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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 BibleInindustries.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. You will not find a forward invitation in the scriptures. Go find it. I heard a preacher say, every person God called, He called them publicly. Oh yeah, Nicodemus came by night. The woman at the well was all by herself. See, that’s a lie. That’s not truth. That’s because you want to manipulate people and get them to do what you want, because I’ll look good if I can show you how many decisions were made.

I believe if you had 200 people in the church service, 200 people made decisions. If I only got 10, 10 people made decisions. I believe every time I preach, I’m seeking individuals to make a decision about something in their life. And you’re making decisions. Every time you hear the word of God, you’re gonna decide either to obey it or disobey it. I don’t wanna chalk up numbers so I can say, look, I mean, it made decisions. I must really do my job.

I would rather have the quiet discipline changes in a person’s life instead of the glory and all the excitement and stuff, the emotional upheaval, because isn’t it something you’re supposed to be able to think about whether this is right or whether this is wrong and you do it, not because of the heat of the moment, because you can logically think, I’m God’s child, I’m going to heaven and I haven’t been serving the Lord and I should. And therefore you make silent changes that nobody else maybe knows about because God can deal with you.

I have to believe that I have to believe that the Holy Spirit that indwells every one of his children will speak to his children through the Word for changes to be made in a person’s I want every person who knows Christ’s Savior to submit his body as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God. And I would like to see God’s people not conform to the world but be transformed by the hearing of the Word of God and that making good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Those are things that you do. I see small increments of growth in individuals, not overnight changes and everything has changed. Most of us grew spiritually, a little by little. Here a little light, there a little light. Line up on line, precept upon precept. Here a little there a little. And you grew and you got stronger and stronger and stronger. Did you go from childhood straight to manhood? They don’t work that away. The next statement I want you to see is there at number four.

This message is cursed of God. Take your Bible turn to Galatians in chapter one. Galattaboola and chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1 in looking verse 6. In verse 6 he makes a statement, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another. But there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, then that which we have preached unto you, Let him be a curse.

The message is cursed and the preacher that preaches the message is preaching and a curse message. And that’s why Paul later on says, I would they were even cut off which trouble you? Because the message is salvation by grace. That’s what makes it good news. And yet there’s some people that will add all this other junk to it and telling people that you have to turn from your sins to be saved. to any church you want to, hit their track rack and look on the back of it and see what you have to do to be saved.

Look what the prayer is and it’ll tell you an awful lot. And a lot of them will tell you, and they might give the gospel clear. And all of a sudden at the end of this is what you have to do. You’ll have to repent of your sins, make Christ the Lord of the Master of your life, and go to church and do all this. It’s all mixed together. Is that what you have to do? No. Only believe. Only believe.

And it’s so simple you would think, well everybody can get this. It’s like a little child with a piece of candy. It’s free. Do I have to promise it? No, no, no, no. It’s free. It’s a gift. And that’s what God says. And He says in verse 9, as we said before, so say, now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you, then that you have received, let him be accursed. Salvation is a gift. When you add one word to the gospel of grace, it’s no longer grace.

The test of the gospel is grace. And it means it has to be free to be the gospel, and it has to last forever in order to be the gospel. If anyone of those is missing, it’s not the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has to be free, or it’s not the gospel. not the gospel. It has to be forever, or it’s not the gospel. Number five, the message is cursed of God. The person who preaches such a message is also cursed of God.

It’s a strong statement. Look at the last line on the front page where it has sincerity is not a substitute for truth. You see, one of the, my preacher preaches and he’s just as sincere as you are. Okay, but sincerity is not a substitute for truth. You may go to the medicine cabinet to get those two aspirants for your headache. Well if you got, oh, arsenic, oh, you’ll feel better for a long time. But you were sincere. It doesn’t matter.

You’re still dead. It’s like an atheist laying in the casket. All dressed up. No, where’d he go? May be terrible. And there’s a lot of people who have no clue that, hey, it’s free. Turn your page over. I want you to see this. Number six, if salvation really does come to those who turn over their lives to Christ, then God has been wrong all the time. If you really do have to make Christ the Lord and the Master of your life, see the reason this is so important because it means that you have to be the servant.

He’s the master, you’re the servant. So they’re saying you have to serve the master. And that means how you live. And if you live good enough, you’ll make it. Well, if that’s true, why did Christ die? If it’s true, then salvation can’t be the gift of God. If it’s true, it can’t be only believe. If it’s true, it can’t be, he that believes it though me, had that for last night, that can’t be true. Then the whole Bible is wrong.

