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Bibleline Bibleline, they are 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 Bible-lined 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.

Turn in your Bible to the book of Galatians and chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4. Remember we’ve been talking about the book of Galatians and how important it is to the Christian to understand the Declaration of Independence. I mean the freedom from the law and to Christ and how Paul got his gospel that he did not get it from man. He got it straight from the Lord. When he went to Jerusalem they did not have anything to add to him.

He was a missionary to the Gentiles, and Peter was a missionary to the Jews, and they had a little problem there at the church in Antioch, and Paul had to confront the apostle Peter, because Peter had done something that wasn’t clear on the gospel. It wasn’t so much what he said, it was what he did. He gave credence to those who teach a false message, and he was rebuked because of it. And Paul says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

That’s Galatians chapter 2 and verse 6. You need to memorize that verse. It’s a good verse to memorize. But anyway, here in the book of Galatians in chapter 4, he’s now moved up to the place where he’s trying to explain to them why they should not want to go back under the law. See the law cannot save you. You cannot save yourself by the way you live. Being good, keeping the 10 commandments, obeying the golden rule, coming to Calvary Community Church, paying 50% inflation.

It will not pay for your sins. It will not save you. That’s why you’re saved by grace. Well, God says that not only to be saved by grace, but we’re to live by grace. And so he says, do not become entangled again the yoke of bondage. In other words, when you were trying to get to heaven by your works, how that you are going, why would you want to go back to that? Why would you act like you’re not saved?

You see, if I’m still seeking to be justified, then what I’m saying is I am not now justified. If I’m seeking to be saved by how I lived, then what I’m saying is that I’m not saved now. But since I am saved and I’ve been saved for 49 years, then I don’t have to try to earn something I already have. I’m not trying to get eternal life. I already have eternal life. And we teach very strongly here that once a man trusts Christ to save you, he has eternal life.

And if it’s eternal life, it lasts forever. And if it lasts forever, then there’s no way for a saved man to ever lose his salvation or go to hell in the future. It is totally impossible. And any preacher who teaches you can lose your salvation. He He does not understand the gospel because salvation is truly a gift of God. So in the Jewish family, when the children were born, even though they were on air, you know, if they live long enough, they were considered a child and they serve it.

But when they became 13, they had what they call a bar misva and they were considered now you’re responsible for yourself and they spent all those other years trying to teach them. like there’s law, then you become a son and they become recognized as a son, then a legal heir. When you and I were born into this world, we were like servants, trying to keep this law of righteousness and we all fail. But then Christ came and we trusted Him as our Savior.

And so now I’m not a servant under the law trying to be saved. Now I am a son under grace, and I serve the Lord because I am a child, not to be one, because I am his son, not to be a son. I was explaining the gospel to a lady yesterday. I mean, Betty had stopped someplace. Good friend of mine passed away. Okay. Good. All right. All right. All right. All right. Let’s go. That’s all. Great. Good job.

All right. Now we’re heading back to the National Coders. Three. All right. All right. All right. I want to take a look at this. The top of the gives is just a little bit. I’m going to take a look at this. All right. You can see that we have to get back. And we went to his memorial service up there in Nirokala. And so we found a little place and we got something to eat, walked out of there, and Betty says, I’ll be back in just a little bit.

I said, where are you going? Well, there’s a near-new shop, but four or five doors down, and one woman always seemed to gravitate to those places, you know. So anyway, she went in there, and so I, with all my thumbs for a little bit, so I walked into, so I walked in there, and there’s a lady standing there. So it didn’t take long. I I said, man, mine got nothing to do. I said, it was like, can I ask your question?

She said, sure. I said, can I give you my picture so that you’ll remember me always? She didn’t know me from Adam. I didn’t know her. I pulled out my track and I showed her that not picture on the front of the track, see her? And so I says, man, I said, this is when I was 17 and had hair. See there? She smiled and she said, OK, I’ll take it. So anyway, I gave it to her. I said, now let me show you this.

