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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 prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at the end of the day. 1-800-576-3771. One-line 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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family. There’s difficult passages in scripture and sometimes it helps you when you can explain them without too much difficulty yourself. So we’re gonna take a look at another difficult passage here this morning. So take your Bible and turn to 1 Corinthians in chapter six. 1 Corinthians and chapter six.

See, when you don’t have an answer for a difficult passage, sometimes it can stunt your growth because you have a question and you can’t get an answer and therefore you have a little mental anguish, and you’re afraid to talk to somebody because you have fear, somebody’s gonna ask you a question and you don’t know the answer to it. So first Corinthians in chapter six, I want you to look there with me in verse nine. In verse nine it says, No you not, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor feminine, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” Now that’s not all-inclusive, but it includes an awful lot of things. So what if you ever were a drunkard or a liar or you go back to it? This verse has caused a lot of people a lot of problems, especially whenever you hear someone say that you’re saved by grace just like you are and that you don’t have to stop anything or join anything, start anything.

Just as you are, you can trust Christ to save. You’re having turned to life and go to heaven when you die. Well, what happens if you start doing all these bad things after you got saved? So therefore people say, well, those people can’t inherit eternal life, so they can’t go. So therefore, you can lose your salvation. In other words, you may be saved today and you can lose your salvation later. So it causes a lot of people a lot of problems.

And there needs to be a very simple, clear explanation and that there is one. No, I will get to that just a little bit. Now, take your Bible and turn to the book of Galatians in chapter 5, the book of Galatians and chapter 5. See, as a Christian, you can’t be afraid of certain scriptures or verses that seems to say something. That’s why you studied the Bible to try to find out what does it say. And that’s why you have a question you asked the pastor.

You may not know everything. This one doesn’t. But I might try to find the answer for you. So look there in chapter 5 of the book of Galatians in verse 19. This is similar to what we read just a moment ago. But here he says in verse 19, now the works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, less civiousness, idolatry, which craft? hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. Just believe in the wrong thing. Envyine, murders, drunkenness, reveling in such light of the witch I tell you before.

As I’ve told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Here is a few more things in the list than what was in the other list. So man, is there another list? Is everything down here? And so you begin to look at this thing and you know, you could begin to question your own salvation after you got saved. Raph, strife. You ever argue with your wife? Ooh. Are you alive? Hatred?

Hate? I can’t go to heaven? You know, it just seems like it almost eliminates everybody. I mean, the only ones that get to go to heaven is perfect people, like me and Peter Amato, maybe James. Still questionable about James. So you think, well, who in the world is going to go? So take your Bible and look in 1 Corinthians and chapter 15. 1 Corinthians and chapter 15. And look in verse 50, verse 50. Now this is important for you to understand what he’s saying here.

In verse 50 says, Now this I say brethren, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither death, corruption, inherit, in corruption. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Now it doesn’t have the long list here, but it says the same thing. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And before it would just list those things and says if you do those things. You cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. You say, well, what’s so important about the Kingdom of God?

Well, it’s pretty important. We might say it another way. You can’t go to heaven. Oh, take your Bible and look in the Gospel of John chapter 3, the Gospel of John and chapter 3. There’s a brief little story here about a man named Nicodemus who was a ruler of the Jews. He came unto Jesus by night. Set unto Him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do the miracles that thou doest except God be with him.”

And then it says in verse 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, accept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Oh, look at verse 5. Jesus answered, very, very, very, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit. He cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Well, if I don’t want to go to the kingdom of God, I guess it’s okay. But notice before he kept talking about, you cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these adultery and fornication and righteousness and wickedness and all these things cannot inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 6 says the same thing cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Well, blessed be God, who does inherit the kingdom of God? Is there anyone who qualifies? How good do you have to be? Well, evidently, if you do all those things, you can’t go.

Well, then he makes the statement, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So what’s the answer? Well, he mentions it right here in verse 3. Except a man, turned from his sins, makes Christ the Lord master of his life, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Well, if I’m doing all those things, I can’t inherit it. So maybe if I stop, I can’t. He doesn’t say that either. You won’t find one verse in the Bible that says, if you stop all you’re sending, you’ll get to go.

Not one. So why do people think that you have to stop being like that and stop being bad and you’ll get to go to heaven? Well, because that’s just the natural thing. You know, good people deserve to go to heaven. Bad people deserve to go to hell. And you know that. Isn’t that fair? I hear a lot about being fair lately in the news, on politics especially. Everybody ought to pay their fair, share. Well isn’t it only fair for good people to go to heaven?

