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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… and the Internet, your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. and reaches toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftappa.org. We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

I remember one time I first went to Florida, Baba College, done it. It was on Sunday morning, and everybody stood around and look for you. They had a bigger for you than we have here. And it wasn’t wrong for this new person to come up and start to come in on the sidewalk. And Dr. Seymour says, here comes somebody new. I’m going to get him. I’m going to get him. And so there was, I don’t know, 5, 6, 7 guys in there.

And so as soon as he got inside the door, Dr. Seymour started toward him and Hank Lindstrom went over there. Well, welcome. A guy to have you and welcome right away and held on his to his hand, took him right to the side and said, and it led him to the Lord. He was the one who was the instructor of the Florida Bible College, too. I remember the first time I said in Dr. Hank Lindstrom’s Sunday school class, down to the old grove.

And so I had to decide what class I’m going to go to. And so I just thought, I’ll go in here and I’ll sit down. So I’m sitting there and it wasn’t long before Hank was teaching or something. I don’t know what he was teaching on. And it wasn’t long before another person came in and sat down and I didn’t know them. And all of a sudden Hank Lindstrom said, now let me show you this. I thought, what in the words he’d do?

That has nothing to do with what we were talking about. I mean, it had nothing to do with what we’re coming. It’s just like, you know, click. Everything else is off. And he started giving the gospel. He gave you a invitation. First and foremost. But see, that’s where his main focus was on. And everything else, it didn’t matter. But I remember that. That’s something, a certain image of what I can remember. And that was in 1964, by the way.

So my memory isn’t totally gone yet. but I remember a few good things. When you find out that a person is unsaved, remember you have asked him if he knew if he would go to heaven when he died. Then you can begin sharing the gospel by sharing your personal testimony. You’d be surprised how many people that I’ve opened up a door to their understanding by giving my own personal testimony. And I used to tell all the teenagers and the college kids and it camps.

I always remember these three things. So they’re right there. What I thought, what I found out, what I did. What I thought, what I found out, what I did. So when you’re given a test, that’s what you’re doing. What I thought, what I found out, what I did. So number one there, what I thought I had to do to get to heaven. What do you think you have to do to go to heaven? Well, I thought I had to be good.

I really did. I thought I had to be good to go to heaven. But of course, I never knew how good. Nobody ever told me that. So that would have been nice to known, am I good enough? So most people think that you have to be good to go to heaven. Of course, then they have to wait till they die to find out they’re good enough. So since you don’t know the future, you don’t know if you’re gonna be good or bad.

So then of course you’ll have to wait. So then how can you say you know you’re going to heaven now? If it depends upon how good I gotta be? Well, that’s why most people don’t know where they’re going when they die. But you and I know that you can know it before because it doesn’t depend on how good you are or how bad you are. See, that’s the misconception that most people have. If you believe that you have to earn your way to heaven, then you’ll have to wait if you made it.

But if you think it’s free, well, you can have it now and you can know you’re going. And that’s what the Bible says. So I always told him what I thought. I thought I had to live a good life, join a church, be water baptized, believe in Jesus and do this and stop that and join this and all that. And so there’s always something somebody thought, What do you think you have to do to go to heaven? On the little heaven track, that’s one of the questions.

What must I do to go to heaven? What do I have to do? And we list a few things in there. And of course, if you know the truth of it, if they check. All of them accept the last one. They failed. Because there’s only one thing you have to do to go to heaven. The second point is, what did I find out? What did I find out? Well, I had a man one day sit down with me with the Bible and he explained to me how to have eternal life.

See, you can work out your own testimony. You can make it long. You can make it short and sweet. You can tell it in two minutes and you can tell it in an hour. But it should have certain basic things to it. What I thought. I thought you had to be good to go to heaven. What you found out, you know, I was 18 years old, sitting in a little living room, and my father will explain to me how that Jesus Christ died on the cross, paid for all of my sins.

And all I had to do is accept the payment he made for me, and he would give me as a free gift of a lasting life. Well, that was the best news I ever heard. Well, what did you do? Well, that’s the next thing. What I did, I trusted Christ as my Savior. Because if you didn’t do that, it doesn’t matter what you thought, Or what you heard. You didn’t do anything about it. So when I heard that all I had to do was believe.

