This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Everybody talked about the night before Christmas. Well, this is someone wrote in the cemetery that day after Christmas, and all through the town, the stockings were hung by the chimney. Anymore weren’t hung by the chimney anymore. In boxes and wrappings covered the floor, the kitchen was covered from floor to ceiling, with enough dirty dishes to set Mother Relim. The children were whining over what they didn’t get, and rather than sharing they were throwing the fit. The malls were bustling with post-Christmas shoppers searching for bargains on racks and in hoppers.

The salesman looked haggard, the shoppers looked worse as credit cards flew out of wallet and purse. There were no joyful sounds of carol or singing, and the only bells heard were cash registers ringing. It was the day after Christmas, and all through the malls, people are turning gifts not wanted or needed. Unwanted clothing and bad fitting shoes, you don’t have a receipt, so store credits you choose. On Target, on Macy and Home Depot too. On Costco and Walgreens, don’t forget off Broadway shoes.

Long lines are the worst when you want to be home. So come again as the cashier says, You returned with a happy, good new year. Towards the day after Christmas, when all through the place, there were arguments and depressions even mum had a long face. The stockings hung empty and the house was a mess. The new clothes didn’t fit and dad was under stress. The family was irritable and the children no one could please because the instructions for the swing set were written in Chinese.

The bells no longer jingle and no careless came around. The sink was stacked with dishes and the tree had turned brown. The stores were full of people returning things that fizzle and fail. And the shoppers were discouraged because everything they bought was on half-price sale. It was the day after Christmas and the spirit of joy had disappeared. The only hope on the horizon is 12 bowl games in the new year. Now you know a little bit of the rest of the story.

We’ve got some interesting things to look forward to in this coming year. And our compassionate leaders are meeting in Washington to solve our problems that they created, that they created. And they could have solved it a long time ago. In other words, let’s just say for example, let’s say Dan Hall over here, he works for for me and I’m an employer. And Danny has overspent and now he’s way, way, way in debt. And he works for me. And he comes to man, he insists that what he needs is more money.

He needs more money. He had more money, he could pay all those debts. And I said, well, why don’t you stop spending and waste in your money that you already have. And he can’t understand that. I’m telling this story, but people can’t get it. Stop overspending. And so that’s the way it’s supposed to be understood, but people in Congress just don’t seem to get it. So anyway. Take your Bible, turn to the book of Romans. Romans in chapter 3, Romans chapter 3 and verse 24.

There’s a statement here, being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. It’s a simple statement, just a few words, but it says, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption or the payment that was made by Jesus Christ. You think anybody would be able to understand that, especially as you look at the previous verses that’s talking about how that there is none righteous, no not one. none good, no, not one. And so the Bible says in verse 19 that all the world may become guilty and be for God.

So if everybody’s guilty, then everyone’s condemned. And because of that, he says, all have sinned and comes short of the glory of God, is short of God’s perfection. And that being true, if God saved anybody, He has to be willing to save everybody, or it would not be grace. I wrote down a couple things that I thought would be interesting. We know that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. We know that salvation is by grace. And you’d be surprised how many people still have a problem understanding just what that means.

So one of the things I wrote down is grace cannot be withheld because you don’t deserve it. Grace cannot be withheld because you don’t deserve it. If you do deserve it, then it can’t be grace. So what is the condition of the world? No one deserves to be saved. Not one person deserves it. And as you study the Scriptures, you’ll find out that what Christ did for one, He did for all. He did it for everybody in the world.

And another statement that I wrote down, because if you do deserve it, it cannot be grace, because if you deserve it, there’s something else that takes place. Grace cannot be given if you do deserve it. So grace cannot be withheld because you don’t deserve it, but grace cannot be given if you do deserve it. Because if you do deserve it, then that means that God found something that you did that was good enough to save you. And therefore, if God found one good deed in your life, then God had to save you because of that one worthy thing.

You were worthy. You deserved it. So God would be in debt to you. And grace cannot be the fulfillment of debt, not to you or by you. Look there in chapter 4 and verse 1, What shall we say then that Abraham, our Father as pertain into the flesh hath found. What did he find out? Must have found out something. For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath were of the glory, but not before God. If Abraham were justified by works, he hath were of the glory, but not before God.

He might brag before man, not before God. And he makes a statement, for what sayeth the scripture Abraham believed God, and it was counted into him for righteousness. So it wasn’t because of what Abraham did. It was what Abraham believed. It’s why his righteousness, God’s righteousness, was put to Abraham’s account. And verse four, now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace but of debt. So grace cannot be given if you deserve it. If God found one good reason, He must save you, or God would incur a debt.

If you could be saved by your works, then God would be in debt to you. He owes you. You earned it. Now, if God could not save you by your works before you were saved, how can your works keep you saved after you’re saved? If you are saved by grace, you can’t keep yourself saved by works. That’s why a lot of people think that being saved by grace is a starting point. That now God gives you that. opportunity to earn it.

