This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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

What’s your say by grace but repent is to change your mind in order to believe. If I am an unbeliever and I believe, I have repented, I’ve changed my mind. If I don’t find that word mentioned in the whole Gospel of John, the meaning is still there because I went from unbelief to belief. Met denoia, repent, change your mind, reconsider, think differently. So it’s here and it’s clear. Let me read this to you. This is what they said. If we compare this passage, there is a reason to believe that the Lord wanted the disciples and called the Jews and the Gentiles to repent that they might have fellowship forgiveness.

This is a part of the discipleship message, not any evangelistic one. This verse in no way contradicts John 3 16. They’re not talking about the same subject. Well, if John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believe it and they preached the gospel here to Cornelius in his household and they believed it and they were saved and the Bible says they were granted repentance on the life. They changed their mind they believe and they’re saved the same way.

Sounds simple to me. Just hold your place right there but look over there in chapter 15 chapter 15 chapter 15 and look in verse 7. Acts 15 verse 7 says and when there had been much disputing Peter rose up and said unto the men and brethren You know how that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. Peter says they heard the gospel through my mouth and they believe.

So when you go there in chapter 10 and chapter 11 is he talking about the gospel and being saved? Yes. How can they They say it doesn’t talk about that. Something’s missing. All because you change a word and then you’ve got to go back and mutilate those scriptures. It didn’t know what else he says. He says in verse 9, and put no difference between us and them. Purifying their hearts by faith. It’s not talking about how fellowship with God because you stopped your sins.

That’s not the issue. It’s not what it’s talking about. But notice what he says in verse 11. But we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall have fellowship just like they do. No, we shall be saved even as they. So this is why it’s important to study the Bible and know what God says because there’s a lot of different philosophies out there. And when it’s designed by man, it’ll cause you to lose confidence in what God really does say.

Like there’s some people that believe that God has already chosen who He wants to go to heaven and only those are going to go to heaven because that’s all he chose. So if that’s all he chose, then Christ didn’t have to die for everybody. He just had to die for those that he chose to be saved so that you can’t say that God so loved the world because God doesn’t love the world. He only loves those that he’s going to save.

What preachers has the gall to stand and tell people, there’s some of y’all, God doesn’t love some of you. Christ didn’t die for all of you. Some of y’all can’t be saved because God didn’t love you enough to save you, but he’s not a respecter of persons. Well, wait a minute. Why didn’t he put me in that bunch? It goes to heaven. You see, it’s air and they’re peaching. I can’t go on the radio and tell them, look, I want you to listen to me real close now.

God doesn’t love all of you. God doesn’t love some of you. And He doesn’t love you for any particular reason. He just chose to save you from the foundations of the world because, well, we don’t know what it is, but there was just something about you. And then later on, God says in His Word, He’s not a respecter person, then I want to know what did you use to discern why this person should go to heaven and not this person.

Why did you choose this one and not choose this one? You see, that’s air and teaching and everybody can say, oh, how wonderful. Oh, he’s so good. No, it’s not. You say, you’re gonna make people mad. So be it. It’s not because I want to, but either I take and put this above every man, even me. This is more important. This book, if a person can scriptually show me where I teach it’s wrong, you have the right to come to see me.

Just chapter and verse. chapter and verse. Also, they say they’re in Acts chapter 2 that they were not being saved. That was for fellowship. Acts chapter 2, very quickly, look at this. I want you to see this. It said that Acts chapter 2 is not teaching that repentance and baptism are necessary or conditioned for everlasting life. It is teaching that for the new Jewish believers who had personally participated in the death of Jesus, they must repent and be baptized to have fellowship forgiveness and to receive the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Since when do you have to be baptized in water to get the Holy Spirit when Jesus has already said that he that believeth on him would receive the Holy Spirit and then he said this is not talking about how to be saved. So if that’s not the reason why would you have there in verse 41 then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day they were added under them about 3,000 souls. The 9 verse 47, praise and God and have in favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

It’s talking about salvation. But when you change the word, you change the context of the whole point of scripture and you got to give it another meaning now. And this is being propagated very wide, very strongly, among free-grace individuals, that this is the new philosophy. It’s a new vision of what repent means. It’s heresy. It’s not what the book says. It’s changing what the Bible says. And if I make a few enemies along the way, then so be it.

Take your Bible. I want you to look at this. chapter 2, the book of Romans in chapter 2. There’s a verse here in Romans chapter 2 that has the word repent in it. And it’s mentioned there in verse 4. So Romans chapter 2 verse 4 are despised out the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth the two repentance. But they say this repentance is not talking about heaven and hell or going to heaven.

It’s only talking about so that you will realize that you ought to not do these bad things and God won’t have to take your life. Regardless of how you live, sooner or later, you’re going to die. And you don’t know whether or not because of, yes, because some people, they’ve done this and they die early and they maybe alcohol and they ruin their liver and somebody else to get emphysema and so, so sometime when we abuse the body, you might die early.

