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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the Internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. 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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want to show you what I believe the difference is and what we call grace, pure grace, cheap grace. I guess you could say that if there’s cheap grace, there’s expensive grace. But pure grace can either be cheap nor expensive. Grace is grace. It cannot be bought. Here in Titus in chapter two, I want you to look there in verse 11. In verse 11, it says, for the grace of God, that bring of salvation, have appeared to all men.

Now we’re talking about the salvation that we can have in Christ because of the message of grace. The grace of God brings salvation. The verse right before this, it talks about in verse 10, not polluting, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. See it’s one thing to trust Christ as Savior. There are other things that grace wants to teach us that aborns the doctrine of God. You and I are representatives in this world for Christ.

We are His ambassadors. So He says here in verse 12, teaching us that denying ungodliness and woolly lusts we should live soberly, and godly in this present world. So there’s a reason why God has left you and I in this present, evil, wicked, ungodly world. So that we could live righteous, godly, either way God wants us to be. And so the teachings of the Bible are various doctrinal truths doctrinal truths that helps you and I to adorn the teachings about God.

People will never, most of them, read the Bible. Many will never go to church. But you and I being left in the world is what they see. So we’re supposed to let the world know that we believe in Christ. We’ve trusted Him as our Savior. God is our Father and Because we’re God’s children We are the closest thing they’re ever going to see of God Isn’t that enough to scare you to death? Wouldn’t it be a shame that people reject the teachings of God because of our life?

So he says there’s a main thing that will help us the foundational truths and I’ve said for a long time that that the growth that you have as a Christian, the fruition on the tree, is got to have a good foundation. We have to have a good trunk. Our roots must go deep into the Word of God. When it makes a statement in the book of Corinthians about you and I building upon the foundation, well the foundation is not the wood, the hay, and the stubble.

The foundation was not the gold silver precious stones, the foundation is Christ. The foundation that you and I have is the security of the believer. You and I be incompetent of this very thing, having a sure foundation that I’ll hope is in Christ and then we can build. There’s many people trying to build their life, but they’re trying to build it according to the teachings of the Bible, but the foundation is mixed with sand. If this mix would sand, they’re never going to be really strong.

The wind is going to blow them and toss them to and fro, and they’re not going to be a strong Christian because the winds of adversity will root them out. I believe it is so important that our foundation vision. Be secure. And this is why your Christian life can never be stronger than the foundation that you come from. And this is why you have to have a strong teaching on the Gospel of Grace. Look now in chapter 3, chapter 3.

Look in verse 1. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to obey every good work. So you study the word so we’ll know how to live in this life and be prepared to do all the good things that God wants us to do in this life. Behind all of that is a driving force. And you may remember that I mentioned to you about being gospel driven. Well, it’s not just a figment of my imagination.

I believe that is the key. And as you read these scriptures that many deep Bible teachers spend hours breaking down every Greek word so they can really give you all the kernels of truth out of all of it. And by the time they get through it still will say no more than what the King James already has. But he makes a statement in verse two. These are things now that the grace of God is supposed to teach us in this life.

He says to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, gentle, showing all meekness unto all men, for we ourselves also were, that’s past tense, but now you’re not supposed to be like that. So does the word of God suggest that there should in a Christian’s life be a change? Yes. Does there have to be a change for me to be saved? No. And if I don’t change, does it mean that I’m not a child of God? No.

But the word of God expects us that if we study his word and learn the various teachings in the Bible, it will change us. Remember whenever he says in the book of Romans in chapter 12, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So you were not transformed by trusting Christ as your Savior. You were born into God’s family, but your life, the external part of your living, has never been transformed until you renew your mind because your actions, the choices that you make are in direct ratio to the caliber of your thought.

So whenever you study the word of God, then you can make better decisions and it can transform your life. So many people’s lives are not truly transformed right after salvation. Sometimes it takes years, but he makes a statement here In verse 3, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived. This is the description of a lost man. This is the way you were before you were enlightened, before you came to know Christ as your Savior. He says here, we were foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lust and pleasure living in malice and envy, hateful and hating with another.

That’s the way we were. Is that the way God wants us to be now? No. Well what is that basic truth that I’m supposed to have that’s supposed to revolutionize my life? Well he makes a statement here in verse 4, a little word that you should underline in verse four. Notice this word it is a big word but it says but after now something happened that’s the way you were this is the way you’re supposed to be after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared.

This is why if you’re not clear on the gospel, you cannot be clear on the Christian life. Because the teaching of the Christian life is only a reflection of what you learned about the gospel. And it refers to this as the founding, but after that the kindness and love of God our savior toward man appeared. Now what is he asking you and I to do? He says, you were deceptive, you were disobedient, you were foolish, you were filled with malice, you were filled with hatred, you did hate everybody.