Well, I can believe that. That’s on the level anybody can have it. So it’s not a matter of you performing something, living good enough to get it. You know that it’s free. See there, that statement? I placed my faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone as the one that died for all of my sins and rose again. He gave me His righteousness in exchange for my sins sin so that I could receive the gift of eternal life in heaven.

So he took my sins and when I believe it he gives me his righteousness. Well that’s good. And you know what? He took the initiative. He did his part and paid for my sins on the cross 2,000 years ago. And what was mine? Just believe he did it for me. And believe it is not a work. God’s Word says so. So I have down here my testimony Now you’ll notice that whenever you give the seven steps that I’ve given to you before and explaining the gospel you can take each one of those points and make it part of your testimony.

You see the wages in his death but the first one is I am a sinner. We have all sinned. So I can start off with the testimony of I’m a sinner. That’s what I am. I do things wrong. I am not as good as I’d like to be. And I found out that the Bible says the wages in his death. And then I heard that you had to be perfect to go to heaven. See that’s point number three. And then I realized that I couldn’t earn my way to heaven.

That’s point number four. It’s not a works. Number five, Christ died. I heard Christ died on the cross and paid for my sin. And number six is just believe. And all I had to do was believe it and He would give me as a free gift everlasting life. And number seven is I know I’m going to heaven. to heaven. See, I can give my testimony to you. One of the biggest things you’ll ever do is learn the seven steps in order and it’ll help you when you do the little wallet illustration.

It’ll help you when you give a testimony. It will really help you in a lot of ways in your life because you’re trying to make the gospel clear to the person that you’re talking to Because a lot of people do not know where they’re going to go when they die. And you do. So you got to make it simple for them to understand. Well, that means that you need to make it simple in your mind to follow. And this is what this is for.

So just look at it very quickly. Number one, I used to think I had to earn my way to heaven by being good. Number two, I knew that I had sin and that my sin was result in death, which was separation from God and hell. Number three, in order to go to heaven, I would have to be perfect as God because heaven is a perfect place. So in number four, I believe Christ died for me by taking all my sins on Himself because you couldn’t earn it yourself.

And as you go down to every one of these years, you can follow the seven steps. Look down at the bottom. Quote or show at least two verses of salvation when given your testimony. I always like to use the John 3 16, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, 1 John 5, 13. Those are baits, you know, like trying to catch a fish, because a lot of people, they don’t even know that those verses are in the Bible. They don’t know that the Bible says you can know you have eternal life.

Because most people think you have to wait till you die to find out if you’re gonna make it or not. That’s a little late. And so learn these verses. When I’m witnessing to somebody, I never try to show them a whole lot of verses. it just clouds their mind. It’s better to get on one verse like Evasion 2.89, explain it. Our first John 5th, they’re to Inexplain it. Or John 3.16, and explain it. Don’t try to take cover so many verses, because you know 100 verses, you wanna show them all, 99 of them, maybe leave one out.

You wanna show them everything that you know. That’s not good. All you do is confuse. Take three or four verses and explain those verses and make it simple and clear for a person to understand. Every week I can’t wait until Friday night, I get a phone call. Somebody always calls me on Friday night. Let’s we know how they went on. So winning. Because they’ve been not talking to people and getting kicked out of malls or something like that of threats.

But it’s always interesting to hear some of the testimonies and some of the things that happen. And so I guess they went Friday night and they had, how many did they have trust the Lord the other night? About 30 people. But see, if they didn’t go, well some people said, well they’d have been saved anyway. No they wouldn’t have. No, the one that’s the devil of the lie. That’s a lie of the devil. The devil told a lie. No, it wouldn’t have happened.

So there’s people who shouldn’t trust Christ as Savior if the gospel is made clear, if it’s made simple. And so this is why it’s so important. So anyway, look at page two. Here’s a few ideas. And that’s all they are. It’s just ideas that can help you to present the gospel to somebody. Now listen to me. This church because of Dr. Hank Lindstrom, y’all have a testimony around the country of, and because everybody knew Hank. Hank was well known.

Hank was loved. Of y’all being clear on the gospel. True? Clear on the gospel. But if you don’t share the gospel, being clear on the gospel is no advantage. It doesn’t matter how clear you are on the gospel if you never give it. Think about it. If you don’t tell nobody, what difference does it make if you’re clear muddy or in between? It’s because you share that gospel. So you want to also be an expert. You want to be a professional on explaining the gospel.

