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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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

On our Bible lesson tonight, we’re going to discuss the three tenses of salvation. I’ve covered it before when I preached this sermon called save, save, save. Y’all all remember that of course. And I do believe I did it on a Sunday morning and it was about a year ago, something like that. But I want to explain something I think is very crucial for your understanding. I want you to look at this at the top of the page here where has past, present, future.

Now the past, that is when you trusted Christ as your Savior. That is a one-time deal and it’s done. It never has to be done again. And there’s nothing that can ever change what was done. Because when God does something, it’s done and it’s over with and it cannot be redone or altered, not changed in any way and he can’t default upon his promise because God is not a liar. So if you look there at the little diagram where we have when you trusted Christ as your Savior you were saved from the penalty of sin, our look appear, there is God’s righteous holy law and it condemns sin and the law said the wages of sin is death the soul that sineth shall die so everyone who sins must die and because when Christ went to the cross he went there to pay the debt that you and

I owe for transgressing God’s law. We disobeyed, we broke it, we did not keep it. So therefore we are guilty and because of our guilt we are condemned and because we are condemned we had no hope and Jesus came along. As the scripture says, but God, God in His mercy. But God displayed His love toward us. And that why we were yet sinners Christ died for us. It means He paid my sin debt. He did that. He paid for it.

So that is the penalty of sin that I owed a righteous God. I’m not talking about my father now. I’m talking about God who is the judge of the universe, the creator of heaven and earth. He’s the one that we had to satisfy, this holy God. Now, the scriptures tell us in Titus in chapter three, in verse five, he says, “‘Not by works of righteousness which we have done, “‘but according to his mercy he hath saved us. “‘So it is a done deal, it’s past, it’s done, “‘I have been saved, and therefore, “‘when we talk about this tense in salvation, It’s never to be repeated.

It’s not an ongoing process. It’s a one time act. You have never just grown to be a Christian. There has to be a time when you understood. And you may not know when you understood it, but there has to be a time when you did understand it and you trusted Christ as your Savior. You don’t have to remember the day of the hour. And even the certain, all you know is that you were lost, Now you know you’re going to heaven at whatever point.

But once that decision had been made and you are a child of God, you are saved. Now what it means to be saved is this. There is God and He is just. There is man and He is unjust. So how can a just God make an unjust man Justified. Just as if I was equal with God, what it means. Just as if I had never sinned. So God can justify me. So when God looked at me, God doesn’t see anything wrong with me.

No sin in me. Nothing wrong with me. I will be and must be as righteous, as perfect and as holy as God himself. No fault. So that’s why Christ is not. came into the world, died on the cross, paid for your sins, and that you were forgiven of all the things that you’ve ever done as though you never did them. Just think of all the time, from the time you’re born to the time you die, and you will be in God’s eyes as though you never did anything wrong, nothing wrong.

Christ took all of your sins, paid for all of them, and when you believe He did it for you, you, you are washed as white as snow. That’s in God’s eyes. And so that’s how God sees you. He sees you in His Son, in Christ. So you are what we call justified. You have been declared righteous, clean, as though you never did anything wrong. So when we talk about justification, it is because of the payment Christ made on the cross for us.

That’s our justification. It is done at one point in time, and once it is done, it never has to be repeated. Because you see, you can never be unjustified because all of your sins were paid. And the law cannot ever condemn you in the future because the law recognizes that your debt has been paid in foam and you have died. You died in Christ. When Christ died, you died and was crucified with Christ. So his death is put to your account.

The law is satisfied. It demanded death, you died. So the law can never condemn a dead man. Can’t touch you ever again. That’s why you can never be condemned again in the future. That’s a wonderful thing to know. The other thing that I wanted you to see is right down there. It’s very, and you hear us say this all the time. By God’s grace alone through faith, alone in Christ, alone is a man saved. And so this is why there’s no works involved.

