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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 totally. 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.

So you and I have been adopted into the family of God and it’s not totally complete yet. We’re waiting for the adoption of the body when the body will be changed. And I will have a perfect, glorified body. One day that is coming. But as you look over here on the right hand side, which one of these gives you this idea? See letter D? The act of God whereby one who is already a child is placed in the position of an adult son, where you carry adult responsibilities.

wants to bring you not just as a child of his, but to where you are expected with responsibilities to grow into a mature child of God. And that’s why in Romans in chapter 8 when he talks about in verse 14, the Holy Spirit is to lead us. So if the Holy Spirit is to lead you, it must mean you’re going somewhere. He’s trying to take you from something to something. So he’s leading you, he’s guiding you, and he guides us according to the truth of the Scriptures.

Take it number two. Number two is the word faith. And take your Bible-looking Romans in chapter four. Romans chapter four, and we have there, I believe, one of the best definitions of what faith really is. And faith, if you look all the way down there to letter J, to trust or have confidence in a reliance upon testimony. So as you read the scriptures, especially the Old Testament, of all the stories where God is actually involved in the affairs of man.

When you see God working in people’s lives, sometimes bringing blessings and sometimes chastening. But he says the testimonies of the Lord are true. And because of that, we are supposed to learn from the Old Testament stories. And as we learn from these Old Testament stories, we find out what faith is, because it deals with the idea of building our confidence in God so we can trust Him. So as you read the stories in the Old Testament, every one of us, our faith should be strengthened, If we read stories about people who trusted God, or God say, this is going to happen, or that’s going to happen, and it happens like God says.

So wouldn’t that increase our faith in the Lord so that as we grow in the Lord, our faith is growing stronger and stronger? So here in Romans 4, look there in verse 20. definition of faith, he says, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. So, unbelief is to question what God said. But was strong in faith, that means believing what God said, giving glory to God. In other words, he was giving glory to God before he got the answer.

Sometimes believing what God says means that I can go ahead and praise him now because I know what he’s going to do. Is there a problem you can’t handle? Is there a problem that God can’t handle? Can you trust him and you believe that, I don’t care what it is, he’s going to walk you through it. Now if you can believe that, do you have to wait till it’s done to start praising God or can you praise him up front?

That’s face. And you can start counting your blessings and praising God because you know he’s going to, and he hasn’t done it yet. God lacks that kind of faith. And so he says in verse 21, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, God had promised, he was also able to perform. So do you believe that God is able to do what God says that he will do? That’s faith. And every one of us as a child of God needs to have our faith in the Lord.

And your faith will grow as you learn more and more about the Lord and you find out that your confidence grows. And things will happen and you can just trust the Lord. You just trust the Lord And that’s where your peace of mind comes from because you know you’re trusting someone. He will not let you down He will do what he says he will do and that takes a lot of confidence in the Lord Now the devil is gonna do everything he possibly can to get you to question God to doubt God so that you don’t believe God Look at number three Number three is glorification Now, we don’t use the word so much as glorification as we find out that it talks about glory and glorify, and it actually can refer to this.

Look at me just a second. The Bible says, all have sinned and come short of His glory, the short of His perfection. They talk about the Chicana glory, the perfection of God. God is perfect. In the book of Timothy talks about the glorious gospel, the apostle Paul refers to it, of how bad we are, but he talks about the glorious gospel. In other words, the gospel that can get you to glory, the gospel that is perfect. In other words, a perfect message.

You see, if you have to be perfect to go to heaven and mankind is not perfect, then the message we preach, if it gets a man ready for heaven, prepares him for heaven, then the gospel has to be a message that’s perfect. It has to be a perfect message that makes a man perfect. If our gospel doesn’t make a man perfect, it doesn’t do, do him any good. True? I can think about it. Because if a man has to be perfect to go to heaven, If he talked to eight or nine the other night, if they believed it in God’s eyes, they were made perfect.

Good to go. And if they’re good to go, it was because of the message. The gospel, the glorious gospel can make a man perfect. Now the Bible says it in a book of John chapter 7. It says on that great day the feast Jesus stood and cried, send it to any man thirst, let him come into me and drink and as the scripture half set out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This fake he of the spirits which they that believe on him should receive.