The know the art of so winning is a tremendous thing being able to talk to people and have them trust Christ to save So look at number one very quickly. Understand God’s righteousness and the requirement for heaven is perfection. The Bible as Christ, soil paper as us, and Philippians 3-9. So all paper is placed inside the Bible to show you have been found in Christ having his righteousness. For example, here’s my Bible and my Bible represents Jesus Christ. And then I take a piece of paper and I have a piece of paper and I can spit on it and whatever, you know, just whatever.

with our own. Give me a piece of paper. And they said, this is me and all my righteousness. And then I’m according to the book of Philippians chapter 3. And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is to the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. So I am found in Christ. So my life is hid in Christ. So when God’s looking for me, he can’t find me.

I’m hid. Where am I? I’m in His Son. Oh, there you are. So I have his righteousness and be not found having your own righteousness. Don’t you be caught trusting in your good works to get you to heaven? Don’t be caught trusting the church to get you to heaven or your good works to get you to heaven or giving money to get you to heaven. God says, don’t get caught. You better be found in him. You better be found trusting Christ in him alone as your only hope of going to heaven.

And so it’s a simple illustration to use and I’m sure you’ve heard it before. to understand that a Savior is someone that saves you because you cannot save yourself. And we use the illustration about the guy that’s out there in the water. He’s out there in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and he can’t swim. He’s going down. So you come along and, well, how are you going to help this poor guy? Well, it’s very easy. You just throw him a little book on 10 easy lessons on how to swim.

Now that might be educational, but that’s not a Savior. And maybe you could jump into the water and swim around him and so forth and say, dude, just like me long enough and hard enough and you might make it to shore. That’s not a savior. I mean, you might be a Daniel Bohm or a Davy Crockett in Trailblazer, but you’re not going to save this guy. Or now you might be able to just pick him up out of the water, put him in the boat and take him a thousand miles from shore and then kick him out again.

That’s not a savior. It’s the one who takes him out of the water, puts him in the boat, takes him to the land, puts him on dry land. to save you. Now a Savior is someone who saves us, takes us from here to here. So when you trust Christ as your Savior, you’re trusting Him to take you to heaven. What am I trusting Him to do? Take me to heaven. Not part way, not halfway, not some other way, all the way.

That’s what I’m trusting Him to do. I am not trusting Jesus Christ for most of my life. I’m trusting Him to save me totally completely and get me to heaven. Because if he don’t get me there, guess what? I’m not going because I don’t have any confidence in my works. I’ll never be good enough. So it’s a simple illustration, but it’s a good illustration that you can use. Number three, understand that salvation is a gift. It is a gift received by believing in Christ and not a reward for living a good life.

A lot of people you think will have a very clear understanding of that, but believe it or not, Most people don’t get it. Salvation is a gift. It’s free. Rewards are earned. So going to heaven is a gift. It’s free. I don’t earn it. When I get to heaven, if I want to have rewards when I get there, then I have to earn that. But getting there is free. What I have when I get there, I have to work for.

Total difference. Children being born doesn’t cost them a thing. But to enjoy life, they may have to learn to be obedient. But they’re not being obedient so they can have life. They’re obedient because they want some things to enjoy in life. See, God has saved us, given us He turned life and we’re His children, and there’s so much He wants to have us enjoy. It called the Abundant life. In other words, to really understand and enjoy life. Let me give you a simple illustration.

For example, a professor one time he had some students that came over to his house and he had retired, and he asked them if they wanted some hot chocolate. And they all said, yes, they wanted some hot chocolate. So he got about 10 different cups, very expensive cups, all different kinds of cups. And he put 10 of them out there and he poured some hot chocolate in him. And the kids came up here and they were looking at the vicious cups and saw different ones had taken different cups.

He says some of y’all are going to be very disappointed and very discouraged in life. He says because some of y’all, you focused upon the cup and not upon the hot chocolate. He says, what you wanted was a hot chocolate. It doesn’t matter what kind of a container it comes in. And if you fall in love with the cup, and you can’t get the cup that you want, then you don’t enjoy life. He says, God wants to give you some hot chocolate, and you’re fussing and fuming about the kind of a cup that you have, the house you live in, or the car that you drive.

