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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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

It is true that a person needs a relationship with Jesus Christ, But this is a consequence of being saved. Before you can 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. He’s your creator. You’re related that way. 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. SeeWeak 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 rubbin’ed. Little Junior in her tummy. Not Junior. I want you to promise me that when you’re born, and 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 STATES 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 them 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 gets 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 if I 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 in the spiritual sounding 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 and just, you 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, Yankee, if you’ll believe on me, I’ll take you to heaven. What power does he have the take now 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 before does not solve its 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 their own TV they’re on the internet, they’re everywhere.

And 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 and on and on.

That’s not salvation. And he won’t get you to heaven. And it doesn’t matter how spiritual sound and 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 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 me? 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 on me have the relationship with God. Now you can have one, but that’s a 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, I 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.

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, that can happen 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 would be in church every Sunday reading this Bible, praying the witch and 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 wanna 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? I’ll tell 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. Now I want you to take your Bible and turn with me to the book of John 20, the Gospel of John in chapter 20.

When you read the book of John, there’s a few things that I want you to notice. When Christ did miracles, they were for a reason. There were signs that He did, but the signs were so that people would believe the message They believe what he said, because he said something that was pretty good. He would say things like, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. That was an offer he made that I just can’t refuse. When I first understood John 3, 16, it was an offer I just couldn’t pass up, because the offer was not me doing anything.

All I had to do is receive it. So don’t add nothing else to it. Yes, but don’t butt it around. Just simply believe it. You mean to tell me that I can trust Christ right now as my Savior. Believe in He died on the cross and paid for all my sins. And I don’t have to stop anything and I don’t have to promise to do anything. And just like I am, I can go to heaven when I die. If you did, it would be grace, wouldn’t it?

You know what grace is? Grace means you don’t deserve it. Because in the back of most people’s nine, they say, that’s not right. That’s not right. You can’t tell me. Because they don’t believe that God can give you a free gift of eternal life without you paying something for it. Well, if you had to pay something for it, then it’s not free. It’s the opposite of great grace. great grace says it’s on merit. You don’t merit. You don’t deserve it.

If I did get to heaven, that would be grace, wouldn’t it? That would be grace. Can a man live as he please? Yes. Can he get away with it? No. You got children. Can they be rebellious? Yes. Can he get away with it? Not if you’re a good parent. I assure you, your heavenly Father is a good daddy. And he has the privileges as a father to beat the tar out of you and maybe even take you home before your time.

But you can’t live as you please and get away with it. But isn’t it wonderful to know the freedom? I’m going to heaven when I die. I’ve known that for 53 years, the best news in all the world. And you’ll notice in verse 30 makes it statement and many other signs, this is in John chapter 20, Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you can have this wonderful relationship.

No, it didn’t say that. You may have this eternal life. It’s a gift. He wants to give you something. After you trust Christ, you should forget this offer that He made. You become a child of God. And now as a child of God, now I can have a relationship with God because it’s between the Father and the Son. But you can’t have a relationship with God if you’re not his child. I think the Bible is pretty clear, but I wanted to give you these three things.

See, there is an external revelation. External to signs that he gave was to convince the people that what he had to say was the truth that he was legitimate and he had the right to offer because nobody could do what he could do. He could walk on water. Have you tried it lately? I told the people in Minnesota, I can walk on one of the land. I said, and I said, I can prove it to you. They said, prove it.

I said, I’ll be I’ll be up here in January. It’s frozen solid. But Jesus didn’t have to wait till the winter time for it to freeze solid. He walked on water. You can’t do that. He made 10,000 chicken sandwiches and fish sandwiches. He did all these things for the people. He raised the dead. You can’t do that. I mean, with a wither farm, he was his arm, made a blind man to see and a deaf man to hear. Try it.

But God can do those things. So when he made an offer, they knew it was a good offer because of the one that was making it. And if the one that made the offer says, it’s free, it’s a gift. I’ll give it to you as a gift. ,Dou why did he do it that way? Because he wanted you to know how much he loved you. He doesn’t make me serve him. I don’t have to serve God. I’ll go to heaven because he loves me, not because I love God.

But do I love God? Yes, I do. I love him with all my heart. I want to serve with everything I’ve got. but I’m not doing it so I can go to heaven. I’m doing it because I’m going to heaven, not to get there. And so as you read these scriptures and it goes through and it tells you all the things. Now, when it has internal response, he made an external sign. He said something, he did something, he proved it, who he is and what he’s done because of who he is, he said, if I would believe it, I would have something.

He made an offer and I just can’t refuse it. Because it’s all based upon what he did Belichick, he paid for my sins, so I don’t have any sins to payCENT. I can’t go to hell today. I can’t go to hell tomorrow. I don’t have any sins to pay for it. He paid for all of mine. That’s why I can354 go to heaven. And I refuse to allow anybody to enslave me again, to put me back under bondage. I serve the Lord because I’m free, Petraeus I don’t have to.

I serve the Lord because I want to. I want to go to church. Now if you don’t want to go, you don’t. You UNCLASSIFIED live the way you please and you go whatever church you please and when you give money you give what you please and then you really want to make a reminder to read the Bible whenever that may be is according to how much you please, you live the way you please, don’t you? Well, what’s wrong with me living the way I please and I’m still going to heaven?

And if I choose to rebel against God, it cannot be that God changes his mind and takes away my salvation because he gave me the free gift, free gift of eternal life and that’s why I’m going to heaven. But for some reason over the years as I read the Bible and I stood it and I found out, oh, he really loved me. He loves me. Love has a way of responding to love. I want to love him back. And so there’s something that on the inside, if I would believe it, I would have something.

