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Bibleline. Dear God’s Word on Bibleline, Everywhere, every time. Dear God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr, Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring… 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.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Exodus, Book of Exodus at chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20, the Lord admit with the people there at the foot of the mountain and Moses was given the ten commandments and the eleventh commandment. I bet most people don’t know the eleventh commandment. It’s keep the other ten. But Exodus chapter 20 and verse 1, and God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, thou shall have no other gods before me.

Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven, above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy on two thousands of them that loved me and keep my commandments.

Did you catch two phrases in all of these verses, one that says, that loved me and one that says, that hate me? The first commandment is, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mine, body, soul, and strength. And most people don’t. Aren’t you glad we don’t have to keep the 10 commandments to go to the to heaven because if you did we wouldn’t make it. God says salvation is a gift that it’s free. But there’s something else that I wanted to mention to you in these words and that is a question that I wanted to put to you.

Do you worship idols? Do you worship idols? I want you to notice what God says here and it makes a statement in verse three, thou shall have no other gods before me.” Now we know there is no other God except the true and living God. All the other ones are fake gods. There’s only one true God but there’s many gods made by people and they make up their own gods. The Bible even calls Satan the God, the prince of the air.

So there’s other gods and you might even have a few gods you’ve made up. Everybody seems to have another God. But I wrote a few things down that I think are important. I want you to look in verse three where he makes a statement, Thou shall have no other God be for me. And idle represents another God. An idle represents another God, something that you worship other than the true God. You say, well, that’s not me. I ain’t through yet.

Did you know you can make sports a God? Did you know you can make money a God? Did you know you can make your wife or your husband or your children a God and put them before the Lord? In other words, God says he is a jealous. God, He doesn’t want anybody making anything God but Him. And He won’t tolerate any other gods, man-made gods. And many people have idols, things that they worship in the place of God. Government can become a God to you.

The White House can become God to you. The Devil can become your God. God. You’d be surprised how many other gods there are. And there’s a lot of religions that have a lot of idols and worship false gods. I know that there’s nobody like that here. Look at verse 4, Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven, above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth, thou shall not bow down thyself to them nor serve them.”

It’s talking about making images of things that becomes your God or as an image of your God that you bow down to and you worship. I don’t believe it’s talking about having your picture taken. Have you ever had somebody say, let me take your picture and they say, you know, it’ll break the camera. It’ll break the camera. I had that happen and it literally broke their camera. They broke their camera.

That broke my heart. I knew I had a face that would stop a clock, but not break the camera. But look in verse five, in verse five, idols means that you don’t worship God, and if you don’t worship God, then God says you hate Him. You hate Him. See what he says there? And the last part he says, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. So it’s not wise for you and I to put anything between us and God.

It becomes an idol. It’s a substitute for the true God. God is a jealous God. God told his people that when you go into the land, you’re not to carry out of Egypt, the idols of Egypt. You’re not to worship the gods of the people in the land where I’m sending you for sex and showing mercy onto thousands of them and you ought to underline these three words. That love me, that love me. See, God wants you to love Him more than anything else in the world.

And because God is a jealous God, and you ought to know what jealousy is like, jealousy is the fear of being replaced. Now, I don’t think God lives in fear, but God does not want to be replaced. You see, whenever a girl acts a boy and another girl comes along, She gets jealous because she’s afraid of being replaced. Jealousy is the fear of being replaced. God doesn’t want you to replace Him with anything or anybody whatsoever. So God says this is what He wants us to do.

So is there a difference between the true and the living God? Take your Bible and turn to the book of Psalms, a hundred and fifteenths Psalm. The hundred and fifteen Psalm. Now remember this, I am not attacking anybody’s religion. I will refer to some that attack my beliefs, but I’m not attacking anybody else’s belief. But if somebody does attack what I believe, should I then not have the right to defend myself. If I’m a tax shouldn’t I not be able to defend myself?

I think that most people would agree. Yes, you do. And so, yes, I will. I’m the sweetest guy in all the world. Wouldn’t hurt a flea. Psalms 115. I want you to look there in verse 1. Verse one, not unto us, O Lord. Not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth’s sake. Well, that sounds pretty humbled on it. Give God all the credit. Give God all the glory. What? Because he deserves it.

Salvation, going to heaven. God said it’s not of works lest any man should boast or take some of the credit. Take some of the glory. So God says that a man cannot save himself by his works. does not want to give glory to the man. Because God’s already declared the man can’t save himself so he can’t take credit. He can’t both look what I’ve done. A person who tries to earn their way to heaven by their good works are robbing honor and glory from God.

