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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, 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 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.

I do have a few things that I wanted to share with you. And one of them, because somebody was celebrating their anniversary, says, the wife says, honey, what are you doing? Her husband says, nothing. She says, nothing. You’ve been reading our marriage certificate for an hour. She says, well, I was looking for the expiration date. The wife says, do you want dinner? Sure. What are my choices? Yes or no? The girl, she says to her boyfriend, says, when we get married, I want to share all of your worries, troubles, and lighten your burden.

The boy says, it’s very kind of you, darling, but I don’t have any worries or troubles. Well, that’s because we’re not married yet. You know, there’s just a lot of fun things in life. You’ve got to have a little smile along the way, and so you’ve got to learn to have some humor. I want to share something with him. 19, I’ll forget the year, a few years ago, a friend of mine. He was a great friend. He’s in heaven now.

His name was Dr. A. Ray Stanford. For his 90th birthday, we had it at our church and people came from, I say, miles around. And it was a great occasion. 90 years old, he’s when it started for the Bible college and one of the greatest soul winners I’ve ever met. And I wrote a poem about Ray and I’m going to read the poem to you because the title of is what I want to talk about. He often made the statement when he heard the gospel for the first time clears a bell from Cliftonnell Fowler.

He says, made me an offer I just couldn’t refuse, an offer I just couldn’t refuse. So Dr. Cliftonnell Fowler presented the good news to a Ray Stanford who could not refuse the free gift of salvation that he could not lose, then dedicated his life to Christ for God to use. The battle was fierce in the midnight sky, planes were filled with men who were willing to die. With two engines gone from artillery fire, the will*/to live became their greatest desire.

A. Ray Stanford knew the Lord real well. He’d go to heaven but his friends to hell. He prayed to the Lord to see them through and vowed to witness to his entire crew. When the war was over, Ray renewed his vow, the time to serve the Lord that wasn’t later but now. Ray and Sue by faith took a chance, began the ministry of Christian youth ranch. With If you thin mine, he made the gospel clear to win souls to Christ year after year, thousands upon thousands and perhaps a million more, who are reached by Ray Stanford, and he reached heaven shore.

Ray Stanford went throughout the land with a Bible under his arm and a wallet in his hand. For the sake of the gospel ray always took the time to explain the plan of salvation from Ephesians 2, 8, 9. When he turned 85, he was very much alive in his quest for the souls of men. one desire as a burning fire, plus to be God’s flame in the wind. No falter listed against the heroes of faith that are mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11.

Though a man is God’s child and sins all the while, I’ll send her forgiven in heaven. For the man of old, when dead and cold, is no greater than a lump of coal. But the second birth when it leaves this earth is greater than the purest gold. Ray touched my life as no other man. He taught me God’s word in the gospel plan. His success and failures made my schooling complete, learning lessons of submission, lessons of defeat. Ray was my friend for over 40 years.

I witnessed the rise, the fall, and the tears. His battle is over, his race is run. Jesus Christ will reward him for the work he has done. And I wrote that a number of years ago. He was a veteran. He was a veteran in the, and he always liked to make sure you understood the second World War. Not the first one. Because you see, we recognize that if it had not have been for some people, Back around 1776 that fought for our independence, do you realize that we would not enjoy the freedom that we have, but somebody fought in order to give us freedom.

And since then we’ve had men fight and die to keep our freedom. Wouldn’t it be a shame for us to squander our freedom as though it had little value to us? Did you know that we dishonor our veterans, those who gave us the freedom that we have we’ve been blessed with, and then to use them in such a wicked way that we don’t have time for God or time to preserve our freedom. We shame them. We don’t honor them.

When we misuse our freedom that God’s given to us. And then I also think about those that decided years ago to serve the Lord, and they gave their life for the sake of the gospel to fight a lot of battles against a lot of enemies of the true gospel of Christ. The ridicule, the persecution that many have gone through, and there’s a lot of great men that fought a lot of great battles in order for you and I to enjoy the freedoms that we have in Christ.

