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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. Clear… Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the Bibleline Ministries dot O-R-G homepage.

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. Put in your Bible to the book of Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. We often hear, especially in the last year and a half or so, about how that we need to have better things happen in our country for a better life. You know, for that dream that I’ve always had.

So therefore we have to elect the right people that can help us fulfill our dream. Well, sometimes it turns into a nightmare. And I want to tell you the real way to how to have a dream and to have something better. Everybody’s always trying to better their life. So you need to see what God has to say about this. And I know that you just can’t wait to hear what I got to say. Ephesians in chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, I want you to notice there in verse 11.

Ephesians chapter 2 verse 11 says, wherefore remember that ye been in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision, in other words Jewish people calling that to the Gentiles, in the flesh made by hands, 12 that at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the common wealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Those words having no hope. You know, having no hope is about as bad as having false hope.

Did you know when you have a false Christ, a false gospel, and a false spirit, it means your hope is false. There are many people today who have a false hope. There are those who have no hope. Many don’t consider themselves religious at all. They just considered they’re going to hell and might as well have themselves a ball before they get there. others want to go to heaven and so they’re working hard to get there. So there’s no hope and there’s false hope.

And I think the best thing is to have a sure hope. But look there in Hebrews in chapter 7. Hebrews in chapter 7. Just turn to your right to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews in chapter 7. And notice in verse 19. In verse 19 it makes a statement. For the law made nothing perfect. There were people who trusted in the law to get them to heaven. Today, they may use good works. People who are using good works, for example, giving money or going to church, living a good life, believing that that is going to make them good enough to go to heaven.

As you’ve heard, there is no such thing as a pretty good heaven. So you’ve just got to be pretty good. There is a perfect heaven and you have to be perfect to get to heaven. So there’s people who believe that you have to work really hard at this, do the best you can, and that eventually you might make it. But look what he says, for The law made nothing perfect. So to believe that it can. Would be a false hope.

Something is not true. It’s not real. And so there’s many people who are trusting in their works to get them to heaven and it will not happen. It just will not happen. Also look there in the last part of verse 19 where he says, but the bringing in of a better hope did by the which we draw nigh unto God. So you see, there is no hope. There’s a false hope, but there is a better hope. It’s gotta be something that’s better than none at all.

It’s gotta be something that’s better than a false hope. It has to be a sure hope. In other words, it’s joyful anticipation that I know that it’s true because I’m believing and trusting what God says about something and so my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and His righteousness. So I want you to look there in Hebrews in chapter six, Hebrews in chapter six. And look there in verse 17 where he says, where in God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath.

and oath. In other words, when God gives his word, it’s a sure word. You can trust him. You can believe it. So you see, if you have no hope at all, you say, well, I’m just too bad. I’m not even going to try. I’m going to hell anyway. I’m going to have me a ball. You don’t understand. You see, that’s because you have no hope. But see, that was before Christ paid for the sins of the world and offered you as a free gift, eternal life.

There There is hope. There is a reason for you to trust Him. And if you know the truth, you can recognize the lie. But you see, if you don’t know truth, you cannot recognize error. Like what he says. In verse 18, that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie. see the other one is up there in verse 12 where he says, when he could swear by no greater, see there’s nobody greater than God.

And the other one here in verse two, it’s impossible for God to lie. So there’s nobody greater than God. There’s nobody to override what God says. So, and he cannot lie. So if he says something and there’s nobody greater and he cannot lie, it must be the truth. So that my hope is not blind faith, it’s faith in the facts. If God says something, that’s not blind, that’s the most surest thing you can ever have. I don’t trust everything that I see.

I don’t trust everything that I hear. But I do trust the Word of God because it’s proven itself to be just that, the Word of God. So my hope is in what God says. And this is what he said. You see there in the verse 18 again, he says, we might have a strong consolation. In other words, you can really take courage. You have something that’s sure because God said it. It’s the truth. It’s sure. You can believe it.

And it gives you great confidence. And that’s what makes you bold, is because you know you’re right. Look what else he says here in verse 19, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. The anchor that we have is sure and steadfast. Our hope is because of what he said. That’s not false hope. That’s the sure word of God. So if you hope you’re going to heaven but you don’t have anything to base it on except your good works, you’re in a heap of trouble, boy.

But if your hope is in what Christ did and what He said, then you can be sure of going to heaven because the God that said there’s nobody greater and the God that says that he can’t lie, then you can have confidence and know for sure you’re going to heaven when you’re dying. And that’s why the Bible talks about there has to be a better hope. You see, in the Old Testament God uses some things to try to help us to see and understand.

You see, for example, you have a lost man standing up here. Now with your mind’s eye, you got to see a lost man. Not me, over here. There’s a lost man over there. This lost man. You see, if he is hoping… For heaven, based upon his belief, which is a covenant that he has with himself. I believe I’m good enough, or I can earn my way to heaven. He makes a covenant with himself, because he didn’t make it with God because God didn’t agree to that.