Saying, look at me. I get to go to heaven because I sung in the choir. I went to church. I gave money. I was a goody, goody, two shoes. Therefore, because of all how good I was, I get to go to heaven.” And God says, not by works of righteousness, but by His mercy He saves us. Oh look what He says in verse 2, wherefore it should the heathen say, where is now their God. Where is their God? So I wrote down a little statement saying, heathens have idols.

Heathens have idols. Heathens have false gods. You and I are supposed to know the true and living God and therefore we don’t need an idol. We don’t worship a man. We don’t worship a building. We don’t worship statues or any kind of man-made objects. We worship God and Him only. And now I look there in verse three, but our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever, he hath pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.

So when men take silver and gold and wood and carved and make themselves little idols or little statues and the size of it is not the issue, whether it’s small or whether it’s big. And you can go into some churches and they’ll have big statues and and they have a little statues, but they say, these don’t, we don’t worship them. They just represent then if you was to take them all and throw them in a heap and burn them all, what would be their feelings about that?

Or do they not worship these things? God says not to do so and making a little idols. Things that you believe that this is going to protect me. God says, I’m God. I do the protecting. What does these little idols or big idol? What do they take away from the true and living God? What would you focus upon them that you cannot focus upon God? So he says here, it’s not important what you and I think about it. It’s not important what we He wanted to mean of what it represents to us.

Look what God says about it. So He says in verse 4, their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but they smell not. they’ll not. They have hands, but they handle not. Feed have they, but they walk not. Neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them. So is everyone that trusted in them.

The purpose is there’s some certain amount of human trust that put into an idol that’s made by man’s hands. And God says, don’t do it. Period. You don’t do it. Now take your Bible looking 135th Psalm, the 135th Psalm. And the 135th Psalm, I want you to look there in verse 15. Verse 15. And notice verse 15, he says, the idols of the heathen are silver and gold the work of men’s hands. They have mouths but they speak not eyes have they but they see not.

They have ears but they hear not. Neither is there any breath in their mouth. They that make them are like unto them so as everyone that trusts us in them. Same thing we read while it goes. So, heathens have idols. That’s because you don’t know the true and living God. I don’t need an idol. Don’t need one. Now, I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Revelation in chapter 22. The book of Revelation, chapter 22.

So in Revelation chapter 22, I want you to look there. In verse 8, look in verse 8. And I, John, saw these things and heard them. When I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then said he unto me, see thou do it not. For I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book. and you ought to underline these two words, worship God.

Bowing before a man that you think more than a man is idle worship. It is wrong. It is wicked. It is an abomination to God. God says, no, you don’t do it. You are only to bow in order to worship the true and living God. He’s the King. He’s the Lord. Now take your Bible and look there in the book of Revelation 19, for Revelation chapter 19. We know that one day we’re going to be in heaven and we’re going to go to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And the Bible says that we’re going to be dressed in the righteous acts of the saints because we just came from the judgment seat of Christ where we have been rewarded but what we’ve done for the Lord. And so, however we’re dressed is going to be a reflection of our service to the Lord and what we’ve done for Him. So he says there in verse 7, let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife hath made herself ready.

And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the white or fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he said unto me, write, blessed are they which are called unto the married supper of the Lamb. And he said unto me, These are the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not, I am thy fellow servant, of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God those two words again. You only worship God. You don’t bow to a man in order that he He is more than a man. He’s in place of God and He becomes an idol to a person. God says you don’t do that in His word. Take your Bible now and turn to the book of 1 John, the book of 1 John in chapter 5. As you notice starting there in verse 10, in verse 10 makes a statement, he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.

that believe if not God hath made him a liar. Because he believe if not the record that God gave of his son. And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his son. He that hath the son, half life, and he that hath not the son of God, half not life. So whether you have eternal life or not depends on whether or not do you have the son. If not do you have the church, do you have the certain preacher, Do you have all your good works?

Do you have the person? So you can have all those things, but if you don’t have Christ, you got zero. But if you have Christ, you have enough. Christ is all you need to go to heaven. He that hath the Son, hath life. If I got that, it’s all I need, is eternal life. He that hath not the Son, hath not eternal life. So he says in verse 13, these things have I written unto you that believe. That’s all you have to do.

That believe. On the name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, that you may know that you have eternal life. So can you know you have eternal life? Well yes, if you have Christ. So Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. It’s okay to worship Jesus Christ. Why? Because he’s God. You can bow before Jesus Christ, right? Because he’s God. He’s not an idol. He is God. But if you take salvation away from him and put it into anything else is to put that above God.