On the inside here, she said, you can know you have eternal life. I says, wouldn’t it be good to know that you have eternal life? She said, well, yeah. Let me show you my two favorite verses in the whole Bible. I sold her Ephesians 2, 8, 9, 4, by grace. So you say through faith that not of yourself is the gift of God, not a works list any mention. And I says, those were the best verses I ever heard in my whole life.

She said, well, I’ve gone to church. And she says, but I just never understood. I said, well, let me answer this. I said, isn’t it true that you’ve heard all your life, that Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for your sins. Yeah. I says, question number two, I said, if he paid for all of your sins, why should you go to hell to pay for sin if he paid for him? I said, now, if my wife buys something and I pay you, I says, you got to charge me again at the door?

He says, no, I said, so I don’t have to pay one time. Oh, yeah. I said, well, how many times would you sense I’ve been paid for it? She said, once. I said, if Christ paid for all of them, then why should I go to hell? I said, oh, you got to do it. Believe he did it for you. So I did this little thing with the wallet. And I explained to her, and she trusts as Christ as her savior.

I thought, no, it’s so neat to know you got a message that you can explain this to him. Now, she was under the law condemned. And then that moment, when she trusts a crisis savior, she became a child of God. That very moment. It’s not a process that she has to go through. She didn’t have to quit something, join anything. All she had to do was accept Jesus Christ as her savior. She was born into God’s family, a child of God.

And now that she’s a child of God, she don’t have to try to live a certain way to get something she already has. There’s people who are trying to make people live a certain way, according to their belief, in order to attain something that God says it’s a gift, it’s free. So he says, don’t become entangled again with that yoke of bond. It just puts a yoke of iron upon your neck until it destroys you. He says, you’re free from that.

I don’t have to go to church. Why am I glad? I don’t have to read my Bible. Why am I glad? I don’t have to give a penny. Why am I glad? I don’t have to do anything. I’m going to heaven because I will say, by grace. You say, why do you do all that? Because I want to. I go to church because I want to. I want to read the Word of God. I want to tell people how to have eternal life.

You see, under the law you have to, but under grace is because you want to. A different reason, a different motive. You see, under the law is you had to do, but under grace done. That’s the difference. Now, he says here in verse one, now I say that the heir as long as he’s a child differs nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all. But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. talking about Father who has a son under Jewish understanding.

And verse 3, even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. In the words we walked His lost men, we act like lost men, we think like lost men, we were lost men. Now you’re a saved man. So think loud, now as a saved man. I don’t want to think as a lost man trying to get something. I am a saved man who already has it. I’m not trying to be redeemed. I’m not trying to be justified.

It’s already done. I am saved. I am a child of God. And because I am a child of God, he is my Father. So look what he says here in verse 4, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman made under the law. Why? To redeemed them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of Son. So Christ came into the world, made under the law, fulfilled the law so the law could not condemn Him.

Now you and I were born into this world under the law, and for some reason or other we are under condemnation. Why? Because we didn’t teach the law. So we’re under a curse. But remember there in chapter 3 in verse 10, where he makes the statement, he says in verse 10, for we are as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. where it is written, cursed as everyone that continues with not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

So when you’re under the law, you have to do them. And if you don’t do them perfectly, then you’re condemned by the law. So now you are in debt to the law and you’ve got to pay a debt. What’s the debt? Wages of sin is debt. You’ve got to die. You have to die and pay for your sins. Well that puts you in a very terrible position. It means you have to spend an eternity in hell to pay for sin.

And then it’s never paid. And you have no power to ever come back from the dead. And if there had been a law which would have given life, then very righteousness should have been of the law. See there in chapter 3 verse 19, where it makes this statement, excuse me, in verse 21, if there had been a law given that could have saved a man or given him an eternal life or made him righteous, well then that’s the way it should have been.

but no man can save himself. So now you trust Christ as your Savior, you’re not under the law, you’re under grace. You’re free from the curse of the law because you couldn’t keep it. You can’t obey it. I’m glad that God has saved me and gave me eternal life. And it’s kind of like, okay, here’s the Father. He has taken me from here and placed me into His family. his family. We call that adoption. I have been adopted into his family.

