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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 a Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage.

We pray that you will 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. Everything God promised God fulfilled. And yet, look how many years down the road it took. A long time. And now it’s happening just like God says. And also you find in the book of Luke in chapter 19, where he talks about that God says, because of your rebellion, because you did not believe that Jesus Christ was God, who came to visit the house of Israel.

He says, the country of Jerusalem, the temple, the wall is all going to be destroyed. And it happened just like he said it would. Just a coincidence knowing this is God. Because everybody wants to know if there is a real true and living God, why don’t God reveal Himself? He did. He told you how he would do it in advance. Wouldn’t that be the best way to do it? If he just showed up right now and he’s, hey I’m God.

I told you I was. Would you believe that? Why? I mean, don’t I like God? Don’t incorporate in it all. But with the Lord, see, He was told exactly He had to be of the line of David, of the tribe of Judah, born in Bethlehem. All these are prophecies in advance. And He says, before He came on the scene, John the Baptist would come on the scene and be the voice crying in the wilderness and talking about the salvation of the Lord from Isaiah chapter 40.

Coincidence? Not a coincidence. It’s also found in the book of Malachi. But notice, he makes a statement down here in verse 74 that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. and that thou child shall be called the prophet of the highest. For thou shall go before the face of the ill or the the Lord.”

See the scriptures keep talking about Jesus Christ being God. You cannot deny that. And when it says in the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah and chapter 9 and verse 6, and the government shall be up on his shoulder and he shall be called counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, the Prince of Peace, Jesus is God, the everlasting father. How can you have an everlasting father if you don’t have an everlasting son? So if you’re gonna be an everlasting father you had to have an everlasting son.

Jesus Christ existed before this world came into being. It says all things were made by Him and without Him was not even made that was made. So that means nobody made him. He’s always existed. You see, it’s hard for people to understand how God could have always been, but can you fathom the idea that you will always be? Just think from this point on, you can’t explain before, but you will always be, and you’re going to be somewhere. That’s why I’m so glad that I know I’m going to be with the Lord.

I’m going to have eternal life and I have it. But notice these three things here. There’s about three things mentioned here real quick. I just want to show you this. The verse 77. He’s going to take and say to give knowledge of salvation down in verse 79 to give light and also the last part of 79 to guide our feet. To give knowledge of salvation. See people need to understand that when he’s talking about this one that comes after me, he is our salvation.

He is our righteousness. He is our wisdom. He is our sanctification. Whatever we need, He is it. Have you ever seen in the back of cars, you always say, Jesus is the answer. Jesus is the answer. You think, well, what was the question? But Jesus is the answer, but you’ve got to know what the question is. You see, to go to heaven, He is the way. When it comes to what is truth, he is the truth. What about eternal life?

He is eternal life. That’s who he is. He is the answer to everything. He is the solution to all the problems in this world. Did you know that all the problems we’re having in America? He is the answer. And if there’s anything the world today doesn’t want, and majority of the people in America don’t want, it’s Christ. And yet he’s the solution. Because what if there’s a problem? everybody in America would just trust Christ as their Savior and really understand it, really believe it and started loving each other the way we should and treating each other the way we should.

Daddies would love their moms, the wives, and the wives, they would invite love their kids and nobody rebigures and stop all of this divorces and all this shackin’ up and everything else is goin’ on. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of our politicians were honest? I know, that’s asking too much. This is why Jesus Christ could not come today and to be born in Washington DC because they would have trouble finding three wise men. And we’ll move right along.

I could go further than happen on them. But in verse 79 to give light to them that said in darkness, you see, there’s those that are in the nation of Israel, see there in verse 77 unto his people. Then in verse 79 to those that were in darkness and don’t have the truth. See Israel had an advantage because they had the word of God. They had the prophets. But there’s others that don’t have a clue. And sometimes I love taking the gospel to those that have never heard it before.

And when they hear it and they understand how they can have eternal life and know they’re going to heaven when they die, man, they just kind of light light up because they see the light and it makes so much sense to them. To hear it, to see it, believe it. And the last part of verse 79 says, and to guide our feet. See, after you know the Lord, did you know that if you would let the Lord guide to your steps, did you know it leads to peace and joy and happiness?

In this life, so many people are in such great turmoil and such despair, if they only knew the Lord and loved the Lord and walked with the Lord, You’d be surprised what God can do. And guess what he says in verse 80 now. And the child grew, talking about John DeBantis, whack strong in spirit was in the desert till the day of his showing under Israel. Now this is what John DeBantis was to do. Now take your Bible and look in the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John, chapter one.