For as yet Christ had not yet been crucified or glorified I should say. So he had not yet been glorified. In other words he hasn’t gone to the place of perfection and when he gets the glory then he said I’m going to send the Holy Spirit. But I don’t send him till I get there. So when I go there I’ll send him. So the Holy Spirit came. He came Christ and has a glorified body. And some were able to see this glorified body even before He died on the cross as He will be in the millennium, the rule.

Now God tells us that we’re going to have a glorified body, a perfect body. So when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you were glorified as far as your soul you were made perfect. The day will come when our bodies are going to be changed to be made perfect, just like the Lord. So this is mentioned in Romans 8, look there in chapter 8, I want to show you this in a quick. You know there’s several things that are mentioned here.

In Romans 8, look there in verse 30, moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called and whom he called, and he also justified, and whom he justified, he also glorified. So you’ll notice how many things he does. God does this. Now he’s the one that does the calling. How does he call? Picture, for example, stands right here, a lost man. So God has given to me the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, God gave to me a message.

So I take the message, the gospel, to the lost man. When I go to the lost man, and he hears the word, the gospel, that God loves him. That he sent his son Christ to die for him. Came back from the dead, and if he will accept Christ as Savior, he can know he has eternal life. He can go to heaven whenever he dies. So he cannot believe until he hears. And you can’t. Here, unless somebody preaches it, and therefore, that’s why we go.

So the lost man hears the call. How does God call through the gospel? So he hears it, he trusts Christ’s Savior. God has, according to the predetermined before the foundations of the world, before this man was ever born, before he did any good or any bad. before time started, God had predetermined to save all of those that believe. He predetermined that He would justify them. That means He will make them declared righteous. And He’s going to sanctify them, make them pure and holy, perfect.

And He’s going to glorify them. That means Prepare them for heaven in a glorified body. All that is what he does. You and I don’t do any of this. This is what he has predetermined for every believer. So whenever we trust Christ as our Savior, this is what God does for us. Now look at number three there. If you look at it, it goes down to letter I, the completion or consummation of our salvation. That’s the end result. That’s how that’s where we’re going to.

were not there yet, but in the eyes of God, He already says, you have been glorified. Look at number 4, justification, just as if I had never sinned. It means to be declared righteous like an accord of law. You’re cleared of all charges against you. This is what Christ has done for us. Look there in Romans in chapter 4. Romans and chapter four. And you’ll find here words that explain what it means to be justified. Look in verse five, but to him that work if not, but believe it on him that justify it the ungodly or who’s the ungodly or that’s us.

So God is going to take the unjust, the ungodly and justify us just as if we’d never sin, declare us righteous. And He says, without your works, without you earning it, without the right, God’s going to do it. This is what He does. And sometimes I think my mind, it just doesn’t seem right that it should be so easy. But that’s God. That’s what He’s done. That’s what makes it such good news. Did you know it’s very difficult for people to accept something that’s totally free?

It’s one of the hardest things in the world. You tell people they have to earn it? Well, they aren’t thinking, well, sure, I know that. But tell them it’s free. You think, well, everybody you believe that. That’s that easy belief in them. Well, if it’s so easy, why don’t everybody believe it? They can’t believe it. I argue with my father law over almost three months because I couldn’t believe it. It’s too simple, too easy. Got to be more than that.

You mean just believe, just believe it. And you can go to heaven when you die. Now, that’s got to be more into it than that. And yeah, the only thing God requires is you believe it. The only way that any of you in here know that you’re going to heaven because you believe you are, It’s not because of anything you’ve done. It’s not the condition that you’re in today. I mean if it was because of what you’ve done, okay what happens if you don’t do everything good tomorrow?

Okay now you ain’t gonna go. Then you would never know for sure where you’re gonna go whenever you die. The only way you can be positive is that it’s free and that’s what he says. Now look here in this verse he says, believe it on him that justify it the ungodly. So if I believe on the one who justifies me, declares me righteous. Without my works.” That’s what he said. His faith is counted for righteousness. And then he uses a simple illustration.