You can’t trust any of it. If what they’re saying is true, then we ought to take our Bibles and throw it in the trash can, then the Bible is no good. Or we can believe, according to Titus chapter 1, that God, who made all these precious promises, can’t lie. You can’t lie. That is what shows us His love for us has nothing to do with our love for Him. The law demands thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, body, soul, and strength.

And the second is likened to it, thou shalt love thy neighbor. That’s law which no man has ever kept. It’s an impossibility. So the law was to lead us to Christ because the law cannot save us. If the law could save us, it wouldn’t have had to lead me to Christ that we might be justified by faith according to Galatians in chapter 3. Look at number seven. Number seven, it causes even young preachers to follow successful pastors of large churches when they’re wrong.

Because all young preachers want to be successful. Well, how are those that are successful doing it? Well, they tickle people’s ears. They tell them what they want to hear. They don’t have to preach against sin. Just make them feel good. Just tell you how wonderful you are and give you a health and wealth philosophy. Teach you a social gospel. Just don’t preach the truth that makes people feel bad. You listen to the Bible preachers and they were not going around trying to make people feel good.

They told them truth. Truth. The truth of the gospel is divisive. It doesn’t make everybody feel good because it takes all of the people that are religious and let them see you can’t save yourself by how good you are. I mean, I’m as bad as he is. I didn’t rob no bank. I didn’t kill nobody. I’m not a sinner. You are a sinner. Everybody has sinned and come short of the glory of God. And every person that does not trust Christ in Him alone is going to burn in hell.

Do you understand what I’m saying? Now I would love to say that lovingly. You’re going to go to hell and burn forever. I want to make you feel good. I don’t know how to do it. I try to warn people. I had somebody say, well, you don’t trust Christ just for fire insurance. Because when I was 18 years old, When that man finished talking to me, I knew of what he said is true. I’m burning. So why did I trust Christ?

Fire insurance. It wasn’t because I loved the Lord. It had no desire to change my life. It had nothing to do with that. If this is what I have to do to escape hell, I’m trusting Christ as my Savior. You just asked the wrong motive. Pretty good for me. And so that’s why you don’t have people who understand why they need to be saved because they they don’t know what they need to be saved from as we’re moving right along.

Number eight, the preaching of this air robs the one preaching it of rewards. Understand this. When I preach, it’s because I want people to understand the gospel and that it’s clear, simple. It’s easy. All you do is trust the Lord. You trust Christ, you become God’s shout, you get to go to heaven. Now in the book of 1st Thessalonians, it makes this statement, ye are my crown of rejoicing. In other words Paul said, the people that I’ve led to the Lord, you are my crown of rejoicing.

But let’s say you don’t preach the clear message so you don’t have as many people trust the Lord. When you don’t have as many people trust the Lord, you don’t get as many rewards because you weren’t faithful to the truth of the gospel. So you You see, your future is being determined by your obedience today to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ. You can’t preach anything that you want and expect there to be no consequences. Your heavenly Father knows when you’re telling the truth and when you’re lying.

And that’s why we have to be very careful. We don’t add to the Word of God. We just explain it the way it really is. And we want the Lord to enlighten people, to give them discernment so they can understand their need of trusting Christ as their Savior. Number nine, you need to study all these points down through here. But it confuses laymen believers and causes them to be ineffective in their witness. A girl recently asked, I know you’re sincere, seem to have scripted back of what you say.

But my pastor’s also sincere and teaches differently about salvation than you do. How do I know which one of you is right? How can I witness when I don’t know what to tell people and that is the truth. That’s why there’s a lot of preachers all across. You don’t know if I’m telling the truth unless you study your book. You’re supposed to be listening going by this book and find out whether or not am I right or am I wrong.

But I’ve listened to a lot of people. I hear what they say. I’m trying to understand the logic behind all of it. But it confuses people. You see, you can’t be a good witness for the Lord and talk to people about their soul if you don’t really know what they got to do to go to heaven. If you think they have to change their life, that’s a process. So when is the person really saved? If you got to change your life to be saved, okay, when do you get saved?

When you change your life in the process of changing your life? Or is it a week after you change your life? Or do you got to go two months to change your life? Well, what about six months? Okay, I’m finally saved, I got it. And the next three months you lost it. Are you saved or you’re not saved? That’s why a lot of people don’t know where they’re going when they die. Some people say, well, if you drink, you go into hell.

If you drink, you go into hell. Smoke, you go into hell. Swear, go into hell. Angry, like he says in the book of Matthew, danger and soul and danger of hell fire. All right. So if you’ve got to quit your sins, I’ll get now which ones? How many of them? How long? How are you doing? Do you still get angry? Don’t get mad. Get jealous. Envy. Have thoughts you shouldn’t have. No, I just perfect little angel I am. And everybody knows when you say that you’re lying.