This was done by the Lord. He did it for you. So therefore he gets all the honor, the credit, the glory. All that belongs to him. Now, there’s another thing that’s going to happen, and that’s what I want to look at is number three. That’s the future, the future. One of these days, we are going to die. Or the Lord may come back in the rapture. The rapture is where Christ comes in the air, and we that are alive will be changed in a moment, the twinkling of an eye and caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

And so shall we ever be with the Lord. So this is going to take place. This is what we call when we will be delivered from the very presence of sin. As long as we’re in this world, even with this old body, which has an old sinful nature, I’m in the presence of sin. And my world in which I live, I am in the presence of sin. So what God is going to do is remove us from the very presence of sin.

So we know we’ve been delivered from the penalty of sin, death and hell, and that we one day will be delivered from the very presence of sin. Take your Bible and turn it to the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John in chapter 7. And verse 37 where it says, and that last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried. And he says, here, if any man thirst, let him come to me and drink, and as the scripture hath set out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

And this spake he of the Spirit, which day that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. He had not yet got to. He lived in a body that could die. His body was susceptible to death. He would put on a cross and he was able to die. He’s going to get a glorified body and when he came back from the dead, the Holy Spirit that raised up his body from the grave is the same power that is going to quicken our mortal bodies.

But you and I have not yet been glorified. We’ve been justified just as if I’d never sinned. In God’s eyes, I’m a just man. Lot, even though he was a wicked man living in a wicked place, in God’s eye he was a just man, and that he was justified by faith. That’s difficult for people to understand when they don’t really understand that salvation is free. And that is a gift. So I want you to notice in Romans in chapter 5 and verse 9 and 10, it talks about being saved.

and you’ll find other scriptures it talks about in Timothy about him saving himself. Well, there’s some things that talks about in this life in which we now live. But right now I want us to focus upon this, the future. This is talking about when your body has been glorified. It means there’s a day coming in the future when you and I are going to depart out of this world and the Holy Spirit that lives within us is going to quicken our bodies.

And our corruptible bodies will put on in corruption. Now take your Bible and look there in the book of Philippians, the book of Philippians in chapter three. In Philippians in chapter three, in verse 20 it makes this statement this is on page 1260 in your whole school field reference Bible where it says for our conversation or our citizenship is in heaven because that’s where you were born from wins also we look for the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body so that means your body has not been changed.

I tell the kids when I go to speak in the schools. If you got up this morning and you looked in the mirror and you were ugly, you came to school and you trusted the Christ as your Savior and then you go back home and look in the mirror. You’re still ugly. You see he didn’t change the body. You still look the same. If you got saved today and you look in the mirror you still look like you look.

He didn’t change that and if you were ugly you still are ugly. But if you were You’re still pretty. One day God’s going to take this vile body and he’s going to change it. But look what he says. Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. He means a perfect body, a body that can withstand the glory of God. We have in the book of Colossians in chapter 1 it talks about a gospel that is a glorious gospel.

In Timothy we have glorious gospel. It means it’s a perfect message to make a perfect man in Christ. When you trust Christ is your Savior. Since you have to be perfect to go to heaven you’ve got to have a message that will be, well it’ll do the job. It’ll make you perfect to go to heaven. So one day we We are going to get this glorified body. That is talking about our glorification. The day when we get our new body and everything about us will be perfect.

I will not see any fault in you. You will not see any fault in me. And the Lord will not see any fault in us. That is gonna be heaven. when we get there. Everything’s perfect there, but we’re not there yet. So that is going to take place at a point in time. So we know that when we were saved from hell, that was from the penalty of sin. That was at a point in time. And the day will come when we will be absent from the body and present with the Lord.

Or if the Lord comes and we’re still alive, we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and we’re going to have a glorified body. So that is a point in time, a moment that that will take place. Now it was possible, it is possible that God could have had those back to back. I could have trusted Christ as my Savior and the day, the moment I trusted Christ as my Savior, could have took me on out of here.

