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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 Your 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.

morning we’re still studying in the book of Galatians but I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 27 so turning your Bible to Deuteronomy chapter 27. As you know God had given to Moses the law to give to the people and as he gave them the law and told them what the blessings would be if they kept it, told themividual what the problems would be if they didn’t. Then he made a statement.

In verse 26, cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. and all the people said, Amen. That means we agree. So he finishes up all of this and says, cursed be He that confirmed not all the words of this law to do. In other words, it is now in effect you must keep the law. Now the keeping of the law was for the national blessings. It was not for the spiritual blessings. They didn’t keep the law in order to earn salvation, to get to go to heaven whenever they died.

But the wages of sin is death, and so God gave the law so that we would know what is sin. I’ve talked to a lot of people, oh, what is sin? I says, whatever it is, you did it. Whatever it is, you’re guilty. So turning your Bible to the book of Galatians now, the book of Galatians and chapter 3, Galatians chapter 3, and we will take a look at a very interesting portion of scripture and start there in verse 10.

Galatians chapter 3 and verse 10. This verse is talking about the verse we just read in the book of Deuteronomy. Because Paul says, if you want to keep the law in order to be saved or keep the law in order to stay saved, don’t you understand what you’re doing? He says there in verse 10, for as many as are of the works of the law that are trying to be saved by the law are under the blessing. Is that what what it says?

They’re under the what? The curse. See, the word blessing is in verse 9. Look in verse 9. So then they which be a faith are blessed, but they are of works are cursed. There is a contrast here. So to be blessed, what did it mean to be blessed with faithful Abraham? To be blessed is the justification by faith. You see, that’s up there in verse and God foreseen that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel and the Abrahams saying in these shall all families of the earth be blessed.

So to be justified by faith was a blessing because it was a curse if you couldn’t be blessed. This is why once you trust Christ as your Savior, God gives to you eternal life and you are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. Now God promised the nation of Israel the earth, but He promises to you and I the church, the holy city. But look what he says, it is written. That means it’s recorded in the Old Testament.

It is written, cursed is everyone that continue if not in, and you ought to underline that word, all, all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. So that means if you’re going to be saved by the law, do you understand that you have to keep all the law? All of it. That means perfectly. It means you can’t fail one time. You have to keep all the law. But in verse 11, he says, but that no man, no man is justified by the law in the sight of God.

It is evident because God never gave the law to save a man. So that’s why a man can’t be saved by the law because God get in need give the law to save the man. Well, that makes sense. He gave Christ to save the man, so Christ can only be saved by the man. Jesus Christ. Some of this stuff is so simple to me. I can understand how come somebody else can’t see this when they read it. And so he says there in verse 11, but that no man is justified by the law.

Didn’t he just say he preached the gospel before on the Abraham saying, in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. And he talks about foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through the law or through faith. Through faith. Remember there in chapter 3 verse 8? So he says here in verse 11, and the last part of that verse says, the just shall live by faith, not by the law. In other words, you’re not trying to save yourself by the things that you do by your works, by your good deeds.

And in verse 12, and the law is not a faith, but the man that do it them shall live in them. You see the difference in the New Testament, the Old Testament, under the law it was do and live. Under graceablishment it’s done. So since the work is done, why are you trying to earn something that’s already been paid for? Because, you see, if you could save yourself by your own righteousness, then Christ would have died in vain. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a verse in the Bible that would say something like that?

Well, slap my mouth. Look there in chapter 2 in verse 20. 21. He said, I do not frustrate or set aside the grace of of God for!. If righteousness comes by the law, if a man can save himself by his works, then why did Christ have to die? He died in vain. See there? It’s even put that verse in the Bible. It’s right there. And this is what it says. Now in verse 13, he says Christ had redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written.

Cursid is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now if you’ll notice up there in verse 10 when it says, curse it is every man that continue if not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Alright, if you break the law in verse 13, you got to pay the debt. Cursed is everyone that hangs up on a trip. What do you mean? Because the wages of sin is debt. If you break the law, you have to pay the price.

