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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. 776-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calbreyoftampa.org. 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.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Romans in chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. I enjoy the book of Romans. I’ll have to admit in my early days of my Christian life, I had a little problem with chapter six. Said a lot of things, I didn’t understand. And so I know that if you read Romans, you might have had the same problem. So I want to give you something that helps me to understand the Scriptures, just a little bit better.

I believe this will help you understand the difference between law and grace. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about law and grace. And after they get through, I’m not sure they understand anything they said. I just kind of sometimes get mixed up. Is a man saved by grace or is he saved by his works? And if he is saved by grace, then why did God give the law? Well, I’ve got an answer. Romans chapter 6, look in verse 1.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin? That grace may abound. God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer than they’re in? My question, huh, that we shall we, that are dead descend, living along the other end. From dead descend. Now how do I explain that? Sure seems pretty much alive in my life. Verse 3, no you’re not that so many of us as were baptized in the Jesus Christ was baptized unto his death.

Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like his Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin.

Now if we meet dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ been raised from the dead, die of no more. Death have no more dominion over us for in that he died. He died once on the sin and but in that he lived, he lived under God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed, on the sin, but alive under God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey in the lust thereof.

Neither ye or ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but you are under grace. What does that mean? What does that mean? It sounds like an awful lot. But when you get through, you don’t know if you are any more spiritually minded than you were when you first started it.

I struggle with verses sometime. And sometimes like sitting down and eating a meal and mashed potatoes is no problem, the beans and everything else. And then you get a piece of meat and then you get a piece of gristle and you can’t chew it and it lodges and you can’t swallow it. And some people just go ahead and die right there. When you’re studying the Bible and you come across a gristle, well, spit it out and eat some of the other stuff.

And after a while you’ll find out there’s a knife over here and there’s a fork over here and you go right and you can right-lead the word. And now I can understand it. Oh, that’s better. It tastes pretty good. You don’t have to get choked Well, how do you explain these verses? What does it really mean when it says you’re no longer under the law and We’re under grace. What does it mean to under grace? I? mean they’re nice phrases But what do you mean?

I Want to use an illustration that I think will help you to get the point I Wanted to find somebody that would be just perfect just perfect to be the first guy. And so I’m going to ask Chris over here if he’ll come up here and sit right there in that chair right there. Now I have not talked to you about this, have I? No. But look how… He dresses impeccable. I mean the guy is just one sharp dude.

And I’m going to do something for you today that nobody has done for you. I’m going to get you married. Now y’all just hold on. He says he’s 30 years old and he doesn’t have a girlfriend. Well, maybe he doesn’t have a wife. He might have a lot of girlfriends I don’t know about. Is there a girl here named Kyla? Kyla, where’s Kyla? Where? She’s in the back. What about Amanda? Is Amanda in here? Where? Amanda, get up here.

I just need an illustration. You don’t have to say anything. You don’t have to do anything. All you gotta do is just sit there and look pretty. That’s all you have to do. Now I want you to just say right now. Now this is a little lady she represents the nation of Israel. Israel is representative of all the people in the world. We’re all lost. We’re lost. Over here he represents the law. Now I want Don’t you take your Bible and turn all the way over there to the book of Exodus, the book of Exodus and chapter 19.

Exodus and chapter 19. And the Lord is talking to Moses and telling him what he did for the nation of Israel. It says in verse 3, and Moses went up unto God and the Lord called him out of the mountain saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles’ wings, brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be able to cure your people unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine.

You shall be an enemy, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shall speak unto the children of Israel. Moses came, called for the elders of the people, laid before them their faces, all their words, these words which the Lord commanded him, and all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord had spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. Sounds like a marriage if I’ve ever heard one.

Jehovah God takes Israel to be his wife. It says, now I’ve got some commandments. And if you’ll do what I tell you to do, and I’m going to make a covenant with you, boy, is it going to be great for you? And it says here in verse eight, and all the people answered together, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. I do, I do, married. So God has taken Israel to be his wife. She says, and all girls, whether they say it or not, want to get married.