And by God’s grace, I’m going to keep it. And I got to do this, not any other. So they add works to the gospel. And people don’t get this. Now I wrote down two other things. One of my like to mention to you this way. Grace cannot incur a debt. that. Grace cannot incur a debt. A lot of times we make this statement, but we understand, I believe most people do, because of what Christ did for me. I want to serve Him and I’ll sacrifice and I’ll go and give and do and all that because of what He did for me.

But regardless of whatever you do after your saved, you can never, ever pay him back for what he paid for your salvation. So grace cannot incur a debt, cannot put you in obligation to God, or it would not have been by grace. There can be no stipulations to grace. stipulations is you got to stop something in or start something. Live a certain way, promise. All those negates grace. Grace must be freely, freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

So you and I cannot do anything before salvation that would cause God to be in debt to us, therefore demanding that He save us based upon some good deed. That’s why you find three chapters are spent showing that grace is the only way that a man can be saved because he shows that all are guilty before God. Everyone is guilty. No man can save himself. So once again, grace cannot be withheld because you don’t deserve it. Because if you do deserve it, it cannot be grace.

Grace cannot be given if you do deserve it. If God found one good reason, or work, then He would have to save you for that because it put God in debt to you. So God cannot be in debt to you and I in order to save us. Because if it was true, then God could not save us by grace. Grace means the absence of work. So grace cannot incur a debt. Now that you trusted Christ as your Savior, you were saved by grace.

Grace cannot put you in debt. Like I owe God now. I must pay him back for what he did for me. I believe everyone should serve a Lord. But you can’t pay him back. It cannot be like going down to the bank and taking out a loan on a house. And then you have to make payments or the home goes back to the bank. I did not take out a loan. God loan me His righteousness, He loaned me His salvation.

And if I will continue making payments on it, I can keep it. But if I mess up and I don’t make my payments, then it goes back to the Lord. That is not grace. So grace cannot incur a debt. It means that after you’re saved by grace, it cannot put you in obligation to the Lord. Because if it did, then this is where lordship salvation comes in and demands to see what payments are you making for what Christ did for you.

And if you’re not making those payments like making Christ the Lord and the Master of your life, well then evidently, You are grace incurred a debt in their eyes and it’s not grace. The other statement, I cannot owe God for my salvation. I cannot pay it back by one deed or a thousand deeds or a million deeds. I cannot pay him back for what he did for me. It’s like a lot of people think that they have to live a certain way in order to pay him back for all that he’s done for them.

Can’t be done. You were saved by grace without any works whatsoever. You’re kept saved by grace without any works whatsoever. If you require one element of evidence to prove that you’re saved. That is a incurring a debt to show that you’re really saved because look I made this payment. There can be no payment. The only evidence that I need for my salvation is the evidence that I had the night I got saved. saved. When I got saved 52 and a half years ago in a little old living room in Athens, the only evidence that I had that night was John 3, 16 and 1 John 5, 13.

And I knew that night I was saved, and I knew that night I had eternal life. I knew I was going to heaven. I had not had any of my life that I’m going to live as any evidence that I’m really saved. What I based my salvation was on was what God said. So there are no evidences to point to for salvation. If you do, you open up a whole new can of worms because now what is that evidence going to be.

And then everybody gets out there magnifying glass and begins to examine each other’s life to see if you’re really saved. The second birth is a spiritual birth that you cannot see. It would be great if every child of God lived in such a way that everybody would know, now there’s a saved person, but whatever the evidence of my life would be, a lost man can do the same. If now I go to church, I’ll loss man can go to church.

If now I read my Bible, well a loss man can read the Bible. Well now I pray, well a loss man can pray. Well now I sing to him, well a loss man can sing to him. What can I do that the loss man can’t do? The loss man can live just as godly as a Christian. Would you say that, well I know he’s saved because, then you’ll have to say the loss man is saved because he got the same evidence.

The way we know that we’re saved because God said that if I trusted him, he would give me as a free gift, everlasting life. His word has not changed. That which I base my authority upon is the word of God that doesn’t change. My life comes and goes. Some days I feel like I’m saved. Some days I feel like I’m lost. time I’ve taken trips and I know I’ve been lost. There are things that you’d like to have in your life.

There’s times when you feel like a total failure. But I’m glad that 52 years later, what I depended upon at that moment to know that I’m saved is exactly the same thing today that I depended upon for my salvation. And that as I was saved by grace 52 years ago, God saved me, gave me eternal life and I’m going to heaven when I die. So I don’t look for evidence in my life as the proof that I’m saved because I am saved by grace I am kept by grace.

Let me just mention this to you. To turn from sin which a lot of preachers preach causes the Lord to incur a debt. If a man has to turn from his sin. It means that He has to be willing to do this, and if He does, He deserves then to be saved. If He deserves to be saved because of what He’s done, God cannot save Him by grace.