And you were filled with faith, but something happened. But after that the grace of God appeared in this gospel story that we tell people is the kernel of truth. That really is the foundation upon which we make a multitude of decisions Because we weren’t kind We weren’t filled with love But where did we learn that from? because of the way that I was and God still loving me and the way that I was and God forgiving me and God demonstrating his love toward me I responded to that So now after we have trusted Christ as our Savior, what God did for me and what He did for you and given to you and I pure grace is that element of truth that teaches us all these other things.

That’s why He says they’re in verse 11 of chapter 2, for the grace of God that bring salvation have appeared to all men. The loving kindness of God, His love, His kindness. Otherwise, God has looked upon as a God of wrath and vengeance. But there’s also a lot of love and the love and the kindness that God showed to us in verse 12, teaching us. But if you are not clear on pure grace, you will not ever be clear on the Christian life because it is an overflow of your understanding of what Christ did on the cross for us.

Look in verse 5 now of chapter 3. Not of works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy He saved us. What God did for us after demonstrating up their inverse three the way we were and God still doing all this for us. There are people in the world that are still doing that to God and they will do it to you but you and I are supposed to demonstrate that which God demonstrated toward us. But look there now in verse six which talking about his mercy which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

That being justified in your underlying, these three words in your Bible, justified by His grace. We should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life because we have eternal life. We became heirs of God and joined heirs with Christ. And there’s a lot of things that God wants us to do. So He left all of us little children in this wicked world to manifest what God is like. And it’s difficult sometimes whenever someone wrongs us. So does the Bible teach us about the other aspects of the Christian life?

Yes, it does. I wrote some things down that I wanted to bring out to you. Because how many times I have been accused of preaching easy believe-ism, cheap grace. Look at Ephesians 2, 8, 9 very quickly. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8 and 9. These two verses, two of my favorite verses in the Bible, but notice what he says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast.

For example, I helped sitting over here and you have to see this in your mind’s eye. There is a a little voice sitting right there, brand new, $200,000. See it? Can you see it over here? It’s sitting right there. Isn’t it beautiful? Gorgeous. And let’s say I’m I’m going to give this thing, I’m going to give it to Tim. Two hundred thousand dollar Rolls Royce and I’m going to give it to Tim. Tim ain’t done anything to deserve it.

I’m just going to give it to him. And I say, Tim, this is what I’ve got and you can have it. And Tim says, look, I really appreciate that. And I can see that that’s a very valuable car. And I really appreciate it. I want to have a part in this. And here’s a nickel to show my appreciation. And I want to give you that.

I don’t want you to give it to me totally. Prey, I mean, I want to give you something, just something. Now, if I accepted that nickel as he gave me something forth, I can’t say I gave him that car. I can say I sold it to him and he can say he bought it, but he can’t say I gave it to him free of charge. That nickel just unbited. It’s undone. It’s no longer free. nickel made that $200,000 car worth a nickel because I can say I sold it for a nickel.

He can say I bought it for a nickel but it’s no longer free. This cheapened the value of the car. Christ gives us salvation by grace and yet there’s a multitude of people think they got to do something. The moment they try to do something to help God or have a part, now they have cheapened the gospel of grace. Then grace is no longer grace. Anything that a person does as payment for something, then if the payment is accepted, it will be worth the value of the payment that was made.

And if you gave him one work, one work, then my salvation was no longer free. He sold it to me for that one work. work. You bought it for that one work. That one work, I could say, was singing in the choir, preaching a message. I gave money to the missionaries. Whatever the work was is what my salvation now cost. It’s no longer free. It is no longer grace. Grace means without, without works, price unmerited you cannot add to it.

Cheap grace is no longer grace and I’ve talked to some preachers who accuse me. You preach that cheap grace, that easy believerism. Stop and think for a moment. Should salvation be something hard to believe are easy to believe. If I told you that this pin was a baby grand piano, that would be hard to believe. But if I told you that it was a pin, you just liable to believe that. That’s so easy to believe. It would be hard for you to believe that this is a baby grand piano.

No man has the right to change God’s message. Every preacher that believes it’s more than grace needs to spell it out. Let’s say for example, I have a magazine that got over there a while ago. Well, I got it last week. And in the message, the invitation, And it makes the statement in order to be saved. This is from a Baptist paper. You must turn from your sins, make Christ the Lord and Master of your life, and be willing to serve Him as Jesus and the Lord, and believe on Christ and receive the free gift of eternal life.

Do you see anything wrong with that? And this is copied by the millions of people around the world. Let’s just pretend for a moment. We’re going to pretend. If I am a preacher and I tell a person that you must turn from your sins in order to be saved, do you not think that it would be important for me to tell that person which ones, if you have to turn from sins to be saved?

Shouldn’t I have along with that a responsibility who list and not miss one of them because their eternal destination depends upon them turning from those sins. Do they have to turn from all of them? Just some of them. Which one? And I’ll bet you you will not find ten preachers at any given time that will agree on what they are. I’ll tell you that you have to turn from your sins to be saved. But now, will they agree on what sins?