The Bible says that we were under the law, we were in bondage, we were not free, we were enslaved by the sinful nature that we have, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes in the pride of life. And because we were so in bondage, we had no freedom. We couldn’t serve God if we wanted to. And so Christ came into the world. And He died on the cross to pay for our sins. So that we could have the freedom from sin, from its penalty, from its power in some day from its presence.

But somebody who explained the gospel to us and helped us to see and understand and we know that we have eternal life and we’re going to heaven when we die, the freedom of knowing that can only be appreciated if you believe that salvation truly is by grace because it’s the only message that can set you free. If a man believes that he must keep the law to be saved, he’s in bondage, he’s not free. If a man believes he has to keep doing something to keep or maintain his freedom, then he’s not really free.

Because salvation is free. From beginning to end, it is free. We didn’t do anything to earn it, and we don’t have to do anything to maintain it. Christ did that for us. So when Ray often made this statement, because one night he was in a Bible study at the home of Dr. Cliff Nellfahler, he says he remember asking Dr. Cliff Nellfahler when he explained Ephesians 2 and 9. He says, you mean to tell me that I can trust Christ as my Savior?

And he’ll save me, give me eternal life. And I can go to heaven when I die. And I can still go out here and live like I please. And Dr. Fowler says, son, that’s a crude way to put it. But God loves you that much. And Ray slammed the table. This is that’s for me. He had no intentions at that point in his life of changing his lifestyle. He had no intentions of going to church, giving money and being a missionary or anything like that.

He was focused upon this offer. He made an offer. He said that I can’t refuse it. It was free. If you had said, no, you’ve got to do something, then it would have destroyed everything because then it would not be free. If I must change my life, then it’s not free. It’s either free or it’s not free. It’s either by grace means that you don’t earn it, you don’t work for it, you don’t buy it, or you do. It can be both ways.

way or the other. Well, you know, the Bible states that we ought to have a walk with God. And if you study the Old Testament, it says, Enoch walked with God and Noah walked with God. And Moses walked with God and the disciple, they walked with God. And so people today, They cloak a lot of bad stuff under a wonderful terminology, having a relationship with God. I want you to understand that I do believe that I have a relationship with God.

I believe that He’s precious to me and worthy of me to honor Him and to serve Him and He can be the Lord of my life and all of that. And if I for one moment think that has any part in saving me, I’ll know the gospel of grace. It doesn’t have any effect on my salvation. My salvation depends totally upon what Christ did for me. He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. 53 and a half years ago, sitting in a little old living room in Athens, Georgia, I trusted Christ as my Savior.

And He saved me that night, one time, in a moment of time, I was saved, became His child, and I’m going to heaven whenever I die. And that was the best news that I ever heard. There’s a lot of people that believe that you have to have this relationship with God. And they even make it a part of their gospel presentation that you have to have this relationship with God. But understand what they mean by a relationship with God is that you have to have a walk with God.

You have to maintain a talk with God. You have to maintain fellowship with God. And of course, you can break this relationship and you can break this fellowship. You can break this walk and break this talk and therefore not have fellowship with God or a relationship with God. And if that ever happens, that’s a sign you never really were saved. And so therefore if you were, you lost it. It’s a wicked teaching. The other day I was going through some stuff and I found something that was written by a very famous man and I wanna share this with you.

And so to me, he’s right up there with Dr. Curtis Hudson and Dr. Ray Stanford, but this guy is really up there. This is what he said. Today, in Christianity, a Madison Avenue approach is being used by many to market Jesus Christ to the unsaved world. Their favorite approach is to say that what you need is a relationship with Jesus Christ. Who would be against that? I mean, to have a relationship with God, everybody would want that. What’s bad about that?