Gospel of John in chapter one. He is from verse 6 to verse 15, talking about Christ, the light of the world. He is the light of the world. Verse 29 and 30, He is the Lamb of God. Who said so? Well, that John fella. Now the one that wrote this is not the same John. This is John the Apostle John the Beloved. This is John who lived a long time and wrote also the book of 1st and 2nd, 3rd John in Revelation.

And so that’s a different John. He was a young man that leaned on Christ. This John the Baptist. John the Baptist. See there in verse 5, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. Now the ministry begins. What was the purpose of John’s ministry? it was talking about the Lord. You see, what I’m talking to you about right now, this is really the Christmas story. The Christmas story isn’t just about his birth. The Christmas story is about his death, more than his birth.

Believe it or not. Because see, if he was just born, that’s not the end of it. All you know is a baby was born. But by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, Now you and I know. Otherwise he would have been Justin if he never came out of that grave. It’s the death, barrel and resurrection of Christ. That’s what we depend upon to get us to have him. I’m not trusting a baby that was born in a crib, but I know it was Jesus and I believe that with all my heart.

But if he had not done anything else, it wouldn’t have saved his soul. You see, he has to live and go under all the testings of the law and earned the right to be our near kinsmen so that he could redeem us. But look what he says. In verse 6, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness. To bear witness of the light. He was the forerunner of Jesus Christ. And he says, to bear witness of the light that get this, and you are on the line.

Why did John do what he did? And what message did he have? What was the purpose of his life? Get this. All men through him Christ might be leave. That was John the Baptist’s message. So he preached to get everybody to believe on Jesus Christ. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing today? See, the message hasn’t changed. It’s still the same. And the reason we preach that people can see the light is so that they might believe that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And that by believing you may have life through his name. That was the purpose of the whole book of John. Now look what else he says in verse 8. He was not that light. So you and I are not the light. He is the light. And while he was here, he said, I am the light of the world, but whenever he left, he says, now, ye are the lights of the world. And you and I are the salt of the earth and the light.

So we’re supposed to let people see the Lord through the gospel message. You see, the gospel message itself is a portrait of God. You cannot see God, but the only way you can see God is through his son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has revealed him, has manifested him. And so whenever we give the gospel, we’re giving you a portrait of the face of the son of God. So that you by hearing the gospel will know what God is like.

Without the gospel, you can’t see God. Because the gospel lets us see a lot of things, not only about ourselves, but about Him. You see, whenever you tell somebody the gospel story and simply put, it goes like this. There’s four points of that refers to the man, to us, and there’s three that refers to the Lord. And this helps us to see what we’re like and what God is like, because unless you understand yourself, you don’t understand God. Because you see, you have to see how bad you are to see how good he is.

This hand represents you and me. And the wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. But we don’t see how bad that is. It’s not that bad. Of course, when everybody’s doing it, we’re not that bad. So God gave the law so that we can kind of compare. Oh, God is righteous and He showed me the law and the law says thou shalt not thou shalt not thou shalt not and we did. So we see how bad we are because of the law of God and God says the wages of sin breaking his law of perfection and his righteousness we of all sin and come short of the glory of God.

So the pay for that is eternal separation from God in hell. And the Bible says you and I cannot earn eternal life, we cannot work our way to heaven, we cannot save ourselves. All of that is bad news. I’m a sinner, that’s bad, gotta go to hell, that’s bad, gotta be perfectly go to heaven, that’s bad, can’t earn my weight, that’s bad, boy, there’s a lot of bad news. But when I understood that Jesus tries who is God in the flesh, who had no sinful nature, couldn’t sin, would live a perfect law under the same law, but he never broke a law.

No one could find any fault in him. He was that holy thing that was born into the world. And so Jesus Christ had no sin, and he lived for 30 years without any sin. He said, who convinces me of sin no one could. Only witnesses against him were false witnesses. So Jesus Christ had no sin, therefore he didn’t have to die. But because he loves us, he took all the sin of all the world, and he paid for it on the cross.

Came back from the dead and said that if you were life, we would believe he did it for us. He would put this payment to our account, and we go to heaven on what he did. See Christ coming into the world and dying for the sins of the world, that’s good news. Coming back from the dead, that’s good news. If we simply believe he did it for us, I believe alone, that’s good news. And I can know I have eternal life and know I’m going to heaven, that’s good news.