So God has accepted me and I accepted him. I am now a child of God. So look what he says here in verse 5, to redeem them. That means to make a payment for their sins to bring them from under the curse of the law. Like going into a marketplace and buying something from off the little table there and you can take it home because you paid for this. So he says in verse 6, and because ye are, son, you ought to underline that word, it’s not what you’re going to be.

You are sons. God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into heart, crying, Abba Father. So now God is my Father and the Holy Spirit in dwells me. So the reason the Holy Spirit in dwells us is to teach us about our Father. And so as we read the Word of God, you’re studying the mind of your Father. You’re learning how God thinks. The word of God is a love letter from the Father to the children. So as we study the love letter, we see how much God loves us.

And as a child of God, I have a choice. And you know what really helped this for the lady? She asked me a question. She says, does that mean I can just go out here and kill somebody? When they asked a question like that, that means they are understanding it. I says, you mean that she says, you mean that guy here and kill somebody? I says, sure does. And she expects me to say just the opposite. I said, sure does.

I said, but I’ve known the Lord for 49 years and I haven’t killed anybody yet, but can I tell you why? Okay, she’s listening. She’s all ears. I says, you have a choice once you trust Christ the Savior. I says, I’ve got three children. the hard way, one life. I got three kids. I’ve got five grandkids. I said, now when those kids were born into our family, when they’re obedient, they’re mine, and when they’re disobedient, they’re hers. Ha ha ha.

Ha ha. She laughed too. I says, their mind regards to how they live. If they’re obedient or disobedient, they’re still my kids. I says, and you can’t unborn them. I tried. Ha ha. So they’re my kids. Now, I say, but here’s what you need to understand. I says, when they’re your children, I says, you’ve got a choice. I says, they got a choice. They can be obedient or disobedient. She says, yeah, boy. That’s right. Evidently, she didn’t tell me, but I think she had some kids.

If your kids are obedient to you, I says, then they’re blessed, you’re happy, they’re happy. The whole world’s happy. I said, but whenever they’re disobedient, I says, they’re not happy, you’re not happy, Nobody’s happy. I said, but if I’m obedient to Norn because I’m his child, I said, God said, he’ll bless mezona here and reward me when I get to heaven. But if I’m disobedient, then God can chase me here and maybe take me home before my time. So, just because I can live like I please, I can’t get away with it.

70710 I said, I can go a lot of things. I said, but I found out a long time ago, I would rather have a wonderful life. to have a peaceful lifeGaza to have a good life. I want to bless his life. So if I serve the Lord Romo God is under the authority of his own word wrongly. Because he said I placed my word above my name. God has to obey his word. He has to bless me. He ain}”gotta choice he has to and he has to reward me when I get to heaven if I as a son serve him.

But if I choose notTx serve the Lord and rebel against the Lord, then God is obligated by His Word. He has to chase in me. And I know that. So now I’m a reasonable man. Now which one do I want? Do I want God’s blessings or I want him to beat the Torah on me and maybe take me home before my time? Now a reasonable person can figure this out, but a dumb nut can’t, a fool can’t figure this out.

And God says, if you don’t serve him, he says, Because Him or my Father resist, resist, like kind of push that wall over. Now you want to spend the rest of your life kind of push that wall over? What’s going to take some time? And you’re not going to do it. You can’t win. You can’t win going against God. But buddy, me and God, we’re a majority. And then He’s obligated as my Father. He has to bless my life take care of me all cut whatever it is you see that mean bad things don’t happen No, no, no, no, he’s gonna walk me through them.