That’s nitpicky. Picky, picky, picky. Oh really? Well let’s listen to what this great man had to say. The philosophy is that we are now dealing with the baby boomers. The baby boomers have experienced broken relationships during their lives. You know who? Who are the baby boomers? The baby boomers. You know when people went to war and it came back, all of a sudden, all these men had been gone for three or four years, there was a boom in babies.

They were making up for lost time. And a lot of people had babies. Those are the baby boomers because of the ending of the war. Now, I don’t know if I would be considered a baby boomer because I was born in 42 and they were fighting over me. But anyway, as we go on and wrong here, he says, so they say the baby boomers are looking for a relationship. It is true that a person needs a relationship with Jesus Christ.

But this is a consequence of being saved. Before you could have a relationship with God, you have to be born into His family so you can be related. God has to become your Father. When you are born into the world, God is your God is your Creator. There is no relationship. You’re not related to Him. your Creator, you’re related that way, He made you. But you see, He’s not your Father till you’re born into His family. You’re not His child till you’re born into His family.

See, a lot of people want you to have this relationship before you’re born. And I’ve done this before, but here’s mommy and she’s a little junior in her tummy, not junior. I want you to promise me that when you’re born, you’ll have a relationship with me. And you’ll have to promise that you’re going to commit your life to me. And that you’re going to have to make sure that you don’t do, you know, all those sins. And I want you to promise me that you’re going to live right.

How many of y’all promised anything before you were born? It never happened. And neither do you try to get people to commit their life to Christ, or how they’re going to live. I promise that I’ll not be bad anymore and I’ll turn from my sins. And I promise that I’m going to live for the Lord and give up all these bad things and start doing all these good things. So I’m committing myself before God will save me. No, you have to be his child first.

You see, you can’t have a fellowship, a walk with God, a relationship with Him until you’re born into God’s family. Let me tell you what else this guy said. It is like saying a person needs to go to heaven and not hell when he dies. Going to heaven is a consequence of being saved. You see, if you go to heaven then you don’t go to hell. Yeah, but you Can’t just go to heaven because you want to go to heaven you have to do what get you there You must trust Christ as your Savior and if you trust Christ as your Savior and the results of that is you go to heaven The results of that you don’t go to hell You see it’s wonderful to have a relationship with the Lord, but you have to be born to his family first or there isn’t one

And so all the sweet talk and the spiritual sound in phrases all about it is empty. It’s hollow. There’s nothing there. It’s not real. And that’s why there’s so many shallow people that have no clue what they’re talking about. Oh, I have a wonderful relationship with Christ. Where are you going to die? Well, I’m not sure. Are you married? Yes, I am. Do you have a wife? Well, I don’t know. He that believeth on me, that’s the proposition. Hat everlasting life.

So if I believe it, how do I know when I really believe? Well, when I can say I have it. If you try to make it more than just You’re mentally believing something. You’re going to get into work for salvation. There can’t be anything additional if Christ walked up here right now and He made me an offer. Yankee, I died on that cross and paid for all of your sins. All that you have to do to go to heaven is believe that I did it for you and I will give you as a free gift ever lasting life.

and I will say, I believe. I believe the offer because of who’s making the offer. Now, if Peter came up to me and says, Janky, if you’ll believe on me, I’ll take you to heaven. What power does he have that he might send me there? But he can’t take me there, as I’m reading right along, therefore to tell the lost that he needs a relationship or needs to go to heaven when he dies before it does not solve his problem because he has to be born into God’s family.

First, you must first trust Christ as your Savior. And you’ll listen to, they’re on the radio, they’re on the TV, they’re on the internet, they’re everywhere. And now, Tom, you need this relationship with God, a relationship with Jesus Christ. You see, under this relationship is a life that you must promise to live. It’s talking about your walk with God, how you’re living. And so therefore it’s giving you this without the birth. And you think that you’re saved because well I have a relationship with the Lord.