That’s why the gospel is good news and that’s why we want to give it. But you’ll notice when he says in verse eight, he was not that light but was sent to bear witness of the light. That was the true light which light of every man that cometh into the world and he was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not. Then he says in verse 11, he came unto his own and his own received him not.

But as many as, what he says, as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Give what he says. Anyone who will simply believe it and trust him can have eternal life, can be born into his family. Because look at the next verse. In verse 13 says, which were born, get this, not a blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man.

You see, your new birth, you have to be born again, to be born into God’s family. You can’t wish it to be done. You can’t will it to be done. You can’t work it to be done. It’s only by God. The new birth isn’t something of the old birth, making it happen. What that means is you don’t get the new birth and get to become a child of God and go to heaven when you die because of something you can do.

It’s nothing you can do is an ongoing thing for the rest of your life. If I’m good enough and if I work hard, if I try my best, no. I was talking to a lady last night and I asked her, I said, man, where are you going to go in your dying? She said, oh, I’m going to heaven. I said, are you sure? I am positive 100% sure I know that I’m going to heaven when I die. Now you would think that she probably knows the Lord, right?

I says, is there anything you could do that could keep you from going to heaven? Lots of things. I says, is it possible you could do those things? Well, of course it’s possible. I said, how can you sit here and tell me, you know, positive, again, a shout out, you’re going to go to heaven when you die. And yet there’s a possibility you could do all these bad things and still go to hell. Can you see my reasoning? But you know, there’s some people that are blind, they cannot.

See, if I’m really trusting Christ as my Savior, He can give me eternal life today and keep me saved. If He can forgive me of everything I’ve already done, why can’t He already forgive me for the one I’m going to do? He did it for that way, why can’t He do it that way? I mean, if it’s free, it’s still free. Have you ever heard somebody on the TV and they’re advertising on them? Absolutely free! Absolutely free! Oh, you got to do is buy these two tires and these two tires are absolutely free.

Try going in there and getting those those two tires. Try it. Well, they are free if you’ll buy… No, no, no, no, no. You said they’re absolutely free. I think some people think that’s the way God is with the gospel. When God says free, I think He means free. Nothing. You don’t have to earn it. You don’t deserve it because grace is just the opposite of deserving it. Some people can’t believe that, you mean all you got to do is trust Christ as your Savior and you’ll give eternal life and you can know that you’re going to heaven and your dying.

Well yes, you can’t tell me you can just trust Christ as your Savior and go out here and be bad and do all these sins and still go to heaven when you die. Why can’t I tell you that? It’s the truth. I don’t have a right to change what God says just because I don’t want people to live in sin. I believe that and I try to live as God as I know how. I believe that when you trust Christ as you’re saving, you become a child of God.

I just also believe that if you’re a child of God, you ought to live like it, but not to get to heaven, but because you’re going to heaven. I’ve got three children, the hard way, one wife. My three children born into my family. They’re always my kids. When they do something wrong, I don’t say, get out of here and go to hell. I’m through it. No, no, no. I say, come on in. Come on in. And then I show them how much I I love them.

But I love them anymore. I’ll kill them. When you trust Christ as your Savior, you become a child of God. And when God becomes your Father and you become His child, He won’t ever cast you out, never lose you for no reason. But because He’s your Father, He will chase and discipline you. He will correct you. But He can’t send you to hell. I couldn’t go to hell if I tried. I haven’t tried. But I can’t go there. to heaven is the best news in the world.

But look what he says in verse 14. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And this is the word that’s mentioned all the way back in the book of Isaiah in chapter 40. Because He says, all we are like grass of the field and we’re all going to die and fade away. But the word is coming and He lives forever.

And whenever you read in the book of Peter and talks about it in chapter 1 and verse 22 and 23, It makes a statement that the Word of God, we are born by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Verse 15 says, John bear witness of him, cried saying that this was he of whom I speak. He that cometh after me is preferred before me. And get this and you ought to on the line these words, for he was before me.

a man, John, testify in that this man that he’s prophesying that’s coming right after him was referred before him because he was before me. That’s why they had a problem with when Jesus says, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he said, what do you mean? You’re not even 50 years old. How can you say that Abraham rejoiced to see your day when you’re not even 50 years old. Before Abraham was, I am. Jesus Christ, he is the Lord.

He is God. So when you reject Christ, you’re rejecting God to create the heavens and the earth. Because remember, he made the world. See there in verse one, just look at it real quickly. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God and all things were made by him or without him was not anything made that was Well anyway, look there in chapter 1 and verse 18, no man have seen God at any time.