Oh, okay. What happens in life? My heavenly father’s gonna walk me through them and the peace and the joy is knowing that but anyway God says now because you are his son We’re supposed to live like an act like don’t act like a lost man under the law act like a saved man as a child of God. If I’m a child of God, then he’s my father and I should I should use the language of the court. Learn to speak the word of God.

It’s a different language. And it’s like I used to think, man, I wish I could learn a lot of different languages. Wouldn’t have been neat. There’s some people that can speak Spanish and Hebrew and Greek. I’m still working on backwood English. I murder the English language sometimes. Now I know right but I can’t sometimes say right but I can read right and right right right but sometimes I murder it but that’s okay because I know that I did. I wasn’t ignorant because of what I did it’s just that I did it but I didn’t know how to stop it.

That makes sense. But he says, you are now a child of God. And that’s something to be thankful for. Now, because you are his child, don’t live like a lost man. Don’t think like a lost man. You’re saved. Go to the word and let your father teach you. Now look what he says here in verse 6 again. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your heart’s crying out of a father and you don’t have to just talk about God the Lord.

He’s my father and say how would you talk to your father? Oh, my almost gracious heavenly father, creator of heaven and earth. I never talked to my dad like that. I never talked to my mom like that. Oh, mother. Hey, ma. And now it talked to my mom and When it comes to the Lord, Lord, thank you for loving me and for saving me. Lord, I got a problem. I have no clue what I’m going to do. And I need you to help me.

Now, that’s better just talking it like he’s your father. You’re a child. Take all that fancy stuff and just throw it in the trash can and… You ought to hear the sermon I preached one time. Prayer for the journey when I was learning how to pray. It’s an awesome story. I think I preached it here one time. You don’t think I ever preached that through and I’m here, pray for the journey. I’m gonna have to preach it again. Some of you are shaking it like you don’t know.

But you gotta learn how to pray, how to talk to the Lord. Hey, I got to me, let me tell you how it happened. I didn’t know how to pray. I didn’t pray privately and I didn’t pray publicly. I didn’t know how to pray at all. but I had moved to Macon, Georgia. And my preacher up there in Georgia, Nathen’s told the preacher in Macon that I was coming down there, and so he was ready for me. But I didn’t know that.

Got there on a Wednesday night. And when we walked in on Wednesday night, the church was packed for Wednesday night. So my wife and I, we just kind of went in. They had already started and we didn’t want to make no noise. So we quietly sat down. And then Usher came over to me and asked me if I would shell out a business nurse card. So I filled it out and, you know, David told me. And they went on and they did their thing.

And it wasn’t long before they gonna pray for the missionaries about this out of the internet. I never pray I didn’t know what a missionary was. I didn’t know what they looked like So I’m sitting there in the backdrop 22 years old. I think something like it maybe 21 and He got a fair and he made the statement he says we’re gonna have blah blah blah from over here come up here And we’re gonna have blah blah blah from over here come up here and lead us in prayer and then we’re gonna have Brother Ralph Arnold who’s visiting from up there in Georgia and he’s sitting right back here and we’re gonna ask him to come up here and close in prayer.

Church is packed. Half a million people there. I looked over at my wife and I says honey I says he wants me to pray. She says I know. I said I can’t do that. She says you got to. I says I’m like one. The other two guys got up and they started up toward the platform. But if I turn around and see why where’s the other guy? So I said, I argue with my wife, I says, I’m not going down there.

She says, you gotta go, I said, I’m not going. Oh, so I got up and I started down. And the whole time I’m on my way down. I am praying. Lord, what am I going to say? What am I going to say? Anyway, we got up on the platform and the one guy took that chair and the other guy took this chair and the other chair was sitting right behind the podium Well, the preacher went over there and sat by the piano.

And so this guy goes up there and he’s going to pray. Oh, I’m praying all right. This guy gets up there and he grabbed the hold of the horns of the altar. And he says, oh, how much gracious heavenly Father. And buddy, he plays. Oh, is he good? I’ve never heard anybody pray like that. And I thought, if I’ve got to do this, I’m out of here. The only prayer that I knew was as I lay me down to sleep, I prayed the Lord, my soul to keep.

