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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 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.

I was thinking the other day about all the things that Jesus became. He became something. So if he became something, it means he was something else before he became whatever we’re talking about. Don’t that make sense? So since you trusted Christ as your Savior, what have you become? Has there been anything different in your life since you trusted Christ as your Savior? What have you become since you trusted the Lord? Have you become a servant? A prayer warrior? a soul winner, a Bible student, what have you become since the day you trust the Christ is your savior?

Because you see, that’s what it’s really all about. So I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of John chapter one, John chapter one, the book of John chapter one. So very simple little story I wanna talk to you about, but look there in John chapter one and verse 14. Verse 14. And you’ll notice it says, and the word was made flesh. Grelton Magnus, where he held his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

According to this verse, the word became… He became flesh. So when He became flesh, what was He before became flesh? Now in your mind, you ought to have the right answer. You ought to know what He was before this moment. But where would you go to find out what He was before this? What scripture would you use? Don’t everybody raise your hand at the same time. But is He the same? Or was this something brand new? becoming flesh had never been done before.

He became flesh. Now of course if he became flesh he had to be something else before he became flesh. And if he did become flesh there had to be a reason for him doing so. So you study the Bible and you find out look there in verse 1. In the beginning, this is not a nice place to start. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, the Word was God. Now the Jehovah’s Witnesses would like to think that this means the Word was a God.

That isn’t true. The Word was God. Jesus was God. So what was He before He took upon flesh? Well He was God, but wasn’t He still God? He was still God, but He had never been in flesh before. So he came into the world and took upon flesh. And so I think it’s a wonderful thing to know, but something to keep in mind because I’m going to come back to this in just a little bit. Look in 2 Corinthians in chapter 8, 2 Corinthians and chapter 8.

There’s an interesting little statement there. And I want you to underline this in your Bible if it’s not underlined because there’s a wonderful statement made here. See there in verse 9, for ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he, and here’s those where he became poor. So what was it before he became poor? Well, you said was rich. So he was rich. How rich was he? I mean they have things they put out today trying to tell you how much wealth somebody has.

You know, I can’t come close to matching these guys in this four magazine and they show how much wealth they have, billions of dollars. Can you imagine having a billion dollars? I can’t imagine having a million dollars. Sometimes it’s difficult having a thousand dollars. But he was rich and became poor. Would you be willing to do that? You know I know a lot of people who are poor and all they dream about is being rich. But he already had that.

So there had to be something that was more important to him than all that wealth that he had. Think about it. He was rich and he became poor. So whatever Whatever it is, something had to drive him to do that. Why would he want to become poor? Well if you’ll notice the last part of the verse says that we through his poverty might be made rich. God wants every one of us to be rich. Isn’t that nice? But see prosperity gospel people try to tell you that that means to be rich now.

Do you know who you are? In the Lord, you are some bada, you’re special, you are rich. And Christ was rich and became poor. Why did He become poor? That we through His poverty might be made rich. So if He did that, now you know how He did it, and now you know why He did it. And that was to pay for all of our sins. So he knew that we were all in debt, and we had a debt we could not pay.

So somebody rich came and paid our debt. Doesn’t that make sense? He paid our debt. So therefore, we don’t owe a debt. That’s a pretty good place to be in. But you see, you could have a debt paid and still be poor. You don’t have anything. So he’s going to give us even more than that. And the Bible says that we are heirs of God and join heirs with Christ. We sometimes lose sight of the fact that we are very, very rich in Christ.

You see, I don’t have my new body yet, but this as good as done. I’m going to get it anyway. There isn’t anything in this world that’s going to stop me from getting my new body. Nothing. I am going to go to a place called heaven and walk on streets of gold, gates of pearl, walls of Jasper and all that kind of stuff. And there is nothing that can stop me from getting that. Nothing. God’s already given his word.

So shall we ever be with the Lord for war? So he’ll never leave me and never forsake me. And I want to always be with the Lord. So that sounds pretty good to me. Don’t that sound good to you? You are very, very rich. So don’t dream about being rich in this world. You already are rich. It’s just what do you consider to be valuable? What is valuable? Everything that we would think you had to have, remember when Christ came into this world, He became poor.

As far as we know, He never owned a home. They didn’t run around in a Cadillac or a Mercedes. Do you realize with his knowledge of foreknowledge, he could have been the greatest inventor of all times. He could have invented the internet and took it away from Al Gore. Do you realize that that long ago he could have invented all the things that’s ever been invented? You realize how rich he would be? But he didn’t want none of that.

There was something down here on this Earth, this planet that was more valuable to him than all the inventions of the world, than all the silver and all the gold. I wonder what it is. It’s you. God says that in His sight you are of more value than the whole world. That’s hard for us to believe. And you know every hateful person in this world that’s despised by everybody. God loves. He loves everyone in the world. He loves them all the same.

what’s interesting about one of the disciples he writes in the word he says, him whom Jesus loved, the one that Jesus loved. Who said that? That was John. But anyway, take your Bible and look in the book of Philippians in chapter 2, the book of Philippians in chapter 2, Philippians chapter 2, and look in verse 8. You see, there’s something that he had never done before. This is something that he came to the world to do something that he had never done before, and the thing that he came to do was the last thing we want that have happened.

