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

You see, when you stand in the waters of the picture of Christ on the cross, when you go under the water is a picture of your burial. When you come up out of the water is a picture of your resurrection. So being baptized is not a picture of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because anybody can do that for him. But it’s a picture of your death, yourLibreal, your resurrection. Because I believe He did it for me.

And this is an outward picture of what I internally believe. I believe that Heifferently did that for me, that He died on that cross, that He was buried, that He came back from the dead. And so when you’re placed under the waters, a picture of your burial. And when you come up out of the waters, a picture of your resurrection. And in the book of Romans in chapter 6, it talks about that we have been brought from the dead that you and I, as a child of God, might walk in newness of life.

So baptism is a very important part of the Christian testimony. You see, and I’ll show you this later, the great commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, There’s also the great command. Now I want you to take your Bible look there in the book of Acts and chapter 16. Acts chapter 16. Paul and Silas been preaching and got into some trouble and so they were thrown in jail. So while they’re in jail midnight, they decided to start singing an amazing grace and a few songs.

And so while they were there singing in prison, there was a problem. There was a little like an earthquake. Verse |– there was a great earthquake. Here he says in verse 27, And the keeper of the prison, awaking out of sleep, seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself. Supposing that the prisoners had fled. But Paul cried out with a loud voice saying, Do thyself no harm? all here, then he called for a light and springing and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas.

And in verse 30 he says, and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? What do I have to do to be saved? This is a perfect chance for them to really say what you have to do. So he asked the question, he ought to get a decent answer. Look at the answer. It says in verse 31, and He said, you must be a member of Calvary Community Church, pay 50% well inflation, you know.

That’s not what He said. He says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn’t say anything else He had ever done to be saved. 49 years ago in a little living room, that’s all I did. I believed Christ died for me. If He died for me, then I don’t have to. If He paid for all my sins, then I don’t have to pay for them. He said, but what about all those bad things you’ve done? I don’t have to pay for them.

Well, that don’t sound right. I know it don’t. That’s grace. Grace is unmerited favor. God will save you and give you eternal life as a gift because he loves you that much. It’s not because you deserve it. You see, in the back of our minds, we still think that people deserve to go to heaven and there’s people that deserve to go to hell. I’ve got news for you. We all deserve to go to hell. None of us deserve to go to heaven.

And I don’t care how long you’ve been saved. You still don’t deserve to go to heaven. It was because of God’s grace. It’s a gift. It’s free. He loves us that much. He go to all the world and preach this good news to every individual. That’s somebody good news, but look at the last part of the verse. He says, and thine house. He means if your house believed, they can be saved because you can’t get there without being saved, without being, believing.

And then notice what he said. In verse 33, he took them the same hour of the night washed their stripes and was baptized. He and all his straight away. In other words, his whole family heard the gospel. His whole family believed and his whole family got baptized. Isn’t that good? You see, they didn’t get baptized to get saved. They got baptized because they were. They believed it. And he says, if you believe, what does hinder me from being baptized?

If you haven’t believed, you can’t get baptized. I don’t care, a preacher can dunk you every day of your life or the rest of your life, and it’s still not been baptized because you can only get baptized one time. And that’s when you really have trusted Christ your savior. I can say, well, I was baptized when I was eluted and I was 15 years old. I was sprinkled on, but I did not believe. Only a believer can be baptized.

So all these so-called baptism that people have had over the years, if you never trusted Christ as your Savior, you got wet, but you didn’t get baptized. And it wasn’t a picture of your death and your burial and your resurrection because his death and burial and resurrection is not put to your account till you believe he did it for you. So yes, after I trusted Christ as my Savior, I was baptized at the Northside Baptist Church. I baptized a lot of people over the years.

All kinds of strange things can happen. And in one year it was in the wintertime, and I had about, I don’t know, 10, 15 of them that I had to baptize. It was freezing outside. The church was nice and warm and toasty. But the deacons forgot to turn on the heater for the baptistry, just put the water in. Well, nobody knew it. So I got on my, change of clothes, I was going to the thing, all the people out there watching, I broke there, and I started down in it and when my foot hit that ice water, it was ice water.