He refers to David. Look what David says. Here’s what justification is. In verse 6, even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto whom God get to impute it, righteousness without works. In other words, God is going to take his righteousness and put it to his account. Now many people over the years have used same illustrations and so I hear things, I copy things too. But let’s say for example, this is a book, this is a story of my life.

Alright? And in my book the story of my life, it’s got all the bad things I’ve ever done and the reason is because there isn’t any good thing that I have done. If there is none good, and all of my righteousness is filthy rags, well, this is a bad book on my life. Nothing in here is perfect. Story after story. All right. There’s such Jesus Christ right down there. He’s got a book, The Life. Of Jesus Christ. And in his book, you open it up and lo and behold, it’s the life and times of Jesus Christ when he lived here on the earth.

He never did anything wrong. And so it’s a book that is totally perfect. Everything he did was right. Not one thing against him. So what God says is this. He says, let’s just change the cover. And he says on here. Now, my book. becomes the book, the life of Jesus Christ. And He puts my name on His book. So when you look at that book and it has under the life of Yankee Arnold and you open the book up and it’s man.

See, His righteousness is put to my account. It’s just like, that’s the story of my life. And he took all of my sins and he gave me his righteousness. So God sees me clothed in the righteousness of his Son. So I have been justified just as if I had never sinned. Like I can’t sin. But I’ve gone to court and I’ve been cleared. Declared righteous. a verdict of God. And nobody can change his verdict. He has decreed it. And you can’t have double jeopardy.

I can never be tried again for any more sins. I’ve been cleared. Because you see, when Christ died, He died for most of my sins, some of my sins, or all of my sins. All of them, past, present, and future. He will not come down next year and pay for what I did this year, he made one payment for all time and eternity. So that payment put to my account, I have been justified. I’ve been cleared in the court of divine justice.

It can never be repeated. Now look down there in verse 24 of Romans in chapter 4. And he says, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed or put to your account, get this, if we believe, if you believe, if you don’t believe it will not be put to your account. You see over there in verse 8, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not imputes and you know where when I do something wrong it’s not put to my account.

No, put to his. No, it doesn’t sound fair, but who said it was? He died for me. He did this so that you and I could have eternal life. There is no other way for us to be justified. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. So no man can save himself. Now he says there in verse 25, who was delivered for our offenses? That means that he died, was delivered up, paid for all the time that I have offended God.

All my sins he died for. When he came back from the dead, what he’s talking about is the money has been put into account and the check has cleared the bank. It’s paid in full. So now when I believe that he did it for me, because he is a living proof of payment. He is my living receipt, Christ alive from the dead. And because of that, he can justify me. put his payment to my count I’m cleared. I am justified not because of one good work that I have ever done or ever will do.

It’s all because of what he did for me. Therefore in chapter 5 and verse 1 it says, therefore we are justified by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So that is what it means to be justified and justified. If you look at letter C and maybe draw a line to it or just put it down there, but it means to declare or pronounce you righteous. This is what God has done for us.

Look at number five, the word reconciliation. Well, that’s a big word, reconciliation. But while we’re right here in the book of Romans, chapter 4 and verse 5 talks about the person being cleared because of something that’s between us. You see there’s something between us. We are ungodly in verse 5 of chapter 4. We’re ungodly. Alright, here’s God. Look up here. There’s God and here we are. God is perfect. We are not. God can’t let us in the heaven because heaven is a perfect place.

He can’t dwell with us. And therefore, there is a war like between the, the imitate between man and God. Now, we have in the book of Romans in chapter 8 where it talks about Jesus Christ as an intercessor. It talks about the Holy Spirit being an intercessor. But an intercessor is not the same as a mediator. You see, I have a problem. And my problem is with God, and God’s problem is with me. And we can’t get together because our sins separate us from God.

So the Bible says that we need to be reconciled. So Jesus Christ is the mediator. There’s only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. So Jesus Christ is is into mediator. And that means that he is God, so he knows God. And he’s a man, so he knows man. So being the perfect God man, he’s the perfect mediator between God and man. Don’t it make sense? It’s so easy to follow, I think. It is in my mind.