And that makes God angry. That makes God mad. God is a jealous God. God says that’s wicked. That’s an abomination. And we’re not to do that. Now, let me just mention this to you. In the book of 1 Samuel in chapter 15, there’s a little story there about Samuel telling Saul what to do, and when he became king and how to deal with the Amalekites, he didn’t fully obey. And the Bible says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.

And the Bible talks about it. It is idolatry. It’s idolatry. not to obey the Lord. So I wrote this little statement down. The reasons for rebellion are as witchcraft and idolatry. Nothing for a moment. Even if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you know you’re going to heaven when you die. The reasons that you give for not fully serving the Lord with all of your heart is witchcraft Because it’s rebellion, it’s idolatry. You worship your excuses more than obedience to God.

So can a Christian be involved in idol worship? Worshipping the excuses are the reasons why you’re not fully serving God like you ought to. You may use a church as your reason for justification, and you can use somebody else as a reason for justice. You can use your people where you work as a reason. as a reason. I don’t care what it is. Are there reasons, those excuses? Do they supplant the Word of God? Do you put those above what God has to say?

Many people do. I want to read a couple things to you that I have because somebody has offended me. If the differences between what the Bible teaches and what the Catholic Church teaches are insignificant, then we are to be blamed for being divisive and therefore destructive to the unity of the Christian faith. However, if the differences are irreconcilable, then the wrong belief condemns somebody to an eternity separated from the Lord. So are the differences that we have and what we believe?

And keep us in mind, this is not designed to attack anyone but to defend our position, my position that I have in the Word of God. Because there’s many people that become very hurt and very offended if you say something about their religious belief. But it’s okay for them to say it about us. There’s a religion today called the religion of Islam. It’s okay for them to take our Jesus Christ off the cross and to say that He never came back from the dead.

It’s okay for them to mutilate our religious beliefs. But don’t you say one word against their religion? Because that offends them and they’ll cut off your head because you made them mad. Oh, I take offense to that. If it’s good for the goose, good for the gander. But that’s okay. It’s not going to change what I believe. But there’s others over one billion people that are also Roman Catholic. Now, I’m not attacking the Roman Catholics. If you’re Catholic, listen to what I’m saying, that’s all.

follow my thinking. I just want a person to know what they are saying about me and what I believe because there has been an attack made. And I think you ought to know what it is. And so I don’t have no other way of doing this except in a public forum because otherwise you won’t be here and then I won’t be able to tell you. So let me read this to you. For For all its serious problems, the Roman Catholic Church cannot be faulted for misunderstanding what evangelicals are fundamentalists.

in the Gospel of Salvation. Since it is spelled out in no uncertain terms in Romans, in Rome’s official canons and decrees. So they fully understand my position because they wrote it down and it’s in their material, just in what they teach. The following citations are from the Council of Trent, which met over a 19-year period, primary to denounce the teachings of the Protestant Reformation. Although the Council met in the 16th century, its decrees were reaffirmed by the Church’s most recent Councils, both Vatican I and II.

Consider Catholicism’s position on what evangelicals uphold as the Gospel. In other words, they will tell us what we believe. Now this is what they say we believe. succession canon nine. If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, let him be anathema. So they say this is what we believe and and those that believe this let them be anathema. Now the word anathema according to Webster’s new world dictionary is a condemnation.

It’s a formal curse and is used in excommunication a person. So if I believe this heresy and they’re calling this heresy and if I believe that I’m supposed to be cursed. Excommunicated. Destined for hell. The sixth session, can in 12, said this, If anyone shall say that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ’s sake or that it is this confidence alone that justifies us, let him be anathema. That’s That’s what I believe.

So they fully understand what I believe. And they say, I need to go to hell for what I believe. I have been under a curse for believing what I believe. And because I don’t believe like they believe, they get to go to heaven and I get to go to hell. They say this. I’m just telling you what they said, don’t get mad at me. I haven’t said anything against them yet, have I? I’m only telling you that they understand who I am and where I’m coming from and what I believe.

And so far they’re right. So I’m telling you they’re right. This is what I believe. But they say, I should be anathema, accursed. In the sixth session, canon 30, if anyone says that after the reception of the grace of justification, the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every Repentant Center that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged either in this world or in purgatory before the gates of heaven can be open, let him be anathema.

Boy, they got it down what I really believe. 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 1-800-576-3771. 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 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 Bible Live, 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 everyday, believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.