She says, boy, if I could just find the perfect man, the perfect man. Remember, that’s how you got married. You thought you found the perfect man. Now you know better, but it’s too late. But if she could just find the perfect man, I will do anything you say. All you command I will do. But look over here. This is Mr. Law. Now, Mr. Law is a good man. Let me just kind of give you some of his descriptions. Take your Bible look here in the book of Romans in chapter seven.

Romans and chapter seven. And you’ll notice that it gives us a pretty good description of this fella and it says here in verse 12. Wherefore Mr. Law, I’m paraphrasing it just a little bit from yankiology. Wherefore Mr. Law is holy. Oh, look up here. He’s holy and Mr. Law is good and just. Ain’t nothing wrong with him. He’s holy, he’s good and he’s just. You couldn’t find a better man in all your life. Except right there. Now get this, look at verse 14.

For we know that Mr. Law is spirit, if you can’t beat that, he’s not only all of that, he’s spiritual. So that’s what you’re looking for to men, not even that. He’s tall, good looking and handsome. Got a lot of money, and the Bible says there’s nothing wrong with Mr. Law. All the good qualities you’d ever want doesn’t do anything wrong. She says, if I could just find the right man, I will. So she says, all that he says, I will do married.

Now she’s married to Mr. Law. And Mr. Law says, I want you to wash the dishes, make the bed, cut the grass, lays down about 10 things he wants her to do. So she tries and she does a good job. She washes the dishes and makes them sparkle in. She got those done. She cuts the grass, got that done, makes the bed, cleans the house. There’s all these wonderful things. He comes home and he looks at the dishes. There’s a spot on the dish.

Nothing gets past his eye. The grass is not all cut exactly the same height. There’s a wrinkle in the bed. There’s dust on the windowsill, and that’s not angel dust either. It didn’t matter what she did, he found fault with it. And all he could do was condemn her. She said, I’ll try harder tomorrow. So she gets more frustrated because the harder she tries, the worse it gets, and she cannot please the law. So at one time when she thought she was alright, now she found out she’s all wrong.

She never does anything right. Have you ever been married to a guy that he’s always right and you’re always wrong? wrong. Nobody like that here, huh? But he’s always right. And guess what? She’s always wrong. And it doesn’t matter how hard she tries, she keeps failing. So he has to break the news to her. Says, thou shalt die. She doesn’t want to die. The law says, the soul That sineth shall die. She has to die. Why? Because she’s not perfect.

Now, there’s no problem with Mr. Law. Because he is holy and he is just and he is good and he is spiritual. Nothing wrong with Mr. Law. Where’s the problem over here? I don’t mean that in a bad way. There’s the problem is that she represents all of us. We are all sinners. We have come short of Mr. Law’s perfection. We can’t fulfill everything he demands. We fail. And it doesn’t matter how hard you try, you can never change Mr.

Law’s mind. The wages of sin is death. So in all who sin, all must die. So the law has those 10 commandments. And those 10 commandments is his standard of righteousness. He doesn’t change. He’s always right. The problem is that we are weak in the flesh and we cannot fulfill the righteous perfect demands of the law. So the law must condemn us. And she goes to him and she says, can you show me just a little mercy? And Mr.

Law says, I don’t have mercy. I’m law. What about just a little grace? He said, I don’t have grace, I’m law. All I want is just a little wrong. I don’t have love, I’m law. What about forgiveness? I don’t give forgiveness, I’m law. Nobody seems to understand how bad it is for her. How bad it is for you, for me. We cannot get grace and mercy and love and kindness and forgiveness from the law. He’s law. It’s got to be right or else.

It’s the death penalty. The wages of sin is death. She has that has to be death. She says, I don’t want to die. So she begins to search the scriptures. And lo and behold, look there in Romans in chapter 7 verse 1. Says, no ye not brethren, for I speak to them that know the law. How that nugget this, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth. For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he what?

There’s the key. As long as he’s alive. The woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. as he lives. So her only way of getting free is wait for him to kick the bucket. And there’s probably people right here waiting for him to kick the bucket. So she’s waiting for him to kick the bucket so she can be free from him. Because she knows it’s a hopeless case. This is what you would call we’re incompatible. He’s always right.