You know, people don’t mind living a long life. They just… most people don’t want to die. If you could do anything but die, and yet he came into the world for one specific reason, to do the very thing we would want to do. died. He came to die. And what was he before? Before this. You see there in verse 8 he says, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient on the death. He did something.

You see, before he always had to be obeyed, now he chose to obey. It’s something whenever you stop and think about obedience, even unto death. Now, I wonder if there’s a message in there somewhere for us. You wanna be obedient? Have you drawn a line in the sand? And I’m willing to go this far, but no further. Have you told God things that you will not do? Lord, I’ll do this and this and this, but this I will not do.

I won’t do this. I will not go here. And you have put limitations upon yourself because you try to limit God and tell God what you will and will not do. Did you know that some people pick and choose things that they will do for the Lord and think they won’t do for the Lord? They have limitations upon themselves instead of just Lord whatever and then doing it. And let God teach you and lead you and guide you. Because you realize that when you dedicate your life to the Lord, God can give you talent and abilities and wisdom and understanding you never had before and you’ll see things.

It will enlighten you. The Bible talks about it in the book of Deuteronomy where Moses was talking to the children of Israel and he told them, says, 70 men, they got 70 men. The Bible says that the spirit that was upon Moses, he gave it to all those 70 so that they would have the spirit of wisdom and understanding. See, that comes from the Lord. They didn’t have it before because there was such a big job for Moses that the pressure was weighing him down.

He says, I need some good men. And God spread out the responsibilities. Always remember that you can’t do everything, but also don’t limit yourself and think, well, I can’t do anything because God can give you things that you never had before. And it’s important to remember. But he says, and became obedient on the death, even the death of the cross. And then it says that, you know, God has highly exalted him. So you and I should understand that, yeah, he was obeyed.

Now he had to do the obeyed and was willing to come into this world for the one thing that nobody wants to do and that is to submit their will to someone else. He says, I do always those things that please my Father. My will is to do the will of him that sent me. And he was obedient unto death, and even the Lord looked over the banister of heaven and said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Now if he looked over the banister of heaven and saw us, could he say, You know, there’s my beloved servant in whom I’m well pleased. Look in 2 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians 5, but there’s something that he became. If he became something, it means he wasn’t that before. You see there in verse 21, for he hath made him, Jesus Christ, who no no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

If he became sin, it means he wasn’t before. Well, if he wasn’t before and he was without sin, then what was he? by simple logic, you can come to the conclusion. He had to be perfect. He was pure, he was holy, he was righteous, he was perfect, and became sin the most disgusting thing in all the world. You think of all the people that do the most disgusting, sickening, wicked thing, and Jesus became sin. He became sin. And why did he do that?

The worst thing, he came into the world for a particular reason. This is what he became. He became flesh. Never done it before. And now he was rich and became poor. And then he became sin. It became sin for us. And the question is, why did he become? sin. He became everything that God the Father hates. And he let his son take all of that upon him and how God feels about sin. He wouldn’t even tolerate one sin in the garden.

He won’t tolerate one sin in heaven and then allows his son to become sin. You realize why Jesus says, my God, my God, why has Thou forsaken me? Because the sins of the world were placed upon Him. Not only taking our sins, but becoming sin. We’ll never understand the full impact of all of that. I believe when we get to heaven, God’s going to open our eyes and we’re going to see and understand things that we could not with our finite mind.

And we’ll have a greater appreciation to God, the Father, and God the Son because of what it took. He’s signing this wonderful thing called plan of salvation because it didn’t just happen. You see, there has to be something even more that sometimes we don’t understand, and that is there was no other way. When he became the author of of salvation. Take a Bible look here in Hebrews. Hebrews in chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5, there’s a statement made here about becoming the author of salvation, author of eternal salvation.

It means that he became the author of salvation, that before this, there was no salvation. If there had not been Christ taken upon flesh, Christ becoming poor, Christ becoming sin, we would have no salvation. It means there was no way for a man to be saved, except this way. Because if there had been any other way than I believed Jesus would have said, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. There was no other way. And so because of that, he became the author of salvation.

When we say somebody authored a book, well, that means that they wrote the book. It’s copyrighted. We like to copyright things. Did Did you know that Jesus is copyrighted? There is no other. No other person has a right to try to claim that they have salvation and can save. You see, that’s copyrighted. There is no other plan of salvation. There’s people who try to piggyback upon what Christ has done, but it’s wrong, shouldn’t do it. And somebody wants to take credit, plagiarism, want to take what he did and add to it, try to nullify as him being the author.