That’s not the life. That’s not where it’s at. It’s not in things. It’s not in money. But some people who have less or happier people than those who have more. Anyway, that’s another sermon for another day. Look there at number four. Understand the penalty for all sin being paid for by Christ and knowing for sure of your eternal life. I asked a person this one time. I says, are you married? Yes, I am. Do you have a wife? Well, I don’t know.

Who wants a mother in law without having a wife? If you’re saved, you’re supposed to have eternal life. If you believe on Him, hat everlasting life. So if I believe on Christ, I have everlasting life. Are you saved? Do you believe? Yes, I do. Do you have everlasting life? Well, I don’t know. Then you don’t believe it. He said, if you believe it, you got it. So how do I know when I really believe it? Well, not could say I have it.

If you can’t say you have it, you don’t believe it. I have eternal life. I know I’m going to heaven when I die. I don’t hope I’m going to heaven. I don’t think I’m going to heaven. I know I’m going to heaven. I can’t go to hell if I tried. I haven’t tried. I know I have eternal life because Christ died for me. That means he paid for my sins. Well, if he paid for my sins, I don’t have to pay for them.

He paid for them. You say, you don’t deserve it. I know. That’s why he says you’re saved by grace. Grace means unmerited favor. So anyway, a lot of time I use the illustration that’s right here, but you know if I go to the McDonald’s and get a hamburger and I got to pay for it, well if I pay for it, how many times I have to pay for it? Just one time. And if I went out for a state dinner and Gary Stephen paid for my state dinner, well then I wouldn’t have to pay for it, would I?

Gary, did you hear that? Gary, Gary, he’s asleep. Wake him up bad. Oh, he is awake. He heard that then. So you don’t have to do it again. If Christ paid for your sins, you don’t have to pay for them if you believe He did it for you. God made it on a level that anybody can understand it. So simple, so easy to understand. Number five, understand that God does not save and then lose. He came into the world to seek and to lose those, no.

Seek and to save and then lose. No, seek and to save and there’s nothing else out to them. nothing else out to them. The sick and the safe, that which was lost. So when I trusted Christ as my Savior 51 years ago, the Lord saved me, gave me eternal life, and He doesn’t take it back. He doesn’t take it away from me. So you want people to understand that they can know they have eternal life. And I have an idea, I’m not sure I’m right, 100% on this.

It’s hard for me to understand how that, you know, sometimes we say we gave somebody the assurance of salvation. You know, because sometimes people got all the parts, but they just can’t put it together and they say they trust the Christ is Savior and they believe it and they believe in eternal life to the gift, but they don’t know for sure they’re going to go to heaven because they think they can lose it. Well whenever sometimes you’ve given them assurance of salvation, it might be that you’ve just let him do the Lord.

It’s hard for a person to… Believe on Jesus Christ, will not know what they’re getting. What are you trusting Him to do? I’m trusting Christ to what? To save me from what? From hell. What do you believe He will or you won’t? If you’redinand to do that, do you believe He will save you from hell? Well then if He saves me from hell and I’m trusting Him to do that, one thing can I believe that I’m saved from hell and I can’t go there?

But if I can still go there, am I really trusting Him to save me from it? Well, if he wants to, he can. If he doesn’t want to, then you don’t understand what he said. He said, if I trusted him, he will. He said, if I trust him, he will give me eternal life. And he’ll never cast him out, never lose me. Eternal security is not a separate doctrine in salvation. Eternal security is the gospel. That’s when you really know that’s really good news.

It’s not good news to be saved for an hour or a day or a week or a month or a year, but to know that I’m saved for eternity. Now that is good news. Wouldn’t you agree? That’s when it’s good news. Look at number six, understand being born individually into God’s family. So when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you are born into God’s family. And then you can use the illustration like in your own family. When you were born into your parents’ family, you were their child and you’re your child from now on.

So when you become God’s child, you’re God’s child from now on. And now you’re dealt with concerning yourself as a child of God. Before you say you weren’t his child, now you are. So as a child of God, God may chasten you, discipline you, or he can bless you. All kind of wonderful things He can do. Be the tar out of you. You’re his child. So a child of God cannot live as a please and get away with it because your heavenly Father is going to chase and or discipline you.

So it’s a good illustration used because the word of God uses that illustration. And also number seven, understand eternal life versus temporary life. Like you have a ring on your finger and it’s what you used to say is an emblem of the tide that binds and that little ring when your finger, it has its eternity. Shun, your love is supposed to be everlasting and all that kind of stuff, you know. There are some people believe eternal life is temporary.