You’re deceiving yourself. The Bible says if you say you have no sin, you deceive. Deceive yourself. . . . . . . . . Nobody else believes you, but they hear you. You are a sinner. I had a person tell me one time, I haven’t sinned in 40 years. I said, you’re lying. He said, I am not. I said, yes, you are. He said, I am not. I kept on talking to him so mad. He wanted to kill me.

He came after me. And I said, that’ll make you mad. No, I said, I did too make you mad. I said, you ready to kill me? He said, I am not. And the deacons were having to hold him back. I’m serious. Yes, tell us. Tell us. This is my right hand. Right hand. Right hand. I didn’t know that so many times. I forgive which one’s my right hand. Look at the next paragraph under number nine. A confused believer will probably give out some mixture of grace and works.

But it brings discouragement because you won’t see as many people coming to know Christ is Savior. Because of a muddy mess. They don’t know what to believe. You’re not simple. You’re not clear. when you add things to the clearness of the gospel, you add works to the message. See, you complicate in the situation. And so they may not be ready to quit their smoking. They don’t want to quit their drinking. They don’t want to quit their swearing. They don’t want to quit.

They may want to, but they don’t have the power to do so. So you just gave them an impossibility. Well, you see, you’ve got to change your life. That means you got to start going to church or eat your Bible pray. They don’t want to go to church. You know why people don’t go to church? They don’t want to go. I mean, that’s the truth. Most people do what they really want to do. They don’t want to go. Why don’t you read the Bible?

I don’t want to. Why don’t you witness? No one to. It’s just a lot of things you don’t want to do. If somebody told you you have to, forget it. If I’m going to go to hell, I’m going to have me a ball before I get out of here. That’s what most people think. Number 10, it hinders the growth of the body of Christ. You see, when the believer’s mouth is stopped, regardless of the reason, And the natural flow of fruit bearing is also stopped.

Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Those who believe it in their heart that God has sanctified them, justified them, declared them righteous, are to confess with their mouth. And when you confess with your mouth, people hear the gospel, trust the Lord. Satan can confuse the message that comes out of your mouth. People don’t know what to believe. People may not trust Christ as Savior because they don’t understand. All because when you add one word to the gospel, you tell somebody, look, salvation’s going to have it.

It’s free. It’s free. It’s free. All you have to do is stop your sinning. Now, stop and think for a minute. Does that sound like a contradiction? It’s free. All you have to do is go to church and tithe. Anybody can do that, yes, but is it free? If you have to add something to grace, that is a work. And works cannot save. Now, think for a moment. You may be here this morning. And you’re going to church most of your life.

But what are you depending on to get you to heaven? Really? What are you dependent upon to get you to heaven? Is it something that you do? Places you go, you go to church. Is it because you pray, because you read the Bible? Because you try to live a good life, you pay your taxes, you love your husband, you love your wife, you love your kids. Is that why you think you’re going to heaven because of the way you live?

Then you need to understand. You don’t go to heaven that way. It won’t work. Wouldn’t it be a shame for you to die? Thinking in your mind that when you die, you’re going to heaven and you open your eyes in the flames of hell because you never really trusted Christ and Him alone to get you to heaven. You trusted in how you lived. You thought you were good enough. Well, yeah, I believe you trust Christ to save you, but I’m going to be good just in case.

Just in case what? That doesn’t work. So you’re going to trust your works. That means you’re not trusting Christ. You can’t have it both ways. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Salvation in a person. It’s not in you. It’s not in your talent, your abilities, your wisdom. You’re nothing. And yet people cannot grasp this great truth. Number 11, why is it so hard for people to believe? Easy-believeism. You know, over the years I have been accused of preaching cheap grace.

Easy-believeism. Well, if it’s so easy-believeism, why don’t everybody believe easy-believeism? What do you want? Hard-believeism? Is it hard to believe that if there is a true and living God, should it be hard to believe that this God can love me? Should it be so hard that you can’t believe that He sent His Son to die for you and to pay for your sins? If God is who He is, is it so difficult, so hard to believe? You can never believe that He would give me eternal life as a free gift.

What kind of a God do you think God is? They go mean God up there to get up every morning and look over the banners and say, I’m going to get you today. God is a good God. He is a wonderful God. He is a loving God. And He’s done it because it shows how much He loves us. After you trust Christ as Savior, if you want to show God how much you love Him, and if If you want to show him how much you appreciate him, for all that he’s done for you, I don’t think God will mind.

Then you can serve a Lord. Serving the Lord is not to get saved, but because you are saved and you are his child. It is the will of God that we love him, that we love him. And he says, if any man loved me, honor me, serve me. Keep my word. Is it the will of God that you serve in all of them? Yes. But you don’t do it to get to heaven. You do because you’re going there. This last statement, it brings persecution to the believer who stands firm.