And I realized it’s too late now, there’s no turning back. I went down into that water and the coal kept creeping up. If you ever touched the water in this little cold and you got to get in a little bit inch by inch, well if I’d have done that it would have took all day. So I went on in there like nothing was wrong and I stood there and I looked at the people and I said, they could not see me up close.

I was freezing and I looked up there and they had the ladies on one side and the guys were on the other side and saw I would take and rotate them, you know what? And so they came down there. When that girl, when her foot hit their water she goes, people thought this church has got the spirit. I said, this is just a little tippy. She said, she came down and I want to. Now, whenever I do it, I always take them back.

And then I bring them up. You know, when the ice cold, well, she got ready to take her breath of air. You know, I’m fixing to take her. But she thought I was going to go forward. So she got prepared to go. And I went, and so when I took her back to her, took her under the water, I could still hear her holler on the water. I didn’t keep her there long. It was the fastest baptist I ever did in my life.

And when I brought her up she came up glorishly. Everybody was like, they didn’t know we had cold water. They just thought, this is really, you know, the spirit’s moving. The spirit’s moving. Well, one girl, she found out about it, and then was Stephanie. She went and she got on her from clothes. She had on sweater, she had a hat on, she had a coat on, she was totally bundled up. And I thought water will never touch her.

You know, clothes weigh more when they’re wet. I almost didn’t get her up. But it’s still a great experience. It’s a great experience to know that I am having a picture taken of what I inwardly… and we believe. And then you know what? It’s a great thing to do because it’s the Word of God. It’s what God will. It’s the first step of obedience. Every child of God, if you trusted Christ as your Savior and you have not been baptized, I would not want to face my God been disobedient in that thing He called me to do.

He said, because this is a testimony to everybody else. I believe this and this is a picture of what God wants me to do. How were they baptized? Well some people believe it’s by sprinkling. Is this being baptized? Being baptized is your planted in the likeness of his death and you raise him up out of the water. Acts 8 and verse 38. And look what he says here. In Acts 8 verse 38 says, and he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both into the cup of water.

No, they went down into the water both Philip and the unique and he baptized him and When they were come up out of the water The Lord caught him away So they went down into the water and he baptized him now. I’ll be honest with you If this was acceptable, why did both of us got to go down in the water? But there’s preachers that tell their people this, and they believe that their child is safe because he’s been baptized.

And a child grows up thinking, well, I’ve been baptized as though that’s some kind of a security blanket that I can hold and trust in like it did something for me. It did absolutely nothing except give false hope to the parents and to the child. You will not find in the scriptures where anybody was baptized other than immersion. It’s not in there. The word poor, it’s mentioned once. Sprinkle mentioned four times and it has to deal with the blood three times in the book of Hebrews.

So yes, it’s in there. when he talked about being baptized talking about immersion and it is a picture of the death barrel in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Take your Bible and look there in the book of John chapter 3. In John chapter 3 and look there in verse 22, verse 22, he says, after these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea and there he carried with them and baptized. And John also was baptized in an anon near to Salem because there was much water there.

Why would you need a lot? Listen, I can baptize everybody in this church with just this cup. If that’s acceptable, if you could wash away your sins with just some water, why did Christ have to go to the cross and die and shed his blood. It’s a mockery of truth. Look what he says there in chapter 4 of John and look in verse 1, when therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not.

If you have to be baptized to be saved and Jesus baptized not, Jesus didn’t save anybody. His disciples baptized, but he didn’t baptize. And if you have to be baptized to be saved, then Jesus never saved anybody. Isn’t that ridiculous? I think you get the point. But what does it represent? The death, burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Look at other Scripture, read to me before I close. In the book of 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, and look at the Scripture.