I go to church, I read the Bible and I pray and I try to be good and I pay my bills, I love my kids and I work hard and all the and you go on on and on and on. That’s not salvation. And it won’t get you to heaven. And it doesn’t matter how spiritual sounding it is. Either you trust Christ and Him alone as your only only hope of getting there or you’re not trusting Him. I am not trusting my life to get me to heaven.

How I live is not the evidence or proof that I’m really saved because there’s nothing that I can do in my life that a lost man can’t imitate. So am I supposed to believe he’s saved too? And then what happens when I’m no longer living this glorified holy life? And I’m no longer walking this straight narrow path. Am I still saved? So when you do this, you place a burden upon people. You place a yoke upon their necks. It’s like taking the law and saying, you must keep the law to be saved.

What burden, what yoke of iron you place upon people, that’s not freedom. You’ve got to do this and live this way in order to go to heaven. That is a yoke of iron upon people’s necks. What man has been given the power of the right, the authority to do that to anybody else. Wherefore the Bible says, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. You see that puts a bondage upon people, you have to live a certain way in order to go to heaven.

Does that mean that I’m against having a relationship with God? No, if that’s what you understand, You’re not listening. You’re not listening to what I’m saying. I’m saying that to get to heaven, all you need to do is believe the offer. He offers the free gift of everlasting life. He did not say, he that believeth of me hath a relationship with God. Now you can have one, but that’s the result. You must trust Christ as Savior and depend upon Him and be born into his family.

And once you’re born into God’s family, yes, now as a child of God, my Heavenly Father who loves me. He’s my daddy, I’m his child. And we can get along and I can obey and I can disobey, but I’m still his child. I’m related to him. And we have a wonderful relationship. But how did I get it? First of all, had to be born into his family by believing the offer that he made to me.

This person here that wrote this was pretty good. He wrote, he says, a person must trust Christ as the one who died for their sins, was buried and rose again from the dead. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved upon trusting Christ as Savior. A person is born again and does have a relationship with Christ. I believe in this way, said, I believe that this approach is not a good approach to witnessing to the loss because of the fact that people think of relationships in terms of human relationships.

This means relationships can be broken. An effort must be put forth to prevent broken relationships. Apply in this concept to a relationship with Jesus Christ would make salvation by works and present a salvation that could be lost because you can you break a relationship and fellowship and friendship. So you see, you can break all of those. So they’re taking a situation between, you know, and they can have it in families and say, you need to work on your relationship with God.

No, that doesn’t save anybody. Also, using this approach causes confusion because the phrase relationship with Jesus Christ is misused to inquire about the Christian life of the believer. When you have this relationship with Christ, now you’re going to judge whether the person is really in a relationship with Christ based upon what he does and doesn’t do how he lives and doesn’t live all of his sins. Oh, that’s a sign you’re not having a relationship with Christ because if you were you wouldn’t be doing that.

And if you really had a relationship with Christ, you wouldn’t you You would be in church every Sunday reading this Bible, praying and witching, doing all those things. Now you’d be honest with yourself. Do you faithfully do all those things all the time? Then you would have a reason to doubt that you really saved. Whenever you begin to enter works into part of your salvation, then you’re no longer trusting the Lord. You’re looking at how you’re living as the proof.

This becomes your evidence. And this is what’s wrong with it. And so he made this statement, and I thought it was pretty good. And by the way, if you want to know who wrote this, it was written by Dr. Hank Lindstrom. You ever heard of him? Dr. Hank Lindstrom wrote everything that I just told you. But I didn’t know where Hank stood on this until I saw this Friday afternoon after I came home from the radio station. And I had made a few remarks about it on the radio broadcast.

Anybody here on the radio broadcast? That’s a few of you, don’t you? But this is what I was talking about. I’m just glad that he’s on the, he’s right with me. But maybe we see the same thing. We see how terrible it is and how wicked it is. You’ve been by the line, 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.

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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.