Do you know that over the years I have had a lot of persecution from Christians, preachers who don’t like the idea that I don’t give a forward invitation? If they want to, fine, that’s okay. But just don’t tell people this is what you got to do to be saved because you don’t. And if you want to say, okay, well, when people come down here to the front, we should take the Bible and show them how to be saved. That’s fine if you want to do that.

But what about the ones that don’t come? Why not, whatever you tell this person when he comes down here, why can’t you tell him that right where they’re sitting? Christ came all the way from glory to earth. Surely you can walk 50 feet for Him. You step out of that island, he’ll meet you there. When I first heard that scared me to death. I told my wife, I said, I’m not going down here. I said, I’m not going. He’s going to meet me.

Scared me to death. And then I’d watch others that got up and they went down there and they’d get down there and pray with the person. Oh! Oh, I got down there. And you want me to what? What’s wrong with a person here in the message? He said, you know if that made sense to me. I believe that Christ died on that cross, and I believe He died for me. And I’m going to trust Him as my only hope of going to heaven.

And God said, if you’ll believe it, He’ll save you. So simple. And you can do it with a smile on your face, or maybe you might do it with a tear in your eye. You might break down in sob or break out and lack. I don’t care what you do. You’re saved because you trusted Him. The last statement I have done on the bottom, no one’s ever saved by cheap grace. They’re saved by priceless, amazing grace. We have a miracle salvation provided and preserved by God Himself.

Let’s give out the good news of this salvation simply and faithfully for His glory. Salvation is not cheap. God sent his son to pay for our sins. Wasn’t cheap, very expensive. He just made it free. And when you and I try to add one work to it, we cheapen it. That’s when you cheapen it. When you think that it wasn’t enough, I’ve got to add something to it. Look up here. This is you and me. This is sin. We all have sin on us.

God loves us. H. what we do wrong. And He says that the wages of sin is death. Eternal separation from God, inhale. But He loves us and wants us to go to heaven. And to go to heaven, we have to be as righteous as God. And none of us are perfect. None of us are righteous. We’ve all sinned. Come short of God’s perfection. And so God says, not by works of righteousness, not of yourselves, not of works lest any man should boast.

So you just gotta take that away. You can’t save yourself. You can’t even help. This then represents Jesus Christ. God in the flesh had no sin, didn’t have to die. He came into the world because he loves us, hates our sin. And so he did something for us, but what he did for one person, he did for everybody in the world. Because you see our sin separates us from the Lord. So Christ took the sin, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead.

Said if you and I, if we would believe he did it for us, he would put this payment. Only this payment. will do. This payment paid for sin. There is no other payment they can pay for our sins. So God says, if I would believe that He did it for me, He puts this payment to my account. I am washed. Why did Snow, you heard the song, Vincent? Why to then Snow? He died for me. He took care of all my, He saved my soul.

Watch me, why did Snow? I get to go to heaven on what He did. There is no other way. There’s not an option B or C. There is none. This is the only way, the only means. So that’s why it’s so important for you to truly understand what salvation is, what it is not. Let’s pray, shall we? Every headbound, every outclothes, and no one looking around. With your headbound eyes closed, would you just talk to the Lord? See God in heaven, He sees you, He knows you, He loves you.

He died for you, and He wants to give you something, give you eternal life. In regards of how many times you’ve heard that, have you really trusted the Lord? Are you sure that if you died today, you’d go to heaven? Friend, if you’ve never really done it, or you’re not real sure, why not make sure right now? Don’t prolong it any further. side right now said Lord I know I’m a sin and I believe Christ died, paid for my sins.

And today I trust Christ and Him alone as my only hope of going to heaven. And friend, if you’ll do that I’d like to know and I’d like to have prayer for you. Is there any word at all? So yes, I’ll trust Christ as my Savior and preach I’d like you to pray for me. We’ll just slip you in it very quickly and put it right back down. Is there any word at all? Any word at all? Just to be sure.

I want to know that I’m going to heaven when I die. I don’t know what it all. Our Father, we thank You so much that those that are here have a clear mind, understand, and believe it when Christ died, He died for them, and are trusting Him. And Him alone is their only hope of going to heaven. We ask Father, Your blessings upon this church help us to stand firm for the gospel of Christ. Help us to make it clear.

We thank You for the radio ministry, the internet ministry, and all the other ministries we have. Thank you for all the workers that you’ve given us. We ask your blessings upon Him. Bless each home in Christ and 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 Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by Dye-Link 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 six 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.