That’s why Christ came. To keep the law so that he could pay the price. So he says here in verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham, which is justification by faith that God can give to you and I, eternal life, we would be justified just as if we had never sinned. And he says that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Because remember he starts off the chapter in chapter three.

He says, oh foolish Galatians, who have to be which to you, that you should not obey the truth? Well, they were not obeying the truth. He says, this only what I’ve learned of you. He says in verse two, receive you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith, by the hearing of faith. You were not saved, you didn’t receive the Holy Spirit because you earned it. It was a gift, it’s totally free. So over here, he’s talking about in verse 14, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through works or by faith?

By faith. See, he answers the question. All you gotta do is read a little bit further and he answers all of this. Scripture interprets scripture. When you don’t understand a person of scripture, keep reading. Sometimes this knife over here and a fork over here, you go back to that piece of gristle and you can rightly divide it. And it helps you to understand it. And then you can swallow it a lot easier. Some people get choked on a verse and they just put their Bible down and never read it anymore.

Well, I tried to read it all. I just can’t understand it. That’s their excuse for not studying the scripture. So if you sat down at the table and this got all kind of goodies up there, well, if you can’t chew that gristle, well, there’s nothing wrong with the mashed potatoes and the sweet potatoes. And anything else that Peter happens to throw out there on the table, but you eat what you can eat and then you get strong enough to eat the things you couldn’t eat before.

That makes sense. Of course, it makes sense. Verse 14, and you ought to underline those words, the blessing of Abraham. Blessing of Abraham is salvation. Blessing of Abraham has been justified by faith. Blessing of Abraham is having eternal life. So that’s why God wants to bless us. That’s why he says that all families of the earth would be blessed. So he says now once Christ had made the payment for sins, go into all the world and preach the what?

Gospel to who every person so that everybody in the work can beername I have been blessed 49 years ago a man explained the gospel to me and buddy was I blessed I Trust a crisis my Savior received eternal life. I’ve been justified by faith and I’m good to go. I’m good to go Well anyway here in Galatians in chapter 3 He says here in verse 14 that the promise of the Spirit is received through faith. So that’s how you were saved.

That’s how you got eternal life. And that’s how you received the Holy Spirit. It was all because you simply believed. You didn’t know work for it. You didn’t have to perform some deed. Now look what he says in verse 15. The Apostle Paul says, okay now, you brethren, because you’re listening to these legalistic Judaizers from our baron Jerusalem who came down and they’d follow Paul and they tried to get ahold of his converts and try to convert him something else.

He says, brethren,ThumbnailImage I speak after the manner of men, though it be but of man’s covenant. Yet if it be confirmed, no man disanella or adef there too. In other words, unless both sides agree, once you sign something, you agree? That’s the agreement. He says, but now there was an agreement made where God made a promise to Abraham. And God gave his word and then God can’t change it. God can’t change it. And Abraham couldn’t change it because God made it, but he made it to Abraham.

He says now in verse 50, brethren. He says, though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disanulth or addeth thereto, not to Abraham and his seed singular were the promises made. See this was 430 years before the law was ever given. So Abraham could not keep the law to be safe. Well why is that so important? Because Abraham, see, was the Father of the nation of Israel. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then the 12 sons, and then there she goes.

So God made a promise to Abraham. And it wasn’t because of Abraham’s works. Abraham believed God, if you look there in chapter three and verse six, Abraham believed God and it was counted in him for righteousness. So God gave his righteousness to Abraham by his faith alone, and it’s a sense that he didn’t keep the law in order to be saved, or to stay saved, because the law didn’t come until Moses 400 and some years later. So now he says in verse 16, not to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.