And you can’t do that. You see, the Holy Spirit of God, he’s copyrighted. Anything else is false. That’s why there’s a false Christ, false spirit, a false gospel, and there’s people who are forgetting that the gospel is copyrighted. You don’t have a right to change it, alter it, add to it, take from it, you can’t touch it. You see, all of these things that Christ did, it’s copyrighted. It means nobody else has a right to tamper with it. It belongs to him.

You see, there is no other means of salvation. There is no other way of salvation. And so he makes a statement. In verse 9, and being made perfect, he became the author of Eternal Salvation. See, if he wasn’t perfect, then you couldn’t have eternal salvation. You couldn’t have the security of salvation. It could not be eternal. Because salvation, see, is in a person. And if the person isn’t forever, then the salvation can’t be forever. That’s why we have, I guess you could say, a mediator that has eternal life.

Our high priest will live forever and he’ll never die. The Old Testament priest, they came along and did their little work, but then they died. Christ lives forever. So we have something that’s very, very unique. Nobody can duplicate it. That’s why when we talk about the salvation of grace, people who try to add works to the gospel, change the gospel, mutilate the gospel, they’re unauthorized. There’s only one author of the plan of salvation. And that’s the Lord. He has done this.

Take your Bible, look in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 15. First Corinthians chapter 15 looked there in verse 20, verse 20. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. You know nobody had ever come back from the dead on their own power. He had paid for all the sins of the world and come back from the dead. Nobody’s ever done that before except him. He had raised people from the dead and the Old Testament they had raised people from the dead but they didn’t do it by their own power.

Jesus says, I have the power to lay down my life and I have power to take it up again. And he says, he’s become the first fruits of them that slip. See all of this, why did he do all of this? He had never done it before. See he He had never took upon sin and became sin before. And he had never died before and never been buried before. And he never come back from the grave before. So this is something that he has done for us and become the first fruits.

So if he could come back from the dead, that’s why because of him taking all the sins of the world and making a complete payment, all those who believe in Him can have as a free gift, have a everlasting life. Get to go to heaven when they die. I think it’s a wonderful, wonderful story. Can you imagine a natural, normal man coming up with this plan is totally impossible. And yet so much of it is written in different books by different human writers.

one author, that’s the Holy Spirit, and yet all of it perfectly joins together. And you put all these things together, it’s truly an amazing story. You and I have been so blessed this side of eternity to know Christ is our Savior. But since we have trusted Christ is our Savior, there’s something that you need to understand. Remember, we won’t take time turn to him, but in the book of Acts in chapter 4 and verse 11, where it talks about the stone that was rejected by the builders.

Here’s the trying to build a kingdom in the head of the king of the king. They rejected the king. How stupid. He never came without a king. And then in verse 12, he talks about there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. It means that there is no other way. And because of this, he was rejected by man. See, he had never been rejected before. He was the Lord. Now he comes into the world to show mankind how much he loves them.

God says that something is so important that He was the head now of the church. You and I are the body. But let’s kind of take it back for a second. Here you are and here I am. What are you now? is that I am a Christian, that if you are a Christian and you became a Christian, It means that you were not always a Christian. You have become something that you weren’t. Have you ever had people say, well, I’ve always been a Christian and you know that that is impossible, right?

You can’t become a Christian before you accept Christ. That’s what becoming a Christian is. You trusted Christ as your Savior and you become a child of God. So if you became a child of God it means before you weren’t a child of God It means you are now, but you were not a child of God before When we talk about I am justified I am Justified just as if I had never sinned I am just I am righteous in God’s eyes Well, it means is that there was a time when you weren’t justified But I am now Once you trust Christ as Savior, you’re a saint, not because of any good thing you’ve done, but it means that you weren’t before, but you are now.

But now that you and I have trusted Christ as our Savior, we are to be what Christ wants us to be, to live here, to live now, because God has made us His children. We are now the children of God. It means that there was a time when we were not a child of God. Now I am justified. It means there was a time when I wasn’t. I am now sanctified. And it means there was a time when I was not.

So I am a child of God. And it’s always good to recognize who you are. Know where you came from. Remember what Christ did. And remember what you have. And serve the Lord with all your heart. Not because you have to, but because you want to. And God blesses because of it. I wrote a little statement down. If you’re not saved now, you’re still what you were before. If you’re not saved now, then you can’t say, well, I’m a Christian because it means you haven’t trusted Christ.

It means if you were going to hell before and you haven’t got saved yet, it means you’re still going to hell. So that’s why it makes it so very important for every person to trust the Lord so they can have free gift of eternal life. Let’s pray, shall we? Our Father, we do thank you so much for the opportunity as your children to come together and try to encourage one another, to pray for one another, and help us Father to realize what you had and who you were and what you became in order to make us rich.

us to see ourselves the way you do. If we deny that we’re rich, then we deny that you came and became poor that way through your poverty might be rich, then you would be a failure. And, following know that you have given us many things, even in this life to know and to enjoy a place to serve and people to love, we ask your blessings upon this day Christ 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 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 tool free, 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-37. 63771. 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 The 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. live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.