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Turn to the book of Matthew, chapter 7, Matthew and chapter 7. talking about believing and receiving. Why should any man ask God for anything if he doesn’t believe that God is going to hear or to answer or that he’s not going to receive anything? That is what faith is all about. Faith is believing God. And so he says you have not because you ask not. So there’s many things that we perhaps will not have in this life because we will fail to ask God for it.

I believe that it’s the will of God for us to have a lot of things, to enjoy things. I was reading in the book of Ecclesiastes earlier this morning, and it was kind of refreshing my mind about all the things of life and the vanity of life. That what’s the purpose? What’s the goal? What do you accomplish? Even if a man that works hard all his life makes much wealth and then when he dies he leads it to somebody else who didn’t work for it and he says all his vanity and vexation of spirit.

It kind of gives you the view of what it’s like to live life under the sun means as a lost man as a man that doesn’t know God but you and I are supposed to be a little different we know the Lord so our choices should be better. We should make greater decisions. And like I said the other night on Sunday night, the perfect will of God lies in the next decision that you make. Or I should say the out of the will of God can lie in the very next decision you make.

Because you see the will of God is the choices that you make. There is either a divine perspective or a human perspective. So as you look at life through the eyes of God, you will make better choices. If you look at it through the human eye as a man under the sun in this life as though God does not exist, then you’re going to see things differently, different perspective, different choices. So the reason we study the Bible is to know the difference, to know what are the advantages of making godly decisions.

So the Bible is the Word of God. He’s given it to us and says, I want you to ask. I want you to seek. I want you to knock. Because he said, I want you to find. I want you to receive. Then he used the illustration there in verse 11, if ye then be an evil, mean they be man as a sinner. He’s a lost man. Every man in the world. Know how to give good gifts unto your children.

How much more? And you are on the line those verses in your Bible those words. How much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him? So prayer is asking and receiving. So the Bible tells us many things about the divine promises of God and this is one of the reasons you studied the Bible so that you can discern what they are so that you can ask for more. And it’s not always asking for things in the world, the accumulation of wealth.

It also refers to the blessings of God upon you spiritually. Because you and I know, my purpose in life is not just to accumulate things in life because I’m not going to stay here forever. This is just temporary. I want things for eternity. Did you know that when you asked the Lord, Lord, I wish you would heal my body. I got this problem, this problem, this problem, and I want you to heal my body. So you expect God to heal your body.

You ask Him, didn’t you? Well, Lord, I need this and I need that. And so you can ask God for a lot of things. Do you know the answer to a lot of those things may not come just in this life. If you died today and you were in heaven, and that moment you’re in heaven, Do you have a new body? You don’t hurt anymore. All your needs are met. You have peace, joy, no pressures, no problems, no heartaches, no sinful nature.

See how God answered your prayer. But you said, well, I want that here. Well, in this life, we’re called to suffer. We suffer while we’re here. So the proper things to ask from God are the things to help you to go through the things you go through. To use it wisely to ask the Lord for the grace that you need to bear those things. We were discussing last Wednesday night and last Sunday night about the great Apostle Paul and what he went through in his Christian life.

God did not deliver him from all the things that happened to him. God let him go right through the middle of it. But at the end of it, there was always a lost man. There was a lost woman. There was somebody at the end where God was directed him to. And this is the same thing for you and for me. So I want you to take your notes there and you’ll look at the first part of them. Believing and receiving.

You’ll notice from the following simple salvation verses the relationship between the various forms of believing and having eternal life. Now you already know the Lord. You trust that Christ is your Savior. One of the greatest things you can do in this life is to desire that God would use you to be a blessing to other people. Now being a blessing to other people isn’t that you just made them happy, that you made them joyful, that you entertained, you kept them out of trouble or you gave them some money.

Those are wonderful things to do but to really be a blessing to people. You should want them to have the blessing that was placed upon Abraham. And anybody know what the blessing of Abraham is? That you may be blessed with faithful Abraham. To be blessed with faithful Abraham is to be justified by faith. So the one of the greatest blessings you can ever be to any person in the world is that message that you’ve been blessed to hear. So what I simply want you to do this morning is we’re not talking about you becoming grounded in the gospel.

You already know the gospel. But how that you might use simple verses that are already there to your advantage. See it’s one thing to have a knowledge of the Bible and then it’s another thing to have a working knowledge or your knowledge works for you. So that whenever you read the verse it’s not so much a matter of interpretation. It’s a matter of simply maybe just explaining what’s already there, very simply. Or letting a verse say what it says.