He gives it to you until you do something wrong and then he takes it away from you. But the Bible doesn’t teach that. God’s Word doesn’t teach that. So understand the difference between something that’s eternal and something that’s temporary. Number eight, understand being sealed with the Holy Spirit. One day I had several envelopes. I had one envelope I had to the Father, and then I had one on the Son, I had the Holy Spirit. And so I said, here’s me, and I’m in this envelope, the Holy Spirit seals me in Christ, so now I’m in Christ.

And then he says, I’m in the Father’s hand, so I put me in the other envelope, so I am in the one envelope, and I had three different sizes of envelopes. And so I’m in this envelope, And then I’m in this envelope and then I’m in this envelope. I said, now the only way anybody can get to me is they gotta break the seal of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They got a problem on their hand.

Because he that is for me, who can be against me? Who’s gonna take me out of the Father’s hand? Who can separate me from the love of God? Nobody. And number nine is the teaching of baptism for the believer. We got about six or seven or something like that. It’s going to be baptized coming up unless there’s others that want to. That’d be fine. The more the merrier, but baptism doesn’t save anybody. Going into the water doesn’t save anybody.

Water doesn’t wash away your sins. It doesn’t wash the dirt off your neck if you don’t use soap with it. So it can’t cleanse you. It’s a pitcher like I’ve married a lot of people. And so whenever they get married and everybody takes pictures, well, taking the picture doesn’t marry them. It’s just a picture of their marriage of their wedding. And so when you believe that Christ died on the cross and that He was buried and rose again for you, if you believe that, then God’s as a public testimony before others.

It is a witness. It’s a step of obedience. Then you should be water baptized. Being water baptized is a picture of what you internally believe. That’s why baptism is only for believers. You do not baptize little babies. You don’t baptize little kids that don’t understand and never trust a Christ of Savior. It’s a wrong thing to do because they grow up and they’re trusting in something while my parents had me baptized or confirmed and all kind of stuff they go on.

That doesn’t save anybody, never has. You can’t find it in the Bible. It’s not there. So once you trust Christ as your Savior, because you believe He did it for you, then yes, when you stand in the water, like a picture of Christ on the cross, when you go under the water, that’s a picture of your burial, when you come up out of the water, it’s a picture of your resurrection. That’s a picture like of you dying and paying for your own sins.

You didn’t really do it. Christ did it for you. But because you believe He did it for you, this is a picture of what you believe. I believe Christ died for my sins, came back again from the dead, and never to have to do it again. So how many times can I really be baptized one time? Why? I can only get saved one time. It’s a point unto every man once to die and after this, to judgment. So this is what God’s Word says.

And so number nine, there’s a little thing that some time we use, and that’s what I just showed you. But anyway, there’s a few of these things that are very simple, easy to understand. Look at number 13. The Gospel hand, some of y’all do this with kids, for example, on the thumb, God loves me. I have sinned, Christ died for me. If I believe I will go to heaven. So you’re talking to little kids, you got a little hand.

Everybody’s got a hand. Let me see your little hand. Oh, that little hand. Look at that. And you can simply say, see, God loves you. I have sinned, Christ died for me. And if I believe, I will go to heaven. So you can use a hand just to remember that. I use the seven, so you can use this for the little kids. And you can mix it up by, you hear me do this sometimes, misquote scripture. I did it already this morning.

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever keeps the 10 commandments and comes the Calvary community church, pays 50% half everlasting life. I see, you know that’s wrong. Or tell the kids, God doesn’t love me. I haven’t sinned. You’d be surprised how quickly kids can let you know. Hey, that’s not right. Who died for my sin? Santa Claus? Who died for my sin? The Easter Bunny? No, Jesus Christ paid for my sins. Little kids can get this.

Oh, look at the last thing down here. Where has spiritual muscle exercises? eyes, ears, mouth, knees, hands, eyes, ears, mouth, knees, hands. And those few little things right there, you can have a message for the kids. Because those are like, you know, with the eyes, that’s Bible reading, ears, go to listen, 10-shirt, mouth, witnessing, knees, praying, and hands helping others. So you can teach simple little things when you just learn simple little things and explaining these little things to the kids anyway Y’all behave.

Let’s pray shall we Father. We thank you so much for this time together bless each one Give us a good service and to follow in Christ and we pray they men 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 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 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 every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.