And he believes that believing this body of truth that he has is going to be sufficient. And so because of that, he has a false hope. He has confidence in something that cannot perform. His confidence is going to be not in Christ, but in himself. And because he has this false hope, he is going to find himself greatly disappointed, because it’s not going to work. There is in the Scriptures this teaching about how to be certain of eternal life.

That it tells us these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. Now, I want you to take your Bible and look there in the book of Hebrews in chapter 7 and verse 22, looking verse 22, where it makes this statement for by… or so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament or covenant. This covenant is different from the one in the Old Testament.

In other words, the first covenant was like this. God says, I’ve given you the covenant of the law and if If you keep the law, you’ll be good enough to go. And so the people said, all that thou hath required of us, we will do. That’s what they said. 1500 years later, they still haven’t kept the law. So there’s people that believe that they can earn their way to heaven by their good deeds And it’s a covenant that cannot produce the results.

If you earn your way to heaven, good, go ahead and do it. All you have to do is live perfectly. Don’t mess up one time. The soul that sineth one time can’t go. Adam and Eve was in a perfect place. Adam and Eve committed one sin. And they were kicked out of the garden. God doesn’t tolerate even one sin in the garden and He won’t tolerate one sin in heaven. So therefore, man has failed and he has a covenant that he cannot keep.

So therefore his hope is in him performing. So he needs a better hope. He needs a better covenant. But you see, the better hope is got to have something that’s sure. So Jesus Christ, even though in the Old Testament, they could still believe individually upon the Lord. But see, all of their hope was in a payment that was going to be made. So they look forward to the cross. You and I are saved because we look back to the cross.

What makes it better for us is easier for us to believeExecutive something that’s been done, then they, looking forward to something that will be done. So, we have something better. It is finished. You see, they had to believe that there was going to be a payment, and we believe that there’s already been a payment. We live knowing that Jesus Christ has come and died and come back from the dead. We have historical proof of they had it in the Old Testament, but it was always prophesied that in the future it was going to take place and it hadn’t happened yet.

So it’s better for us on this side of the cross. So you see, there was two covenants. If you want to go to heaven, earn it, go for it. Try your best, or it’s free. Which way do you think is best? To try to earn it, or do you think it’s better if it was free? Because it’s free. And it’s free because Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for our sins. But the only way you can accept it as a gift is that you have to realize you can’t save yourself by your works.

So you don’t try to save yourself. You trust him, let him save you. And the difference is heaven and hell. Big difference. So in verse 22 when he says Jesus Christ is the surety. It means he is the guarantee of this better testament. The better one is better for several reasons. You see Jesus Christ is the one that made the payment for the sins of all of us. the world. That’s better for him to make a sacrifice for my sins than to me for trying to live by the law and sacrifice so much, I offer all these sacrifices that God says will never take away sin.

Trying to earn something that God says you can’t have. How disappointing that would be. You cannot attain that which God has provided as a gift and it’s totally free. This is why you see so many people are trying to earn their way to heaven because they don’t understand and he’s something better than me trying to save myself. When Christ died on the cross, it was because it was better. You see, the sacrifices in the Old Testament would not do the job.

Take it by looking Hebrews in chapter 8 and verse 6. In verse 6 it makes this statement, but now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant which was established upon better promises. You see in the Old Testament God could promise, I will save you, justify you, buy your works. If you can perform. But He used the law to show that nobody can perform. You may want to perform.

You may want to live a perfect life, but you can’t do it. If you’re honest, you know you can’t. You have not been perfect in your life. You are not perfect in your life now. What pray tell thinks in your mind, you’ll be perfect tomorrow because you can’t. And so God gave the law to show us that we cannot save ourselves by our works. And so that is a covenant of the law based upon a man’s works, a man performing.

And God says, the promise can’t be sure because your performance can’t be guaranteed. So that’s why people don’t know for sure where they’re going when they die because the sea is based upon their performance. So God says, there’s something better. There’s a better hope, a joyful anticipation of knowing something that’s real, that’s genuine, that’s sure I can count on. Look up here just a second. I want you to get this. I was born in 1942. I’m a little over 70 years old now.

I know I’m going to heaven when I die. Listen to what I said. I know I’m going to heaven when I die. I don’t hope I’m going. I know I’m going. And the reason that I know I’m going to heaven whenever I die is because it doesn’t depend on me. If it did, I could not be sure. Because you see, my surety would be based upon my performance and I can’t guarantee how I’m going to perform. So far, it’s not very good.

And the future doesn’t look too bright. You see, I still get mad and upset and angry, and I would love to have my car turn into a tank. I have a bad, I guess, attitude concerning road rage. I said this one time. I was driving down the road, and I came up behind this little old man in the car in front of me. And I thought, if you don’t have anywhere to go, you ought to get off the road.

I have a place to go. And I hate it when somebody just pokes along in front of me, don’t they know who I am? Don’t they realize my time is valuable to me? They don’t have anything to do. They don’t have anywhere to go. And they just, and I thought one of these days, I’m really going to mess up. I’m going to pull up behind somebody and I’m going to lose it. And I’m going to say things I shouldn’t say.