It’s fair. Okay now, who’s the one that gets to decide who’s good and who’s bad? Isn’t that a good question? I’ll decide. Would you like it to be in my hands to decide who gets to go and who doesn’t get to go? You’ve been good. You’ve been bad. Would you want your eternal destination in my hands? Alright, let’s put it in God’s hands. We’ll let God decide. And what does God decide? He says, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

And all those people that did all those things. bad things, they can’t go either. O, Giroki, who gets to go? The Lord says, none of you. He says, there is none good, not one. There is none righteous, not one. Well, at least with me, half of you would have got there. See there? See how bad your judgment is already? Now, what he did say here, if you looked at in verse 5, Jesus answered very, very, very, I say unto thee, except the man behaves himself and goes to Calvary Community Church and pays 50%.

You know, inflation. Did you know he doesn’t say that you got to stop doing all those bad things? He did say one thing that you had to do, because he said, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. flesh and blood. Who’s flesh and blood? Everybody born into the world. We have a flesh and blood body. So none of us can inherit eternal life. No flesh, no person, nobody can inherit the kingdom of God. Why? Because see, the kingdom of God is a perfect place.

And if you went there the way you are and And the way I am, it won’t be perfect anymore. That’s why I always say, if you find a perfect church, don’t join it. Why? Because you’ll be the problem. Because you’re not perfect. And you will not find that perfect church you’re looking for either. Where’s close as they come, but know that. Now look in verse three, one more time. Verily, verily I say unto you, Accept a man be born again.

Evidently, this is the only thing that a man has to do. The only way he can see the kingdom of God. And he says in verse five, very, very I say unto you, accept a man be born of water and of the Spirit. He cannot enter into the kingdom of God. So you can’t see it and you can’t enter it. And it’s the sense you cannot inherit it unless you’ve been born again. So you see, the desire of a man is always to try to improve himself to be good enough to make it someday.

And God says that won’t work. You must be born again. So many people say, well, the word water here means to be baptized in water. So if it does mean that, then you could take the word born and change it to the word baptized, if that’s what it means. So in verse three, very, very I send to you, except the man be baptized in water again. He cannot see the kingdom of God. Verse five, Jesus answered and said unto him, except the man be baptized in water, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

You say, well that goes okay. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. back to verse 4. And Nicodemus said unto him, How can a man be baptized when he is old? Can he end of the second time unto his mother’s womb and be baptized? Being born and being baptized is not the same thing. It’s not the same thing. Paul says, Christ sent me not to baptize, but you have to be born again. But he did say to preach the gospel. So the gospel and been baptized in water are not the same thing.

See, when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you were born again, born into God’s family. It’s the new birth. The first birth cannot inherit the kingdom of God because you’re not a child of God. The only ones who inherit the kingdom of God enter the kingdom of God, say the kingdom of God are those that are born again. Born from above. So it’s a new birth that you have to have. Now take your Bible and go back with me to the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 6.

1 Corinthians and chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and notice something. We’re talking to those who already know the Lord. But these people here in Corinth, well they were some wicked people. And they were wicked before Paul got there. And they had a lot of the sins of the people that were they were with the cause of the temple, prostitutes, and all kind of wicked stuff that was going on. And people would have their sex orgies and men with their mothers and all kinds of this wicked.

It’s even mentioned in chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians, the whole story about it. No, don’t read it now. But in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 9, he says this, “‘No ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.'” You see, the unrighteous is the lost man. Everyone born into this world where unrighteous means we’re not righteous, we’re unrighteous. Because we’re unrighteous, man can’t make himself righteous. That’s what you are. You are lost. You can’t get yourself to be found.

You don’t know the way. You’re lost. You cannot find your way to God. No man can. All religions is man trying to find God. And that’s why if you’re trying to find God, means you haven’t found God. And that’s why people are trusted in their good works, hoping that that will be acceptable to God. So he says, the unrighteous, the lost man, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Flesh and blood, the first birth which he was born with, cannot go to heaven because you see you have a sinful nature, God won’t let that in.

You’ve got wickedness, God won’t let that in. Heaven is a perfect place, and God says, and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defile of the work of the abomination, nothing, not even a lie. Because see, God is perfect, and God requires perfection, and none of us are perfect. So he says here in verse nine, be not deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. thieves and covetous, nor drunkards, nor evilers, nor extorsioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

None of these works of the flesh will ever enter into heaven. What is another way of saying, no sin can enter there. Lost people will not be in heaven. Only save people. But And who are these say people? We were these lost people. This is the way we were. We had a flesh birth. And our flesh birth is not sufficient to get us into heaven. It’ll never be good enough. Can never perform enough good works. And all the bad things you have ever done cannot be undone by all the good works you do.

