind, you’re not going to get away with it.

Change your mind, it will not be the best. Change your mind, it will not bring the blessings of God, but the chastening hand of God. If you want God to bless your church, then be a people that God can bless. Our Father, we thank you so much for these that indicated by an uplifted hand that they would trust your Savior by doing so they become your children for all eternity. That you’ll never cast a mountain, never lose them. We also pray Father, You will to be done in the lives of each family represented here.

And Father, we pray for our nation. Many decisions to be made, and they will be made. But Father, we pray that they’ll be made, that it’ll be right, and be a blessing to this people. And not a curse. We commit this day to You and ask Your blessings upon us in Christ’s name we pray. Amen. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, in 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 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again If you 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 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. broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, Calvary of Tampa.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 And soon, just keep looking up.