She’s always wrong wrong and the two can never get together. It’s always going to be this way. She cannot satisfy the demands of the law. So all she has to do is wait for him to die. There, that’ll take care of that. Then she can start looking around. But we’ve got a problem. He is just and holy and good and spiritual, he can’t sin. If he can’t sin, he can’t die. You’re stuck, girl. See, she can’t get out of this.

How can you get free from the law? There isn’t a way to get free from the law. Look at the last part of that verse. Verse 2 again, for the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lived it. But if the husband be dead, She is loose from the law of her husband. Ta-da! But he won’t die. She has to die. She doesn’t want to die. Now little did she know that from the time she was born into this world, there was another man that’s loved her.

Loved her all her life, but she wouldn’t look at him. You know the difference between puppy love and the real thing? Puppy love is where you just look at each other. Oh. That’s where the puppy love turned into a dog’s life. You know I had a dog one time, he didn’t have any legs. Every night I took him out for a drag. You know what the dog said? Rough. Y’all get that after a while. They’re slow but you’re all right, you’re coming right along.

But you got to understand this so that it will help you in your Christian life. It will open up some of the scriptures and it’s like turn the light bulb on. So how can she get free from Mr. Law? There’s another guy that’s always loved her. And so I need another guy. What about there’s a guy named Arthur in here? There’s Arthur. Come on, dear brother, we’re going to get her out of this mess. This is the only hope she has.

It’s the only hope that any of us have, just have a seat over there. You don’t have to say anything, you don’t do anything, just look pretty. Now over here we have Mr. Love. She over here we had Mr. Law. There’s nothing wrong with him. But Mr. Love was, see, you got to watch these triangles. always get in trouble. But see, Mr. Love, he has always admired her and loved her, but see, she chose this man. She says, I can do this.

And so she thinks, by her works, she’ll be all right. See, this is how people are in their life. They think, I don’t really need Mr. Love. I can keep the law. I can earn my way to heaven. All I got to do is be good. the best I can. I go to church and I live a good life and I pray and I do all these good deeds. Surely I’ll make it. And the law says you have to be perfect and none of us are perfect.

Nobody’s perfect. I got on an airplane one time out there in Colorado and I was coming down here to see Hank speaking the college he had here. And on the way down here, this here at Girl Kimon, I might have told you this story but I get old. I can’t hardly remember sometime anymore. And I sit down on the plane there and I says Lord, I hope you bring me a victim. I mean a person so they set beside me so I can witness them.

And this woman came on, dark skin, and she was dressed with silk from the head to the foot. And as she walked, the silk just floated around it. And she walked down the aisle and I wondered where she was going to sit. Guess where she said, right beside me. So I began to talk to her. Real nice. And I asked her the question of planning to took off. We got up there, level off, you know. says, um, where are you from?

She says, pay route. I says, where? She says, pay route. I said, me, Peru. Yeah, pay route. I said, what are you doing in Denver? She says, my Raji. I said, what? She says, my Raji. I said, I thought, I didn’t say it to us. I thought that big old fact fellow that sits around contemplating this naval. And I says, she says, meet me, meet me like, love, my Raji. And I says, okay, so much for all of I said, where are you going to go in your day?

She said, I’ll meet go to heaven. I said, you’re going to go to heaven. She said, yeah, yeah. Great. Good. So how do you know? She said, me perfect. I said, what? She says, me perfect. I said, no, you’re not perfect. She said, yeah, I’m me perfect. No, I’ve never had anybody say they were perfect. She said, me perfect. No, no, you’re not perfect. Nah, yeah, me. I can’t get them saved. And I can get them lost. I got to get this girl lost.

So she would write something in her language and try to get a little bulk, and she’d write up some meaning, and she’d try to say it in my language, and she’d write a little bit, she’d write a little bit, and you’d write a little bit. So I finally said, hey, I said, you know perfect. Yeah? I said, no you’re not. I said, you ready? I says, then you make a mistakey? You turn the eraser over and you erasey. And on the plane she goes, KLEEE!