And if that has to be all of them… Is it possible? I don’t even know a Christian who has yet turned from all of a sense. Little on a lost man. But if he has to, then my message in the gospel will not be complete unless I included exactly which ones they are. I must be correct. If I list five or if I list ten, it can’t be maybe, it must be exact. Find the verses in the Bible that says exactly which ones I must turn from.

But if you have to, don’t you believe they should have a chapter and verse that proves that, and that lists them. The other thing, for how long? If I must turn from sin to be saved, how long do I have to quit that sin before God does save me? Will He save me because at that moment I promised that I would? Or will He save me when I have quit the sin? Or will happens if I go back to do that sin?

After I quit it for a while. You see, these are all unknown variables that changes the whole thing. But that turning from a sin is I got to do something. That something has just annulled grace. A man cannot be saved both ways. For example, if I was to say this to you, have you ever received a free paycheck? What is a free paycheck? If it’s a paycheck, what is a paycheck for? A paycheck is supposed to be understood to mean that you did a certain amount of work and you’re being paid.

That’s why they call it a paycheck. It’s a value. You earned it. You worked for it. But would the word free paycheck be the same thing? The free will not let me have a paycheck. Paycheck will not let me have a free. Why? have it both ways. It’s impossible. What about a person being a loving murderer? I guess you could say I’m murdering you because I love you. But there might be something wrong with somebody understanding that. Generally a person who murders somebody is because of vengeance and hateful and revenge or something that’s wrong.

It’s not because of love. Love unknows the mirror. Mirror unknows the love. But you can’t have it both ways. Cheap grace, if it’s grace it can’t be cheap. No price to it. No value can add to it. Can’t take nothing away from it. Grace is grace. Let’s say for example, I just met this kid over here, his name’s Tim, norse. He’s 16 years old, right? He a very smart kid. He don’t have a girlfriend yet. Isn’t that wonderful? Very intelligent.

But I say now, bear is an honest thief. Anything wrong with those two words? He’s an honest thief. Well, he steals but he tells you that he did it. An honest thief. Well, if you steal, you’re not honest. If you’re honest, you’re not a thief. You can’t have it both ways. And that’s why there’s people who are saying you’re saved by grace, but then they butt it all over the place. They add to it and they take it away.

They got to do something. And just a little bit, I had a man tell me one time, you can’t tell me that it’s totally free. You’ve got to do something. That’s too easy. So easy. Why don’t you just believe it? It seems like the easier it is to understand the harder it is to believe because some people just can’t believe it. It’s got to be more than that. After I understood what the man was telling me, Mr. Jackson, I couldn’t believe it was free.

It blew my mind. Can you have a person who is a truthful liar, you want a truthful liar. All right, well, that tells the truth. You see, if he’s truthful, then you’re not supposed to be a liar. But if you’re a liar, then you’re not telling the truth. See, there’s words that people use that they don’t fit. Like the gospel, you can’t add grace and works together. Grace means it’s free. Works means you earn it. You understand why you cannot add grace and works together.

You can’t have your say by grace and you’ve got to go to church. Grace and you’ve got to change the life. Grace and you can’t do that because the one knows the other. As a child of God, we should live as godly as we possibly can, but not to get to heaven, but because we’re going there. Look up here. This hand represents you and me and the wallet represents sin. The Bible says that we all have sin on us.

And God says that He loves us, hates our sin. For you and out of paper, that sin is eternal separation from God in a place called hell. But God doesn’t want us to go to hell. He wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven. We have to be perfect, just as righteous as God, and nobody’s perfect. Now, heaven’s perfect, God is perfect, but we’re not. We can’t go to heaven because our sin keeps us out of heaven.

There’s no sin in her into heaven. So how can a man get into heaven? God says, not by his works. He cannot earn it, he can’t work, but he can’t buy it. There’s no reason for God to save this man, except God loves him. There’s nothing that he’s ever done that causes him to merit God’s wonderful mercy and grace. We will without hope, without strength. There’s nothing that we could have done. This end represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh.

Came into this world because he loves us. He hates our sin because it separates us from him. So Jesus Christ, who had no sinned in half the die, but He took our sins, all of them, paid for it in full on the cross. He did all the work, He gets all the glory. You and I did nothing. We can’t even help. All we can do as a poor wretched sinner is realize I could not save myself. I have nothing to offer.

I will simply accept the free gift of eternal life. And God said He’d put that payment to our account and we get to go to heaven on what He did. He did alone. He doesn’t want our help. He didn’t need our help. We couldn’t help. help. A man is saved by grace, not by works. Let’s pray, show him. Every headbound, every eye closed, no one looking around. If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, one I’d write now just between you and the Lord say, Lord, I know I’m a sin and I believe Christ died, paid for my sins and I’ll trust Him that they may have never ever died.

And if you’ll do that, God will save you and give you eternal life. I believe most of you here, maybe all of you have trusted Christ to save you, but in case someone hasn’t, would you right now. So yes, I believe Christ did that for me and I’ll trust in the take me to heaven when I die. 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.

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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. Life 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 Art. Friend, one day it will happen, the trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Hot 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.