All the good works from the time you’re born to the time you die will never take away one sin you’ve ever committed. And therefore because of that one sin, your guilty of all. The wages of sin, eternal separation from God and hell, and so it doesn’t look too purty. So he makes a statement here in verse 11. Verse 11, such were some of you. not all of you did all those things, not all of you did just the same thing, but all of you have done some of these things.

So you can list certain ones and we’ve all done some of this, and some of you all have been adulterers, and some of you maybe have been murders, and some of you have been thieves, and some of you have been, well whatever it is, because we’ve all done things wrong, but maybe not all the same things. Everyone in this room is guilty before God. We have all sinned. We all sin alike, but we don’t all sin alike. So in verse 11 he says, and such were some of you, but get this, ye are, ye are, ye are.

It’s mentioned there three times in that verse, ye are, ye are what? You’re washed. Ye are sanctified and ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. See, when you read the Gospel of John in chapter 3, and it says you must be born again. To be born again is by the Spirit of God. And you and I need to understand as many as received Him. To them receive the power, the right, the authority, to become the sons of God.

So we have become a child of God byediahting Jesus Christ. When you received Him as your Savior, there’s the one who died for you. So, when you believe that when Christ died on the cross, and that He was buried, and that He came back alive from the grave, that He did all of that just for you. Like I’,”s said -> last week, forget about Christ dying for the sins of the world just for a moment, and pretend in your own mind, He did that just for me.

And the only way just linlow you can go to heaven is that you must believe he did it for you. Now doesn’t it make sense to do that, to believe it? That’s the only requirement. If he told you to stop all those sins, you can’t do it. It’s impossible. If he told you to live a godly life, you can’t do it. You are naturally rebellious. You are naturally sinful. It’s your nature. Regardless of that inward desire that you want to live a perfect life, it is impossible.

So God says, forget about the world. He did this just for you. So when you believe He did it for you, He gives you a new birth. Doesn’t change the old one. He gives you a new one. This new one is pure. And that’s how God washes you from the old one is because He takes you and gives you a new one that doesn’t have a sinful nature. So you have been washed, cleansed of all of your sins that you’ve ever done, or ever will do.

God separated you from your sins. He separated you from your sinful nature. One day He’s going to separate me from this body and give me a new body. He can even take this old body and change it. And He will. I’m hoping very soon. But you see, you have been washed by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. Now that’s found in chapter three and verse five in the book of Titus and you need to read that verse. But so you and I have been washed, made clean.

Your soul in the eyes of God has been made pure as white as snow. God has done these wonderful things for us, all because of the payment that Christ made on the cross for us. I wrote a little poem and I called it, I beheld the great divine. How in the world can this great big old mighty God? How can he think about lo me? Now I know he thought about you too, but just that he thought about me is enough to blow my mind.

And this mighty God made it possible for me to see Him through the gates of grace, only with the eye of faith. When I believed that through the cross of Christ, He gave to me eternal life. For all eternity, that’s something to talk about. It’s a wonderful story. And this is how it goes. Just listen to it. I I don’t have no music. The choir is not ooh and an awn in the background. You don’t have to sway back and forth.

But I do want you to listen to the words of this little song that I wrote because it really does deal with this wonderful thing about what God has done for us. The heavens declare the power of God, The earth, the work of his hands, the world he made, and the word he gave, placed his feet upon the sand. I saw the Lord from the mountain peak. And I saw a man so small, I could not see how this mighty God could think of me at all.

When the eye of faith through the gates of grace, I beheld the great divine. Through the cross of Christ, eternal life was designed with me in mine. Come now and let us reason, says the Lord so long ago. Though your sins are now as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. For the blood of Christ removes the stain that’s caused by sin and shame. His death, His grave, was the payment made. He arose to come again. Some day I’ll stroll the streets of gold through all eternity, Your eyes will see, and ears will hear, The things God has for me.

With the eye of pain through the gates of grace, I beheld the great divine. the cross of Christ, He gave me eternal life. I was designed with Him and me in mine. Can you believe that He’s done all of that just for us? We deserve zero. Did you realize the heavens and the earth were designed for you and me. God don’t need those things. Did you realize that God made you just for Him to please Him to bring Him joy?

He wasn’t made for you. You were made for Him. That this great big mighty powerful God designed all of this with you in mind. Not a coincidence. The whole story of the cross, of God taking an individual who deserves absolute nothing, and doing something for us. That’s grace. So with the eye of faith, and what God’s Word says through the gates of grace, because only through grace can a man ever see the great divine. And yet God did all of this justice for you and me.

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. Our two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. 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 home page.

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 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now 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.