The steward is coming running from both directions on the plane. Well, I didn’t attack this girl. She wouldn’t talk to me the rest of the trip. all because I showed us you wasn’t perfect. I would think that would be the easiest thing in the world. Listen, I don’t care how good you are. You’re not perfect. To go to heaven, you understand? You gotta be perfect. Go in the church. How does that make you perfect? It doesn’t. It doesn’t. So just because you’re good on something doesn’t make you perfect as righteous as God.

So there is the law and the law condemns you and we’re all condemned. All the world is guilty before God because we’ve all sinned and come short of God’s perfection. That’s the way we are. And there is only one way, one way out of this mess. And that’s the way that God puts it right here in this book. Now, over here we have Mr. Love. Mr. Love comes and he was made of a woman, made under the law so that the law had jurisdiction over him.

And he kept the law perfectly so that Mr. Law couldn’t condemn him, couldn’t condemn him, because he was perfect. Jesus is Mr. Love, who came into the world and was born of a woman, made under the law, in due time, and fulfilled the law, he did not come to destroy the law, he came to fulfill the law. And by keeping the law, he had no claims upon him. So he makes a deal. I am willing, since I did not sin, I don’t have to die.

I will pay their debt. I am willing to die. See, all the law wants is a payment, a death payment, for sin. You see, she doesn’t have to stop her sins. She doesn’t have to quit sinning or turn from sin to be saved. She has to die for her sins. She has to die. What’s the wages in that she has to die? You see, you can’t get a new birth till you have the death of the old one. The old one has to die first before you can get the birth of the new one.

And she doesn’t want to die. So he satisfies the law. That’s the word we get propitiation. It means that God is satisfied with the payment Christ made. The law is satisfied with the payment Christ made because it was for all the sin of all the world at one time. So all the sins of everybody have already been paid. The law is satisfied, God is satisfied, and the last one that has to be satisfied with it is you. Will you believe that he did it for you?

And get this, even though she may think he’s better looking than him. She can’t commit herself to another man. As long as she’s bound to this man. She’s married to this man. She’s not free. He’s not dead. She’s not dead. She’s not free to marry that guy. I love that guy. That’s why you cannot tell a lost man. Will you commit your life to Christ in order to be saved? Because she can’t commit herself to another man. So she’s free from this man.

Simple. So preachers that are telling people that you got to commit your life to Christ, lordship, salvation, it’s totally impossible. Not possible. And you don’t have to turn from sin to be saved because you have to die for those. So he goes to him and dies under the law. Well smitten pays for all the sins of all the world. Comes back from the dead. She now has a choice.ffects. There is no other way. She either accepts that payment that he made or she goes to hell.

She has no other hope. There is no other possibilities. She cannot deliver herself. She cannot save herself. There’s nothing she can do is accept the payment he made for her. And when she accepts that payment, that death payment he made is put to her account and she is dead for the lost concern. Now let’s just pretend this little lady sitting right here, so that I realize I can’t save myself. I can’t deliver myself from the condemnation of the law, but I believe he did it for me.

She don’t have to love him for the payment that he put to her account. Nobody was saved because you love God. We’re saved because he loved us and paid for our sins. All that she has to do, all that she can do simply accept the payment he made. So when she accepts that death payment, this is what happens. Picture for a moment. Christ on the cross. When Christ was on that cross, he was not there for his sins. He was there for our sins.

So when I believe that he did it for me, the Bible says I was like taken and placed by the Holy Spirit of God and placed into the body of Christ. And on that cross, I died and I paid for my sins. I was buried and I came back again from the dead. Though I didn’t really do it, Christ did it for me. I was crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

What he did was put to your account. So the moment she accept him as her Savior, his death put to her account, she’s dead. The law can never condemn her again. Why can’t the law condemn her? Because the law can’t condemn a dead person. Once she has saved and freed from the condemnation of the law, he can never touch her again. We’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. Our 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 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. Just keep looking up.