How do you think God feels when people are saying things that God didn’t say? and ruin it and causing people to have a false hope. There’s denominations that say you can’t be saved if you don’t get baptized in water. Think about it for a moment. Did the thief on the cross? Christ said to him, today shall thou be with me in paradise. He didn’t get baptized. He couldn’t get down from the cross. He didn’t have to go to church.

He didn’t have to change anything, stop anything. But look what he says here in 1 Corinthians 1. I want you to look what he says in verse 15. The Apostle Paul is speaking here. In verse 14, I want you to look in verse 14. He says, I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Christmas and gay is. If you had to be baptized to be saved, it seemed like Paul would be saying just the opposite. I see it’s not true.

Look what he says in verse 15. And I baptized also the household of Staphonus. I know not whether I baptize any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. So preaching the gospel and being baptized, not therapize the same thing. Because I can preach the gospel and people can be saved, but being baptized, that’s a different issue altogether. So you can hear the gospel and be saved, because look what it says in verse 18.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perishfulness, but unto us which are saved is the power of God. So you can be saved by the preaching of the gospel, and baptism is not a part of it. It’s part of the command, but it doesn’t save the soul. Now look there in Matthew in chapter 28. This is what we call the great commission. Verse 18, and Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. So the great commission is a great command. They were commanded to go, to give the gospel and it commanded to baptize and if they were commanded to baptize then the people that trusted Christ’s Savior are commanded to be baptized. Yes or no? Can you see it? Clear as a bell.

So if God gave you a command and you don’t do it, is that obedience or disobedience? It is a step of obedience for a child of God. If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, it is an honor to be baptized. To knowing He died for me, and He was buried for me. And He came back out of the water, out of the grave, for me. And this is a picture of what I inwardly believe. And God says that He wants every one of His children to do it.

Now, if you don’t get baptized and you never tell me, I’ll never know. I won’t know it. I’ll treat you the same whether you were or you weren’t. And if you have trusted Christ as your Savior and you know you’re going to heaven when you die, being baptized in water is not going to help one eye odor your salvation. If you don’t, it’s not going to keep you out of heaven because going to heaven was a gift. That was free.

God loves you that much. But if God says, I want you to do this, but I’ve never argued with God. I don’t fight with God. Whatever God wants. I just do it. Just do it. Now, let me show you something. You hear this morning. And if you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, I want you to trust Him. I want you to understand it. Now this hand represent… You and me. The wallet represents all the bad things that we do.

It’s our sins. And the Bible says that God loves us, but He hates our sin. Because see, our sins have to be paid. Since we committed the sin, we have a debt. We have to pay for it. Wages means I earned the right to pay for it. I did it. The wages of sin is death, eternal separation from God. So everybody in this room has earned the right to go to hell, but not one person in this room has ever earned the right to go to heaven.

But we’ve all earned the right to be eternally separated from God because we’ve all sinned and consured of the perfection of God. You see, heaven is perfect. There’s no sin in heaven. And God is perfect, and heaven is perfect. is perfect. And because of sin, see we can’t get in. So God says that you cannot save yourself, you can’t get there by what you do. So all of our goodness, regardless of how good they may be, God says theywhile they’re filthy rags.

And that you’ll never be good enough to go to heaven because that’s a perfect place. And so that means you’d have to be perfect here in order to get there. a bear. And you don’t know anybody like that. So God says you cannot save yourself. Solopp athlet goaltDetect stop being bad, you’re going to start being goodizabeth. I’m going to get baptized Ben Baptist, yes, all those are good things, but they don’t get you to have them. There’s a death payment that God only accepts.

Now this hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh. Jesus Christ came into the world, see he’s perfect, he has no sin, so he doesn’t have to die. God can’t die. So he came into the world and God used Mary to prepare him a body in which he would live in. And in that body he would grow up and be tested. and everything you and I were tested in and failed. And he would obey perfectly all the rightistic demands of God’s law.

And in those 33 and a half years that he lived, he never sinned, never broke a commandment, pleased the Lord in all things. There was no fault in him. He did not have to die because of anything that he’s done. All of us, yes we do. We deserved that. He did not deserve to die. So because of his love for us, he could become a substitute for us. He would take our sins. And he took all the sin of all the world upon himself and died on the cross.