I didn’t even know how to pray for food. I never said the blessing. He went on and he was praying and praying and praying. And when he got through he said, in Jesus name, amen and amen. Everybody all over the audience was, amen and amen. I thought amen and amen. I said, if I put it two times, three times, amen, amen. Amen. I didn’t know. I never done, this is first time for me. Well, the other guy got up there and he started to pray.

And so I’m sitting out saying, Lord, I remember Betty’s dead telling me about a story about Sam’s Samuel and how that God spoke to him, Samuel. And I said, Lord, speak to me, speak to me. Tell me what to do. Lord, I said, I don’t know what to say. All I know is that Amen, John Ben shot a rooster killed, he in the chicken, cried, the rooster cried. And Lord, I’m out of here. I had no idea what I’m going to do.

And all of a sudden, it’s like the heavens departed, and this voice, what I lie to you, I’m not lying to you, raise my right hand. I’m sitting there, and all of a sudden, as clears a bell, Ralph, for you that don’t know, that’s my name, Ralph. And I says, he’s doing it. God’s doing it. And I thought Samuel said, hey, Lord? I said, hey Lord, you said Ralph, I said well, I don’t even know where I am, I’m right here.

If he gonna speak to me, do it. Ralph, I said boy this sounds real. So I opened my eyes and the other guy had got through and sat down and I didn’t know it because I was so engrossed in myself and the preacher was sitting over there going, Ralph, Ralph, I jumped up and I had my Bible in my hand And I sometimes say, God thank you for the Word of God. And all I remember is I prayed about 20, 25 minutes.

I have no clue what I said. I don’t even know how I ended. But when I got through, everybody was just, amen, all over the room. And I have absolutely no recollection of anything that I said. And everybody got up and came down here and wanted to shake my hand. And I kept wondering, what did I say? I have no clue. That was my first experience. Now, how did we get there? I don’t know. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Colossians, the book of Colossians.

But you’ve got to enjoy life as you go, or you’re going to be one sad individual, you know. In the book of Colossians, I want you to see this in chapter 2. Note there in verse 13. And understand that when Jesus Christ came into the world, he said he was made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem us that were under the curse. So what it means is, is like, here’s the Lord, the God in heaven.

And he’s got a piece of paper and he’s keeping track of all the things that you did. See, Rick Ryder back there? Rick, raise your hand. Now, see, I’m watching Rick Ryder. I’m making a list checking it twice and everything he’s ever done wrong. I got it on here right here. I need some more paper. And then here’s Dan. Dan, raise your hand. That’s Dan. I’m making a list on everything that Dan’s ever done wrong. Now Dan and Rixie, they have an appointment with God.

They have a debt to pay. got to pay for all of this. They got to pay for their sins. And the only payment God accepts is the death payment. Not going to church, not giving money, a death payment. So the Bible says that when Jesus Christ went to the cross, He took every offense that we had against God and nailed it to His cross. You see, look at in verse 13, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath a quickener made a life together with Him, having forgiven you and your other underlineness.

All trespasses.” Looking verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. Look up here, here’s the handwriting of ordinances that was against us where we failed. All of our sins and what does it say there and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. So my sins is what nailedled him to the cross and he died on the cross and he paid for my sins. So I am free from this debt. He did it for me.

He took mine and it was nailed to his cross and he has paid for my debt. So So why should I try to do all these good deedsparser something it’s already paid? You understand what I’m saying? Can you follow me? But once it’s done, it’s done. Christ is not coming back anymore to pay for anymore sin. Because the payment He made 2000 years ago was for theIRTNS of the whole world once and for all. So582 all of your sins passed, president of this all forgiven because of the payment he made on the crop.

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 1-800-536-3771. 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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryuptampa.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, and 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.