He saith not and the seeds as of many, but as of one, and to advise seed, which is Christ. So even back there when he says that you’re going to have a seed, Abraham knew he was talking more than just his son Isaac. He even knew that if he killed his son Isaac, he already believed that God was going to raise him from the dead. Because you find that out seeing the book of Hebrews in chapter 11, where Abraham saw him in a figure.

He knew what it was a type of. So Abraham knew about the death, barely in the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. And so he says, God made a promise. And then years later, God gave the law, but he gave the law. To Moses. So now, wait a minute, God had already made a promise. Can you add to it and take away after you’ve already made an agreement? He says you cannot annul that promise. Even though he added the law later, the law could not change the promise and it didn’t.

And this is why he says in verse 17, and this I say, and the reason he’s saying all this is So even though he said Abraham, people are going to be saved by faith and faith alone. And later on, he gives the law to let him know that this law that he gives doesn’t affect the promise that man will be justified by faith. So even before the law, under the law and after the law, people have always been saved by faith, never any other way.

And so he says here in verse 17, this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was 430 years after, and you ought to underline these two little words, cannot this annul it can’t change it. It doesn’t add to it and say, now I’ve got to keep the law in order to be saved. can’t know the promise. And the promise was that a man would be saved by faith, by faith, and faith alone.

And get this, cannot disenolve that it should make the promise of none effect. It can’t change the promise that God preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, and these shall all families of the earth be blessed. And also that statement that the heathen shall be justified by faith. That’s the best news in all the world. And we today, if we believe that, then we are children by faith. Well Abraham was a child by faith. So it says that we’re the children of Abraham by faith.

By faith. Let’s see there in verse 26. He says for a year all the sons of God or the children of God by what? Faith and Christ Jesus. And then looking verse 29, and if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise? So I am a child of God just like Abraham’s a child of God. But see God promised them the kingdom upon the earth. He didn’t promise us the kingdom upon the He promises us to be his bride.

We’re going to rule and reign with Christ over the year. Yes, because we’re the brothers. But we see we get something better. We get the Holy City often when I know I used to love going down to the a creek and getting my toes in the mud and squishing mud between my toes. Now I don’t know how I’m going to like squishing gold dust between my toes. You know, I just don’t know because I’m so ruined. And I went elk hunting in Colorado for 18 out of 20 years.

For a week to two weeks I’d go up into the mountain and I just love going through the woods and singing. And I said, but with me several times he says, Dad, you might as well forget about hunting. You’re singing. There ain’t no elk within 10 miles. And I would just forget about it and I’d be just a hollering and a singing and a walking and breaking every stick that I could see and you know just carrying on. And I got one out one time.

One time I got one out. I got a lot of deer but only one out. There was a little truth for that. They didn’t like my singing either. Oh well. But we’re going to go to heaven one of these days. And you know what? Don’t use your understanding now of what you think you’re going to like and not like. When you get to heaven, it is going to be so out of this world, no pun intended, that we’re going to love whatever it is.

It won’t compare to what we have here. If you can enjoy anything in this life, this thing, when you get to heaven, this don’t even compare. Your best day, your best moment, can’t compare to what God’s got for us. But anyway, the day’s coming. Some of us are getting closer. Realize this week I did two memorial services and had people trust the Lord at both of them. I love doing memorial services or funerals because you see it’s just another way of being patient.

See this is one of the advantages that me and Betty has had over the years. That’s really helped us and I married all the years is that we work together on the same thing. We’ve had the same goal in life. See when you don’t know what you really want to do you just kind of flounder you’ll wonder here and there and nothing seems to work. The emptiness and Israel had its problems when Israel pitched camp. As long as they were on the move, they were doing all right.

It’s always when they pitched camp, when they’re not doing nothing, when you’re not going anywhere. But Luke, he says here that the law cannot annul the promise that it should make it of none effect. what he says in verse 18, for if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. In other words, if a man had to work for his salvation, then it wouldn’t be free. But God says it is free.