He was buried and came back from the dead. And God says the only thing you and I can do is to believe because you can’t be saved by your works. He said, but if you’ll trust this payment, he made. See when I say, will you accept the payment he made? Christ was the payment. You’re accepting Jesus Christ as your payment for your sin. And so by doing so, he gives to you as a free gift eternal life. you get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for you.

There’s no tricks to it, there’s no gimmick. Now, if I offered you my wallet and you accepted you’d have an empty wallet, if I offered you this microphone and you accepted you would have a microphone, well, if Jesus Christ came in here and offered you eternal life and you accepted what would you have? life. And if it’s eternal life, it would last forever. And if it lasts forever, and all you’re saying is, where would you go when you die?

The heaven. So can you know that you’re going to heaven before you die? Yes. I have known for 49 years. I’m a little bit older than that. 49 years I know I’m going to heaven when I die. Is it because I’m good? It’s not because I’m good. It’s because he’s good. He loved me. He paid for my sin. Well, he did the same thing for you. All, only thing I ever did to go to heaven was to trust Christ as my Savior.

I believe he did it for me. And God said, if you’ll be lead it with all your heart, not trusting anything else. You don’t trust you. You don’t trust the church. You don’t trust The preacher. I can’t get you there. You don’t trust your good deeds. You must trust Jesus Christ in him alone. And he said he would give you as a free gift ever lasting life. And if it’s everlasting life, how long would it last forever? And that lasts forever and all your sins are paid.

Where would you go when did I? You get to go to heaven whenever you die. Now, that’s a gift that’s free. Once you trust Christ as you’re saving, you believe that? It might be same day. It might be a week later. It might be a month later. It might be a year later. It might be ten years later. You might decide, I need to be baptized. I think it’s the heaven, but because you’re going there and it’s a step of obedience.

Don’t let the devil rob you of something that’s wonderful and sweet and precious because it’s an obedience that you know I did what my father wanted me to do. I’m his child. I am not ashamed. With his bow nice clothes and no one looking around, friend I have tried my dead level best to explain this critical issue as best I can. It grieves me deeply when there are so many that trust in their infant baptism as though it has something to do with saving them and getting them to heaven.

I know that there are a lot of people that say, well, I am going to heaven because I was baptized. Nobody is going to heaven because you were baptized. Did you trust Christ as your Savior? Did you believe he died on that cross that he paid for your sins? Will you trust him and him alone? Is your only hope of going to heaven? For in just a moment, I’m going to ask for a raise your hand. Raising your hand doesn’t save you.

But I’d like to know what I said made sense. I don’t know no way to do it except just by asking you. But I’m going to ask you in just a moment to raise your hand to let me know if you will accept Jesus Christ this morning as your Savior. I’m not asking you to join the church, not asking you for money, not asking you to change your life, not asking you to be a religious hypocrite, I’m asking you to be honest and say something like this to the Lord Lord, I’m a sinner.

I’m a sinner. I cannot save myself. And I hear and understand and believe with all my heart that Jesus Christ died on that cross and paid for my sins. That he was bearing came back again from the dead. And I believe he did it for me. And I will accept him right now as my only hope of going to heaven and pray to God, I’d like for you to pray for me. Would you just slip in it very quickly and put it right back down?

Is anyone involved? This one is saying, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior and I’d like you to pray for me. Just slip it up very quickly and put it right back down. If you’ve already trusted Christ to save and you don’t have to do it again. But if you’ve never done so, would you trust him? I’m not going to embarrass you, point you out. It’s over and done with you when you make that decision. God knows who you are.

Know that you’re trusting him. And we’re all before the Christ. If you have trust that Christ is your savior, talk to the Lord of God in bad times. Not because you have to, but because you want to. It’s a step of obedience. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll-free 1-800-576-3771.

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 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 10.30 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 Bible Live. 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 everyday, believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.