That would have been ideal in my mind. But he didn’t do it that way. He presses this timeline out through here. This is settled. This is going to be at a point in time. Now, how much time will I have in here? I don’t know. It’s almost like when Christ came and died on the cross and then the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. And then we know that there’s this period of time in here called the church age, the grace age, the body age, but it’s the time in which we live.

The rapture takes place and then the tribulation peered upon the earth. Now when God takes this out of here it’s like this could just move right on over here and it should flow right in together. But God is allowed a wedge to come here and push this out and we don’t know how much time is between the one and the other. So we know that the church age in which we live is between this point in time, this point in time, but we’re living in the present time.

We don’t know how much time we have. So we transfer that to our personal lives. I was saved at a point in time. There is a point in time when I’m going to leave this world. I am going to die one day or the rapture is going to take place. One of those two things is going to happen. But whenever it is, it’s when I leave here. So I have already been justified. I am going to be glorified. But that hasn’t happened yet.

Now I’m right here in this present time and I don’t know how much time God has given me to live. So this is where we come to, if you look there in your notes, into the present. You look up here to top, this is where, yes, I have been saved from the penalty of sin. I will be delivered from the very presence of sin one day, but until then I know that the study of the Word of God and the purpose of the Holy Spirit in my life to lead and guide me.

If it is the Holy Spirit living within you, the Holy Spirit can only lead you into a holy life. It never leads you into an unholy life or an ungodly life. If it happens in your life and that’s where you go, the Lord didn’t lead you there. It was not him. You have been deceived. So the Holy Spirit lives within us for the purpose of delivering us from the power of sin. Now look at the little fellow that’s standing there and you’ll notice that there’s a HS Holy Spirit living within you.

You’ll also see the OSN. That’s your old, sinful nature. All right, let me just see this so that I know that you understand me. How many of you know that you have an old, sinful nature? Let me see you hand. Man, that’s everybody in here. I thought at least be one of you, they wouldn’t have one. Some of you got two probably. No, but everybody has an old, sinful nature and it lives within the body. Your body is still corrupt.

God has not yet saved the body. That’s why it’s got the evidences of sin in it. It’s aging and it’s deteriorating. It’s falling apart. You’re getting more aches and pains and you don’t look as young as you used to. Just think. Today you look younger than you’re going to ever look for the rest of your life. And if you think you look bad now, wait another 10 years. It ain’t going to get better. We may wish and think and dream not unless the Lord comes back.

So from here on out got bad news for you. It’s downhill. It’s down. I’m sorry about that Peter, but it’s just downhill. But now notice the Holy Spirit living within you wants you to learn the Word of God so that it can deliver you from the power of the old sinful nature that lives in your body. But lo and behold, that’s where you live. And lo and behold, that’s where the Holy Spirit lives. So you’re not alone. So you have this battle that goes on that we’ve discussed many, many times.

Now I want you to take your Bible in looking at the book of Romans in chapter 8. The book of Romans and chapter 8. In Romans chapter 8, we have the Holy Spirit living within us. He is our teacher. He is our leader. He is our guide. And he says in verse 14, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. So the Holy Spirit only leads His children. Another way of looking at this is when you allow the Holy Spirit to lead you, these are the maturing sons of God.

So if you want to be maturing in the Lord, you must be allowing the Lord to lead you. Doesn’t mean you have arrived. You see, nobody has yet arrived. Everybody is in the process of growing. And we want to grow closer to the Lord, stronger in the Lord, wiser in the Lord, but you’re still growing. And if you’re growing every day of your life, And as he says in the book of Corinthians in chapter four of 2nd Corinthians, that even though our outward man by parish, yet the inward man is strengthened day by day.

So inwardly you can become stronger and stronger and stronger. But the outward man, this whole physical body gets slower and slower and slower and worse and worse. And one of these days you’re gonna have to move out. That’s not going to be so bad. But here he makes this statement. In verse 16, the Spirit himself or itself bearish witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. So the spirit of God bears witness with our spirit and you must worship God in spirit and in truth through your spirit.