If a man makes Christ the Lord and the Master of His life in order to be saved. Then, God incurred a debt. He is in debt to save the man because he made Christ the Lord of the Master of his life. Then that would not be grace. That would be God incurred a debt. He has to save the man who earned the right to be saved by his works. And God says for by grace, or you say through faith that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works.

Not of works. lest any man should boast. So in the book of Romans, the first three chapters is telling you how that nobody qualifies. All have sinned. All have come short of the perfection of God. All the world has become guilty before God. Jews and Gentiles, nobody is able to save themselves. So God hath concluded all under sin that his righteousness might be extended to all. Look there in the book of Romans in chapter 3. Romans chapter 3 and notice in verse 21 where it says, but now, but now, the righteousness of God which is Jesus Christ.

Without the law is manifested been witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe there is no difference. See, God has to conclude that everybody in the world is the same. In order to extend his grace to anyone, he has to send it to everybody. They can be no different. If God can, for example, here you are, If I can choose to save these, and I’m not going to save y’all, and a fatalistic view of predestination, that I chose to save y’all, and I didn’t choose to save y’all, and I only can have to die for the ones that I’m going to save, then I cannot honestly say, as God, I love the world.

If I can choose to save some and not others, then I have to answer. Why? What determined my choice? If they’re all the same and there is no difference than as God, God has to have, I should say, be just when He justifies the ungodly. He has to be right in His determination. So he cannot look at your good works as though you are more worthy to save than these over here because he can’t use works. So grace cannot be pleaded for like, you know, look, I deserve because grace is not something that you merit or earn.

It’s unmerited favor. So I want to read this to you in just one more time because I think it’s important. Grace cannot be withheld because you don’t deserve it. If you do deserve it, it cannot be grace. Grace cannot be given if you do deserve it. If God found one good reason, He must save you because that would put God in debt to you and he’d have to save you because you deserved it. So he has proven that no man deserves to be saved and concluded that all are guilty and are all lost so grace must be extended to everybody or nobody because what would God use as a determining factor when he makes the statement God is not a respecter of persons.

He is not a respecter of persons. Then He can’t choose some and reject others. He’s based upon whether or not they accepted Christ or they rejected Christ. So by faith and faith alone, yes we are saved, we are justified once and for all. God says, grace cannot incur a debt as He says they’re in Romans. Look here in real quick in Romans in chapter 4. Romans chapter 4 where he says in verse 4, now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt.

If a man is saved by one work or a multitude of good works whereby he deserves it, then God would be in debt to save that man. That’s why salvation not only is to save you, but it must also keep you saved forever because if work cannot give it, works cannot take it away. Therefore your good works. Does it mean that I deserve to be kept saved? And my bad works means I deserve to be lost. It cannot be that way.

Or grace is not grace. God is in no debt to save anybody because you deserved it in any way. God cannot keep you saved because you deserve to be kept saved. Because you couldn’t produce the works to get saved and you can’t produce the good works to stay saved. You’re saved by grace, you’re kept by grace, and there is no other way. You add one work to the gospel, it’s no longer the gospel. So grace cannot incur a debt.

Salvation cannot be like taken out alone at a bank. And then I must make payments. I cannot owe God for my salvation. Now, as a child of God, we often make statements like, I want to serve the Lord. I want to please the Lord. I want to give my life to the Lord because of all that He’s done for me. It could be your reason for doing so. As long as you understand, I’m not trying to buy my salvation.

I’m not trying to keep my salvation. Yes, because of what Christ did for me, the Bible makes a statement. For the love of Christ constrain us because we thus judged that if one died for all, then we’re all dead and that they which live should not henceforth live unto them. themselves, but unto him who died for them. So I’m not trying to pay it back. I’m living for the one who loved me, the love of Christ, constraints, or motivates me.

And I’ve said this before. I don’t serve the Lord because I want His blessings in the future. I’ll get them. I can’t say I don’t want them. I do, but it’s not my main reason for serving the Lord, but what I’m going to get. I don’t serve the Lord because the rewards I’m going to get in heaven, though I’m going to be rewarded and I know that. But my main reason for serving the Lord is because of what He hath done, not what He’s going to do.

Because see, if you make it based upon what you’re going to get and then lo and behold, He doesn’t come through, He doesn’t give you what you think You deserve and you can’t see the rewards. You just might not have enough to keep you going. But what he did for me is enough to challenge and motivate me to serve the Lord for the rest of my life. I love him. I know he loves me. And that’s about all I need.

That’s good enough for me. Let’s pray, shall we? Our Father, we thank you so much for your watch, care, and your love, and all your provision for us. We’re thankful for the free gift of eternal life. We’re thankful for salvation that we’re saved by grace, that nobody ever has and ever will deserve to be saved. But because of what you’ve done for us, we know in your word you be siches, that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, not to pay for our salvation, Not to pay it back, not to make it even.

But Father, you have done so many wonderful things for us. And not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. That we may prove or discover what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. In Christ’s name we pray, 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 are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach by the line 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 home page 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 broadcasts 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. Friends, 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.