Many times I’ve led people to Lord by telling them what the verse doesn’t say. And sometimes I misquote scripture. But I want you to turn to John chapter 3 there in your Bible, the Gospel of John in chapter 3. You know that Jesus is talking to Nicodemus. As he talks to Nicodemus, he had asked the question about how a man is to be born again, not born again, born again. And he was telling him some things that he ought to know that he ought to understand, especially being a teacher himself, a leader.

And he makes a statement. He says they’re in verse 15, that whosoever believe it in him should not perish. generally we always reverse 16. But see look at verse 15. This is the verse that he’s using to explain to a very religious man on how to be born again because that was the question. How should a man be born when he is old? So Jesus is telling them. This is the answer to that hard difficult question. It’s a simple answer that most people do not know.

They don’t know the answer. And so he says verse 15, whosesoever, believe it in him, should not perish but have. And where has the word have you ought to underline it because it’s talking about you doing something and you receiving something. If you’ll do this you’ll get this. So as you read the Bible shouldn’t you expect to get something for what you did? He He says, if you do this, you have this. Well, I did that. Did you get this?

So you can claim something because you did what it took to get it. That is faith. Faith is taking God at His Word. How many times I’ve talked to individuals who said, oh, I trusted Christ as my Savior. Do you have eternal life? Well, I don’t know. Then they don’t understand. He says, if you believe this, you’ve got this. You say, well, I believe this, but I don’t know if I got this. He says, then you don’t believe this.

this, you don’t believe it. He said, if you believe it, you have it. You’ve got it. But now notice what he says in verse 14. He uses the illustration of the Old Testament because he could not say to Nicodemus. Nicodemus, let me show you John 3 16. How come? Why couldn’t he tell him? Let me show you John 3 16. It wasn’t written. All they had was the Old Testament. They didn’t have Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. None of the books in the New Testament.

All have was the old ten so he used the Old Testament stories to illustrate the truth. He said even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness and all they had to do that were bitten by the snake was look and be saved. That’s why I had to look and live. That’s all. He said and as Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up so that whosoever would look will live.

Pretty simple isn’t it? And that’s all all they had to do. How many people in the world had been bitten by the snake? Everybody. You see, Satan is the serpent and everybody had been bitten and his poison has been placed into the vein and we’re all dying because of the bite of Satan. And that’s why when you read this and you look for the simple things, don’t try to make the Bible more complex than it is harder to understand than what it is.

I have been in meetings where I’ve listened to preachers and they will take a verse like this and they will say, now in the Greek, this word means and he breaks it down and says in the past tense and this tense and that tense and by the time he spends 15 minutes on that one word when he gets all through, it simply says what it already says right here. What was all that for? Boy, that really impresses you. I know Hebrew and Greek.

I know a little Greek. He runs a restaurant down on the corner. Just go about what it already says. Already been interpreted. All we have to is read it and believe it. And so you don’t have to see it. You say, well, that’s the key to really knowing the Bible. Well, the people who crucified Christ, they spoke Greek. I didn’t make them wise. The Jewish people spoke Hebrew and Aramaic. That didn’t make them smarter just because they could speak the language.

Why are we so impressed today? If they could speak the language, that means you understand the Bible better. You don’t. You still got to believe what’s already written and is written here as simple and as clearly as possible can be. Look what he says now in verse 16. For God so loved the world. Isn’t that hard to understand? Look how complex that is. You can explain this even to a child. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, that whosoever believe it.

Whosoever is an open invitation to anybody. Whosoever believe it in Him should not perish. That means go to hell. But have, present tense, right now, have everlasting life. That means go to heaven. So you see whenever you show somebody these verses, just let the verse say what it does. You don’t really have to do much explaining. Just say, look, see what it says? Look what it says. And if you was accepting there and they’re explaining it to somebody. Pretending your mind you’re sitting at a kitchen table or on a couch and you’re sharing it with someone.

You got your Bible and you learn some salvation verses. There’ll be verses in the Bible you know they’re all over the place but you can’t find them you don’t know where they are but you know it’s in there somewhere but none of it works for you. It’s better to get a few salvation verses and learn how to explain them very well and then find a victim and explain it to them. And then you just have to take a look at this first.