Now with the body, that’s where we live. And the body is your connection to the world. That’s why you can see the world. world. Oh, except these two over here, they can’t see it. But they can feel the world and they can hear the world and they can touch the world so they know that there is a world. And so that makes the world conscious. And it makes a statement here in verse 17, we are joined heirs with God.

Now, look in verse 18, he says, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the, and there’s that word you ought to underline it, glory that shall be revealed in us. You see the best that you have ever seen in this world is not worthy to be compared with the glory we’re going to have. But then he says on top of that the sufferings of this world, not the best, the worst in this world can’t compare to what God has for us.

We haven’t even begun to understand how wonderful it’s going to be when we get to heaven to be with the Lord. But until then the Bible says not only are the children in the world and God’s children that are here suffering in the bodies but also all of creation growneth and travail until now. So God says he’s gonna work a work. But look what he says down there in verse 21, because the creature or the creation itself also shall be delivered, shall be delivered.

So as long as you are an, and I are in the body, we are waiting for the day when we will be delivered from this body. And you won’t have to worry about the sinful nature. You won’t have to worry about paying taxes anymore. You won’t have to worry about where your meal’s gonna come from. You don’t have to worry about Obama, because I can tell you. You won’t have any worries at all anymore. You are going to be delivered, but I can tell you this.

Our government is not gonna produce a utopia upon this earth. The Lord is gonna bring the utopia. So we’re gonna wait until he does it, because he’s going to do it and he’s gonna do it right. So he says here in verse 21, because the creation itself shall be delivered, get it from the bondage of corruption. You and I live in a body that is corrupt. It’s a vile body. And he’s going to change these vile corruptible bodies. And that which is corruptible must put on in corruption.

But notice what else he says. He said, in two, and you are the underliners, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Some days we’re going to have such freedom from the law of sin and death because even though we’ve been delivered judicially, we still suffer consequences. If you let the old sinful nature get the best of your life, do you know that God’s law still as an effect. It’s still wrong to commit adultery. It’s still wrong to commit murder.

It’s still wrong to lie. It’s still wrong. It’s still still wrong. God didn’t change that. When Christ came, he did not come to destroy the law. He came to fulfill the law. He didn’t go away with the law. But Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to those who believe. But God’s law still, and the fact to those who walk in the flesh, it still condemns sin in the flesh. That’s why God’s children are not supposed to walk in the flesh or after the day.

the flesh to pull the walk in the spirit. But get what he says. In verse 22, four, we know that the whole creation growneth and travailas in pain together until now. That’s the time in which we’re now living. This is the present. And so even creation itself, God says is groaning, waiting for that day, that moment when the children of God will be glorified. Because when God does this work with us, God’s going to do a work with the world.

And he’s gonna have a thousand years where he’s gonna have it like the Garden of Eden. And then after that, he’s gonna burn the whole thing up by fire and have a new heavens and a new earth. I believe it’s gonna be something like we have never seen before. Won’t even come close to what we have now. When he says there’ll be no more sea. I don’t know if that was just because, you know, John on the Alipab, and he’s got tired of seeing the water, and then God did all that just for John.

I don’t know. But whatever it is, I wouldn’t mind, in the new heaven, just a little mud, just a squished mud between my toes. If you’ve ever done it when you was a kid, just walk in the mud and squished mud between your toes. It’s all wonderful feeling. How many of you have never done that? You’ve never done that. I mean, he had done that. Oh, look at John. Ha! All right. I bet if you was to take off your shoes, I bet somebody still got some mud between your toes.

We ain’t going there. We ain’t going there. I hope not. I hope not. But now look what he says here in verse 23. And not only they, but our cells also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, grown within our cells, waiting for the adoption to it, the redemption of our body. So the day of glorification is coming. And until that day, until that moment, you and I are living in the presence and the purpose of the Holy Spirit living within us, and we don’t know how much time God’s going to give to us.

But whatever it is, God has not left us alone. He has given to us the Holy Spirit and has given us a reason to live. 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 Bible 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, 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.