So there’s only one media between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. So what Jesus did to satisfy God’s request and what he could do for man and solve his problem, what he would take our sins upon himself and die for us that he might bring us to God. And he was the only one that could do it. Man had no righteousness of his own. So God, in the person of Jesus Christ, came into the world and paid for our sins so that you and I could be reconciled.

It’s like two people. I’ve done a lot of marriage counseling over the years and every once in a while, there’s a man and there’s a woman, they got a problem. But you try to get them to be reconciled. to get them now. Okay, whose fault is it? It’s his ors. They all pointed at each other. But what do you do? Well, will you forgive him? Okay, will you forgive her? Yes. Oh, I think some people have a fight just so they can have fun making up because, you know, making up can be such a wonderful thing.

But anyway, you’re trying to bring people together to be reconciled. So look up here. In case someone’s here tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ of Savior or if someone’s listened by the Internet. Now this is so important. I want people to know that there is a God in heaven and he loves us and yes all of our works are as filthy rags. We all like sheep have gone We have gone everyone to his own way. We are rebellious. We’ve all done things wrong.

But there’s a God in Heaven that still loves us. And he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, as a mediator, to take the sin, to pay for it, in order to bring us to God. Look at that verse before we close. You just got to see it. Look there in the book of 1 Peter. I want you to see this. It’s not just a nice little verse. Nice little verse, it’s a very important verse. Look there in 1 Peter chapter three, and look in verse 18, verse 18.

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. Get it? Once suffered for sin, the just, that’s him. For the unjust, that’s all of us. Everybody in the world get this, that he might bring us to God. That’s what a meteor is. He did that, that he might bring us to God. And without that, no man can see God, no man can go to God. So look up here, this hand represents you and me, the wall of represents sin, we have all sinned.

The wages of sin is death, and since we’ve all sinned, we all have to die. and not just physical death, but it’s eternal separation from God in a literal fire burning hell. The Bible talks about the first death, physical death, but he also talks about the second death. That means eternal separation from God in hell fire. Now to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God and none of us are perfect, none of us are righteous.

We’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God. So God says, you cannot earn eternal life, you cannot work for it, it’s not by our works of righteousness which we have done, or ever will do. So this hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh. He came into the world, the perfect God man. And he had to be that. Because he represents God, but being born into the world as a man, he represents man.

So Jesus Christ was able to live without sin, so he didn’t have to die. But because of the love that God has for us, he sent his son, and because of the love that the son has for the Father, he says that the world may know that I love my Father, this is why I’m doing this. So he took all of the sins of the world and he died once, came back from the dead that he might bring us to God.

So whenever we believe that he did it for us, God puts this payment to our account, it’s imputed to us, this payment. He gives us the free gift of eternal life and because of that, we can know that we have eternal life and know that we’re going to heaven whenever we die. Just plumb good news. Let’s pray, Shami. Wherever you head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around, if you’re here tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you trust Him right now?

You can hear this all your life, but have you really trusted Him? Do you know for sure you’re going to heaven? I would hate to think that one day when you pass away and I get to heaven and I see you at the Great White Throne Judgment. And I remember how many times I have given the gospel and there you stand. You never seriously ever trusted. You never really believed it. Because you harbored in the back of your mind that maybe there’s something I have to do.

Wouldn’t that be a shame? Trust Christ in Him alone as your only, only hope of going to heaven. And if you trust Him as your Savior, God said it would save you and give eternal life as a gift. And if you’re trusting Christ as your Savior tonight, and you’ve never done it before, first time, I would like to have prayer for you. And by raising your hand, it’s just to let me know when you’re saying preacher, that made sense to me and I’ll trust Christ as my Savior.

Or if you’re listening by internet tonight, just right where you are, you can believe it. I’d like to encourage each one of you that are listening by internet. And if you do trust Christ as your Savior, Or if you have, because of the radio broadcast, or the internet broadcast, I’d love to get an email from you. I’d just love to know. Our Father, we thank You so much for all You’ve done for us, for this opportunity to come before You.

We’re thankful for Your Word that You’ve given us. We pray that we’ll be found faithful, and teach those things that are true, because we know that the truth, the Holy Spirit dwells within us, that lead in the guidance and all truth. and we thank you for all you’ve done for us. Thank you, you’re the person hearing Christ’s name, amen. 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. 771. 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.