Now look at them. You say, well, I don’t want to be no preacher. I’m not talking about you being a preacher, like behind a pulpit and hollering rant and raving. I’m just talking about to be explained to somebody. You don’t have any idea that they may come. You may be the only person that stands between this person and death and them here in the gospel. And there’s nobody else to get. And you’re the only one. Wouldn’t it be a shame if you don’t know what to say?

You freeze up because you don’t remember any verses. You know they’re in there but you don’t know where they are and you can’t explain it. So you study and you work, it’s work, but it’s the work of the Lord. It’s what God wants us to be able to do. Now in that last part of the verse, if you believe you have something, what do you have? You have everlasting life. So it’s believing and receiving. Look at the next verse.

Look in John 3, 36, John 3, 36. He that believed it on the sun, half everlasting life. If you believe, what do you have, ever lasting life? You believe it, you’ve got it. But look at the contrary part, the negative part. And he that believeth not the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. In your mind, though you may not tell a person how you’re going to hell, you need to understand that if they haven’t trusted Christ, they will.

Though you have to be careful how you tell somebody. You know, I’ve had people say, well, who made you to judge? I said, I’m not the judge, I can sure tell you what the judge said. I’ve read Judges reports before. I’ve read jury report. I mean, think the people who read cases. I’ve gone to law libraries. I’ve read a lot of them, but I’m not speaking for the John to say, this is what he said. This is the verdict here and this is why and so forth.

I’m just, this is what the judge said. This is what God said. So is it important or not important? It is important. And that’s why we need to understand them. So in John chapter four, look there in verse 10, you know the simple story. Jesus says he must needs to go through some Mary. Why? Because there was a woman there. And remember this, this woman had been married five times. She was now living with a man that was not her husband.

Did Jesus already know that? Yes. Can she be saved? Yes. Can anybody be saved? Yeah, doesn’t matter how bad they are, Regards a what they’ve done or what they’re doing God still loves them then they can still be saved You see Christ did not tell her you’ve got a Stop your sinning in order to be safe. He never even told her that he never said you have to give up the man You’re living with Now, I know a lot of preachers don’t like that, but you find it Do you read the whole story and see if you find it in there?

It’s not there But what he did say was this look in verse 10 Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, you ought to underline the words gift of God. It is the gift of God. He said, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that speaketh unto you, give me to drink and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou would have asked you ought to underline the word ask and he would have and you ought to underline the word given.

You ask, you can receive. You ask and he’ll give. That’s all she had to do. Women, women, well what about this man you’re living with? What does it say? Well, the nut she ever did anything about that. I don’t know if she did or not. Because it wasn’t an issue. You see, Christ’s death on the cross paid for all the sins of the world. Is it the will of God that a person lived a godly life? Well, of course.

Is it God’s will for you and I to live a godly life? Yes. Shall we turn from all those wicked bad things that we do? Of course. But not to be saved. Not to get this eternal life that he’s talking about. And you need to know simple verses that says it so clearly. And as he says right here, if thou knewest the gift of God, who it is that safter thee give me to dream, you would have asked of him.

He would have. He would have all you had to do is ask and she could have had what eternal life it was only by the asking asking is simply by believing it reason you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ because of what you can get remember where’s the lost man going when he dies the hell all right you don’t want to go to hell you You want to go to heaven and Christ says, if you simply believe, I won’t go there, I will go there.

And just by believing it, that’s the form of asking. Prayer is asking and believing. And so you believe it, you receive something. Now get what else you say. Look there in verse 14. 14. But whosoever drinketh of the water that underlined these four words, I shall give him. I shall give. Whosoever drinketh, I shall, it’s just another way of explaining the gospel. It’s just simply believing, receiving. Because she was at the well and she was drinking water from the well.

And he simply used a simple illustration. If you drink the water that’s in this well, you shall thirst again. Means you’re going to have to have some more. That’s the religions of the world. Because they can get thirsty, quench your thirst, and then get thirsty again, quench your thirst, get thirsty. He said, I got some more. water. When you drink this water, you’ll never thirst again. Means you don’t have to do it again. I wonder what that refers to.

It’s a reference to your eternal salvation that once you trust Christ as Savior, you don’t have to get saved again and again and again because it’s forever. This is a wonderful thing, a great verse to use with an individual and that if you drink it, it, you will receive something. It means if you believe, you take it in and it will do what it’s supposed to do. Look in John chapter 5 verse 24. Chapter 5 and verse 24. Now I listed all these salvation verses down through here because I wanted you to have a copy of them.