The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. Jesus Christ reveals God. I used to make the state be known. People know, prove to me there’s a God. What am I supposed to do? Get up there and get a holy God and pull him down and say, there he is. I have come to the conclusion that every time I do this, I am reaching up there and bringing God down for people to see Him.

And whenever you see that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and you see that He died on the cross and paid for all of your sins. And when you see that He came back again from the dead, and when you see how good He is to give you as a free gift everlasting life. When you see all of that, you’ve seen God. Because you see, it’s the story that lets you see, I’m a sinner, I’m wicked, I’m undone, I can’t save myself, I’m condemned, I’m hopelessly lost.

And look what Christ has done for me. He shows me mercy, I don’t get to go to hell. He shows me grace, I get to go to heaven. He shows me forgiveness. I don’t pay for any of my sins. You see, I wouldn’t know any of that if it wasn’t for the gospel story. So you’re seeing what God thinks about sin. You’re seeing what God thinks about you. He loves you so much that he was willing to do all of this for us.

And then you get to see how perfect he is and right to see is and how holy he is. The love of God. The power of God. You see, whenever you hear the story, you’re getting a picture of God. And what messes up the picture is when you try to add human works to the message. When you try to add to what God does, it’s like taking a rim, Brant, and you want to add some finishing touches on it.

I think it will look better for a little bit of this. And you say, well, I think, oh, yeah, all you got to do is trust Christ to Savior, but you also got to go to church. you got to get some money, 20% inflation. And you got to do all these good deeds. See, when you start adding on like that, you’re ruining the image of God because you distort the gospel. The gospel in its purity gives you the clearest picture you’ll ever see of God Almighty.

And then whenever it comes over here in John chapter 1, look at verse 29, The next day John seeeth Jesus coming unto him, and he says, Behold the Lamb of God, which Take of the way the sin of the world. In verse 30, this is He. Of whom I said, after me, come with a man which is befurred before me, for and he says it again, he was before me. So here’s John the Baptist down at the river, he’s baptizing and Jesus Christ shows up.

And so he says to the crowd, Behold the Lamb of God, which take of the way the sin of the world. Do you think John the Baptist understood what he was saying? This was the Lamb of God, that God sent into the world to be the sacrifice of the sins of the whole world. That’s the only way our sins can be taken away. He did it for us. Best news in all the world. Look at me just one more time.

You and me, sin. We’ve all sinned. We’ve all come short of God’s perfection, but he loves us. He loves you. And he sent his son Jesus Christ, God’s son, end to the world because he loves us. He hates our sin because it separates us from him. So Jesus Christ took the sin, paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead. He said, if you will believe it, that I did that for you, I will put this payment to your account.

And you get to go to heaven on what he did. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. The whosoever, believe it than him, should not perish but have everlasting life. Will you believe he did it for you? Let’s pray, shall we? If you’re here this morning and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you just talk to the Lord right now and say something simple like this? Nobody can hear your thoughts. You can’t make a mistake.

Only the true and living God can hear you. He knows your mind. Why don’t you say something like this, Lord? I don’t understand it all. I got questioned. I even got some doubts. I know I’m not perfect. And I heard that Jesus died and paid for my sins. And the best I know how, right now, I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. I believe He died for me. And friend, if you will believe that, And you will trust him.

God says he would give you right now as a free gift ever lasting life Would you trust him? I’m gonna ask in just a moment for a raise of hand raising your hand doesn’t save you It just lets me know that you understood what I said And you’re saying yes preacher that made sense to me and this morning I’m trusting Christ to take me to heaven whenever I die and Friend I’d like to know it and I like to have prayer for you But this is what I preach for I want to be a help.

I want to be a blessing. And if you will trust Christ as your Savior this morning, and you wouldn’t mind letting me know, so I can have prayer for you. Would you just slip your hand very quickly and put a right back down? Anyone at all? Just slip it up real quick. Yes, God bless you, sir. God bless you, man. Anyone else? Just you can put it down. If you trust Christ right now as your Savior, God saves you right now and gives you eternal life.

Father, we thank you so much for those that indicated by an uplifted hand that they would trust Jesus Christ as their Savior. And by doing so they become your child. You’ll never cast them out, never lose them. That when they leave they can say, I know I’m going to heaven because this morning I trusted Christ as my only hope of going to heaven. Well we just ask your blessings upon each one here because we want more people to trust your Savior and we want to be used.

And we want to do it through music and through the message. In Christ and we pray, Amen. You have been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you are 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.

To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the radio broadcast link. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33-6-3-4. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.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 and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.