And so there is this external result. You see, I have eternal life. I have eternal life. That’s why the Bible says, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. John 3, 16, for God so loved the world, the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that whosoever anybody, anybody. . . . . . . . . . . . Believe it in him. Should not perish. But have everlasting life. So if I believe this wonderful offer that he made and all I did is in my mind, I believed what the person that offered it said.

And how do I know if I really believe him? When I can say, I have it. You see, I have eternal life. That is my evidence that I’m not. saved. I have eternal life. That’s what he said I would receive if I believed him. It’s kind of like the person that was standing before a crowd as he was going to walk across the Niagara Falls and push a wheelbarrow. He says, anybody believe that I can push somebody across in this thing?

And a lot of people. He says, get in. You really believe it? Get in. Well, I don’t know if I believe that much because you can believe a lot of things until you have to trust it. You see, I believe, don’t Christ, and I never questioned or doubt it because Luke, who it is that’s making the offer. It’s the Lord. There is nobody greater than him. Nobody more powerful than he can keep his word. I am trusting him and believing exactly what He said, He said that if I believe that He would have no wise and no wife ever cast me out.

It means that when I trusted Him 53 years ago, there was absolutely no way in the future I could ever go to hell. Impossible. I’m going to heaven. Is it because I’m good? No, I’m not good. I’m a center. I’m a center. ThatLIST what I am. The Bible says, all have sinned, so you’re right there with me. How do you like your company? You might as well learn to love me. You get to heaven, you’re going to have to live with me for the rest of eternity.

So you might as well start now. Don’t that make sense? I think so. But in the ways you go through here, so much that God has for us and He makes an offer that you just can’t refuse it. Let me show you something. This is how Ray used to explain the gospel. Hank used to do it like this also. I think he used a song book somebody told me. He probably wore out some of those song books, but look up here, letting this hand represent you and me.

And the wallet represent all the things we do that’s wrong. God loves us. Now He hates what we do wrong. Just like I love my children. I don’t like it when they disobey. I can be careful my daughter’s sitting here. But God loves us, but He hates what we do wrong. And to pay for this sin is eternal separation from God. It means the wages of sin is death. That’s why everybody dies. See, if you didn’t sin, you wouldn’t die.

But how’s it looking. It’s not looking too good, is it? You’re getting older and older and older. And there comes a point where you don’t look younger and younger and younger. We’d like to wish that. Look in the mirror today because ten years from now, you’ll be surprised how young you look today. I saw a picture of me twenty years ago with it. I used to look like that. It’s coming. But the Bible says we’re all condemned the whole world.

We’re all in the same boat. And God says that you cannot earn eternal life. You can’t work your way to heaven. Because you have to be perfect to go to heaven. Nobody’s perfect. We’re all sinners. And the Bible says, your good deeds, regardless of how many, will never pay for one of your sins. This end represents Jesus Christ. People hear about this all the time, but they just don’t get it. Jesus Christ was the Lord. He was God in the flesh, came into the world.

Never sinned. He didn’t have to die. He said, even while they was going to crucify them, he said, I can call 10,000 angels. They couldn’t do anything to him that he didn’t let them do to him. He says, I have the power to lay my life down and the power to raise it up. But he says that he loves us. And so he came and took all the sins of all the world and paid for them on the cross.

He came back from the dead and said that if we would believe he did it for us, he would put this payment to our account and we get to go to heaven on what Christ did for us. You know, here’s a good thought. Always remember. Jesus Christ would rather die than live without me. He would rather die than live without you. That’s how much he loved you. Forget the world. Just think about you. He would rather die than live without you.

You talking about somebody that loves you? He does. And he wanted to prove how much he loved. And that’s why he took all of your, and not some of them. If he took all of them, But one, He didn’t help you. He took all of your sins. From the time you were born to the time you died, He took them all paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead. And He said that if you’ll believe that He did it for you, He would put this payment to your account and you get to go to heaven on what Christ did.

He gets all the honor, all the glory, all the credit. It’s not of works list any man should boast. I can’t say I’m going to heaven because I have this wonderful relationship with God. No, I’m going to heaven because Christ died for me. That’s why I’m going to heaven. Christ died and paid for my sins. And I believe that. I hope that I’ve made it simple enough and clear enough that you say, you know, that’s an offer that I just can’t refuse.

Let’s pray, shall we? With heads by nice clothes and no one looking around If you’re here and never have trusted Christ as your Savior, maybe just never understood before I’m not asking you to join the church. I’m not asking you to give any money I’m not asking you to do anything except just receive something not give receive Would you believe that when Christ died he died for you? Would you believe that? Would you trust him as your Savior right now?

now. You say, preacher, that made sense to me. And I want to know that I’m going to heaven. And I’m going to trust Christ right now as my Savior. And I’d like for you to pray for me. So with his bow, nice clothes, and no one looking around, would you just slip your hand very quickly and put a rabbi down? Not going to embarrass you, not going to have you forward. But right where you’re sitting, say, yes, that made sense to me in that life for you to pray for me.

And one of the all, just slip it up very quickly. Yes, God bless you, sir. bless you, man. Anyone else, it’s just a decision that you need to make. So that was an offer that I just can’t refuse that, because it’s free. It’s free. God knows who you are, knows where you are. Would you trust Him? Anyone else before we close? Our father, we thank you so much for the individuals that indicated by an uplifted hand that right now, they would accept that payment.

You’re made on the cross for them. By doing so, they become your child for all eternity. Father, because they are your children, you want them to walk with you and to talk to you. You want them to read your word and get involved in a good Bible believing in teaching church where they can grow and meet with other Christians because these things are good and profitable. We ask your blesses upon each one. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, of 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 1-800-576-3771. 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 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. 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. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.