I’ve never used this word in my life, but if you’ll spell it, I’ll sign it. And I feel like just blowing the horn, scare him to death, have him jump over a curb or something. And I thought, if I do that, just once I do that, I’m going to pull alongside him, I’m going to look at him. And there’s going to be Dr. Poulson looking at me. And I think you better get control of yourself. Now I’ve only had to fight that desire for about, you know, 60 years.

I don’t see me improving. Now, I’m going to try. I’m going to try. But I’m so glad that my going to heaven does not depend upon my performance. Did I go to church enough? Did I give enough money? Did I pray enough? I mean, when it depends upon you, you can’t be sure. But if you go on what he said, you can be. Look what he says here in verse 6. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon a better promise.

This promise is based upon his performance. The old one was based upon your performance. Now if you have to choose, would you rather go to heaven on your performance or on his performance? His. Just makes sense. Why? His is sure. Because he, when Jesus came, he lived a perfect life. He never sinned. They found no fault in him. He died and paid for all of my sins. And he said, if I would believe that he did it for me, he would save me.

His victory that he had by living a perfect life was like he did all of this for me. In God’s eyes it’s like Yankee was born and lived a perfect life. See he gave me his righteousness. So I did it. I didn’t really do it. But he said he would put his payment to my account and he paid for all of my sins. So there was a better promise made because it’s based upon a better sacrifice. All of the sacrifices you could ever make by whatever you did, and if you were Jewish and you had to make all those sacrifices, he says the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin.

Never make you good enough. Couldn’t make you perfect. So the Bible says Jesus Christ came and he He became the author of eternal salvation. The reason it can be eternal salvation, it has to be perfect. If it’s not perfect, it can’t be eternal. And Jesus is the author of eternal salvation or a perfect salvation. That’s why when we preach the gospel, the gospel has to make a man perfect, or it doesn’t do him any good. You see, that day when I trusted Christ as my Savior, when I believed He died and paid for my sins.

He put that payment to my account and in God’s eyes I was made perfect. My new birth, born of God, is perfect. Now you just see my old flesh. You just see my old sinful nature. There’s another good looking 17 year old teenager inside of this body struggling to get out. You see when you trusted Christ as your Savior, your new birth is born of God. If it’s born of God, God’s the father, God’s the father, he has no sinful nature.

And if he has no sinful nature, your new birth can’t have a sinful nature. If it has no sinful nature, it can’t sin, if it can’t sin, it can’t die. That’s why once you become a child of God, you are his child for how long? Forever. That’s how you can know that you’re going to heaven when you die, because you see, you were saved based upon a better promise. Christ promised that he would save you, even told Abraham this, justify you by faith alone.

That’s the promise he would justify you, made you righteous by your faith in what Christ did for you. So it’s based upon something that’s better than you trying to trust yourself. Oh yeah, God will save you if you can keep the 10 commandments, try it. You can’t do it. Oh, you gotta do it live a perfect life. You can’t do it. You see sin is on the inside of you. You have a sinful nature. So you sin, yes by nature, you sin by choice too.

Even when you know what’s right, you still choose wrong, don’t you? When you know what to do, and the Bible says to him that knoweth to do right and do it that not to him, it is sin. Everybody is rebellious. Everyone has a sinful nature. So the Bible tells us there’s really only two ways a man can try to save himself. He can save himself or Christ save him. There is no other way. And God says the old covenant was based upon your performance.

The new way is you trust Christ as your Savior. Which do you prefer? He said if you trust Him that He’s got something better for you because in verse 6 a better covenant is a promise that God made based upon what He said and what He will do. And that’s why he is the testator of a new contract. And let me just show you this just a little bit because I think it’s so important. Look there in chapter nine.

Chapter nine in Hebrews, and look in verse 16. For who are a testament is, or this new covenant, this contract, there must also of necessity be the death of a testator. In other words, if my brother down here, If he was going to die and leave me a million dollars, not yet, not yet, bro. It’s just an illustration. If he was to die and left me a million dollars, and I knew about it, and it’s in this wheel, now it’s no good until he dies.

Now I may ask him if he wants some pizza, and take him out and get him some, you know, any kind of fatening food he wants, sweet, twinkies, if there’s any left. Whatever it would take, I might want to hurry him up a little bit because I can’t get it until he dies. Well, Jesus Christ, His whole premises made upon, He has to die as the tester. He made out a will. He made out a will. And in His will, He says, this is no good unless I die, because it’s all based upon His blood.

He has to shed His blood, give His life as a payment for our sins. So it’s no good unless he dies and sheds his bloods and where there’s no shedding of blood, there’s no remission of sins. So he can’t keep his word if he doesn’t die. God made a promise to Abraham for 130 years before the law was ever given that he was gonna justify the heathen through faith. And so therefore Jesus Christ had to come as a son of God to down the cross so that God the Father could keep his promise that he made to Abraham.

And it’s awesome. 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. Part 2 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 tool 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, 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 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.