I hold your place right here and look there in the book about Romans, the book of Romans in chapter four. You need to see this because it’s dealing with Abraham and what was said to him about the promise. Look in Romans chapter 4 and look in verse 13. Verse 13, he says, for the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

Abraham did not have to keep the law in order to have eternal life, to be blessed by God, to be justified by faith. He says in verse 14, for if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of none effect. What he’s showing us over there in the book of Galatians that the law did not cause the promise to be of not effect. The law did not annul the promise. The promise is still good.

A man is saved by faith and faith alone. So anyone who teaches, well, they were saved different way under the law. These verses contradict that. These verses are letting us know that it didn’t change. It wasn’t a no. Man would say the same way. So then he says here in verse 15, because the law work at rat, but where no law is, there’s no transgression. In other words, if you go out of here and there’s a, you pull up here to the red light.

Well, if there’s no red light, no stop sign, you can keep going. You don’t have to stop. But if they put a stop sign up there, Now what are you going to do? You got to stop. Now if you don’t stop, you break a lot. They’re going to find you You saw this you know cop. Oh now they got a little camera might walk be watching you No, there’s an eye upon how watching you and it’s not the Lord But get what he says in Verse 16 you ought on the line verse 16 Therefore it is a faith that it might be by what?

Grace to the end The promise might be sure To all of us see the only way you can be sure of going to heaven is that it’s free If you have to work for it can never be sure can’t be free And you have to wait till you die and then he says For those who want to keep the law curse it is everyone that continue it Continuate not an all-thank which are written in the book of the law most people don’t even know the law Is it just keep the 10 commandments?

10 commandments? What about the civil law, the moral law, and the ceremonial law? All the law, about 500. Don’t you know what they are? Let them keep them. I know them. I shall not lie. I shall not steal. I shall not play marbles. Says marble not. Stick around, you’ll learn a few things. Now, looking for 16 again, Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end, and for this end result, the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham who is the Father of us all, Father of us all.

So you’re blessed with Abraham. And then what is the definition of faith? You’re saved by faith. Well, he gets down here and explains it. Let me show you this. Look there in verse 18. He says, Who against hope, talking about Abraham, believe it in hope, he says that he might become the father of many nations. According to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be singular Christ. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body.

right now dead when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb to old folks. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully persuaded. Here’s a definition of faith, fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to what? To perform. When you by I fave trust Jesus Christ. You’re trusting Him who is able to perform. He is able to save you.

And you rest upon Him doing that. Not upon you performing. He will do it. And that’s faith. That’s trusting Christ as your Savior. Now go back to the book of Galatians in chapter three and look there verse 19. Verse 19, wherefore, then serveth the law, and that’s a good question. Why did God give the law? Well, he gave the law to show you what sin is. You see, some people think they’re good enough to earn their way to heaven.

There’s actual people who think that. Think they’re good enough? So God gives the law to show you that you’re not so good after all. Oh, you think you’re good. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I’m very good. Thou shalt not lie. Oops. Thou shalt not covet. Mmm. And you find out thou shalt love the Lord thy God, the law by heart, mind, body, soul, and strength. And you haven’t. You love you. But most of you don’t love God. So he uses the law to show us that we’re sinners so that you will be saved by faith.

So it was added only to show you why you need to be saved by faith alone. It didn’t involve the promise. Look what it says here. It was added because of sin, transgressions. Till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. And it was ordained by angels in the hands of a mediator. Now, not a mediator of one, but God is one and get this question. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid that means no.

For if there had been a law given which could have given life, fairly righteousness should have been by the law. If a man can save himself, if he can, then that’s the way you ought to be. That makes sense? If a man can save himself, well do it. If you can keep the law to be He said, do it. All you gotta do is be perfect. Don’t mess up one time, but then you wouldn’t be perfect. Then you can’t go.

Well, wouldn’t you have to start? Well, when was you born? Well, the Bible says, I was born with a simple nature, and my mother’s womb. Ooh. 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 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 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 is 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 we’ll close you 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 soon. And just keep looking up.