I want you to start memorizing not all the verses in the Bible, not all the books in the Bible. Isn’t it nice to know all the books in the Bible? So whenever I say turn to this book, you can go right to that book. But this is better than knowing the books of the Bible. I’d rather you know a few salvation verses that you might be able to really use to explain to somebody because you can always say, now look at this verse.

Look at this verse. Look what God says and it’ll help you tremendously. Look in John now in chapter 5. John chapter fire. In verse 24, he says, Verily, Verily, that means truthfully, truthfully, God cannot lie. I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believe it on him that sent me, and you ought to underline this, hat everlasting life. If you have something, and you didn’t have it before, and you got it now, something had to bring it.

So when you were an Unbeliever you did not have eternal life now that you are a believer you should be able to say I have eternal life When you believe it you got it and no reason you got it is because he gave it and no reason he gave it is because you believed it South simple God is remember these are the verses and the wisdom of the greatest of all time There’s nobody greater than God and look how simple God explains it Now you tell me how come majority of people have to make it so hard and complicated for people to understand?

Did he not say that you must come even as a little child, childlike faith? That that means that even a little child can understand what you’re talking about. You don’t have to be hard and complicated and so deep. people go down so deep and stay down so long and come up so dry. But this is a fountain of living water and get the last part of that. Half everlasting life shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death and the life.

Let me ask you the question. When do you receive this eternal life? If you get saved and you You think, a lot of times people say, well let’s don’t worry about this eternal life business. Let’s just get him saved. Okay, you got him saved. When did he get this eternal life? When is he supposed to find out he has eternal life? When do you think God wants a man to know when he has eternal life? Ten years down the road?

Twenty years down the road? Next week? He should have lost man who accepts Christ supposed to know when he has eternal life. Shouldn’t him trust in Christ be the reason, or want in eternal life be the reason he trusts Christ? Why would a man trust Christ if there isn’t a place to shun and a place to go to? What would be his motive? There is no hell. And I don’t know where I’m going without I. Why trust the Lord?

For what? What’s that doing? So being saved means something, means I’m saved from something to something. I can’t be saved from something unless I’m saved to something and it has to be the very moment. So he makes the statement, you and you believe it, you have everlasting life. Look in John chapter six and verse 35. John chapter six verse 35. There is a difference in the word of God about coming to Christ and coming after Christ. Look up here.

Coming to Christ, trusting Christ is Savior, coming to Him to be saved. Coming after Christ means that He is going and you’re following Him, that service. Coming to Christ’s salvation. Following after Him, that service. So when He says, follow me, refer to service. So when you come to Christ, that’s for salvation. Now, there is maybe one exception found in the book of John, chapter 10, where He says, My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Now, whether or not that salvation or service, we’ll get to that when we cover John chapter 10 in total.

Well, here in John and chapter five, look in verse 35. Verse 35 says, and Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh after me, is that what it says? He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst.” I wonder what the word never means. You ever heard somebody say, what part of no don’t you understand? What do you think never would mean? Never? Means never, never, never. Never, never.

mean you can’t happen then if God says never, if I believe I’ll never thirst, that means I’ll never thirst. See how hard it is to understand the Bible. You’re never hungry, must mean that you’ll never hunger. That’s how I interpret it. It means what it says. So he makes a statement, I am the bread of life and he that come up to me shall never hunger because he’s the bread of life. And whenever you eat this bread, he says you’ll never have to do it again.

That’s the teaching of eternal security. Now look what he said in verse 37. Verse 37, all that the Father, giveth me shall come to me. And him that come to me, I will and know wise cast out. So when you come to him, he says, all that the Father, giveth me the word give. And then you’ll also find that word mentioned down in verse 39. Give it to me. You see, whenever you trusted Christ as your Savior is because God so loved you, He sent His Son.

So you’re believing this story that He did this for you. And so when you believe this, the Bible says you’re born of God. You’re a child of God. He becomes your Father. And the Father is going to take all the children that came to Him and give you to Christ. So you belong to Him. And He says, and Alan, no wise, I’ll never lose you, never cast you out. So on verse 37, is this a good verse to show a person that once you come to Christ and you trust Him as your Savior that He’ll never cast you out and never lose you?

You hear me say it all the time and I use this with people all the time. It’s a tremendous verse to learn. Verse 37, verse 39. 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. 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 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 Bibleline and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Paught 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.