So you can confess the sin and stop your drink and stop your smoking, but I can guarantee you, it doesn’t necessarily heal the body. It can still take your life. My mother stopped her smoking about 20 years before it finally took her, but she had already got the emphysema and already had this damage done. My sister came to me one day I was preaching in a little old white church, little old Methodist church. And after I got through I went back to the back and I was shaking hands with people and my sister Liz, she came up and she says, Yankee?

Yeah. She says, I quit drinking. Okay. When did you quit Liz? Now. And as I know she never took another drop for almost 15, 20 years. She had her own liquor still. She drank until she could, she could st. this building. But she drank. But even though she quit, she still had liver problems. She had health problems. And it could have contributed to her dying early. But you see, when you say that, okay, here you are and you’re all these wicked people and you do all these wicked things, if you will turn from your sins, you’ll buy you a little time.

It may be true. you don’t take that and apply it to the Word of God in the wrong spot and say that this is what repent means when you come to salvation, it’s not required. So now they’re saying nobody has to repent. Repent has nothing to do with salvation. It only has to do with temporary life. That isn’t true. It’s like telling a man that he doesn’t have to repent. He don’t have to change your mind. Well, I think I can get there by my good works.

Okay, don’t We’ll repent. I believe you get there by being water baptized and keeping the 10 commandments. No, he has to change his mind. That’s not true. See, if you don’t use the word, you still have to use the meaning. They have to understand it. You still got to understand you cannot save yourself by what you do. So therefore you are to repent. That’s why the Bible says you go into all the world and preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

They do go together. They say, no, they don’t. Yes, they do. So here in the book of Romans, they said, this is just talking. Let me just read it to you just the way he had it wrote. The idea of repentance here, of course, refers to the need. The need the moral is has to turn away from his own sin to avoid the wrath that God exercises upon or against such things. the issue here is temporal wrath, not eternal condemnation.

So, as we read here about the wrath of God, the wrath of God, okay, you’ll notice when he says there in verse five, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. This is to talk about the temporary wrath that you go through in life. Because you make God mad in zap.

In the book of Romans in chapter one, it makes a statement for 16. He says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it to the Jew person also to the Greek. Then he says, for therein in the gospel is the righteousness of God, reveal from faith to faith, and is it written, the just shall live by faith for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and blah, blah, blah, blah.

Men are doing these bad things. What do they need? Stop doing those bad things? No, they need to be saved. Because see, you can’t stop all these bad things that you do. You have a sinful nature. Like I said before, you don’t tell a dog, dog, you stop acting like a dog and I’ll make your chicken. How long would it take? So here in verse 17 talks about the wrath of God and the righteousness of God in verse 17-18.

It’s the same thing that you find there mentioned in verse 5 of chapter 2. But chapter 1 is talking about the gospel. And verse 16, the gospel, I’m not ashamed of the gospel. It’s the power of God unto salvation. And they say, well, we’re not talking about that. This is just talking about how you live your life in temporal. No, you got to mutilate it. your Bible, look in the book of Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. And notice what he says here.

In verse, well we’re a good place to start. It’s also good. Look in verse 5. Verse 5, and hope make it not a shame because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly. God didn’t tell them to stop their sins. Christ died for them. Look in verse seven. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet for a venture for good men, someone even dared to die.

But God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now is that about salvation? Christ died for us. We were sinful, wicked, we without strength, we couldn’t save ourselves. And God displayed his love toward us and sent his son, he died for our sins. Is that about having eternal life and going to heaven? Sure looks like it to me. But look at the very next verse. In the next verse he says, in verse nine, much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath.

Because I’m justified, I am saved from wrath. This goes together, this is a context. And it’s not because I turn from my sin, It’s because he died for my sins. There’s a difference. In my mind, it’s so clear. But I can see where somebody can get messed up, I guess. But it’s important to me because I just don’t want people to go to hell. I believe the great commission, and they said, well, it’s not evangelistic. It was just to get disciples.

What you’ve got to get them say before you can disciple them, Just to go around in the world and try to get people to live like a Christian. You know, if they die, they go to hell. And if I tried to get the lost people to stop their sins, well, that’s good. But when they die, they still go to hell. No, there’s something even better. One more that I want to give to you before I close here on this subject.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of 2 Peter, chapter 2. Second Peter, chapter 2 tells us a lot about some false teachers, false teachers, false teachers. Talk about them judgment that came upon the earth. Talk about Noah. Talk about Sodom and Gomorrah. Talk about the angels. How that God judged these people. Well, God had promised what He was going to do with Sodom and Gomorrah before it happened. And it happened just like He said. He told Noah, build a boat.

And he did. And the flood came. Because God promised and it happened just like he said. Well then there’s this teaching about Jesus is gonna come back again. Well that’s the second coming to Christ. He’s supposed to come. It was promised. And just like God kept his promises on these other things, God’s gonna keep his promise on the other. He is gonna come back. So he makes a statement over here, He said, I wanna stir up your mind now in chapter three.

where he says, I stir up your pure mind by way of remembrance. One of the things that I’ve been trying to do with new letters that I’ve sent out recently is to cause people to remember what we have done so that we can do greater things in the future. Why do people take pictures? What do you need a picture for? Because when you get older like I am, you can look back. Ah, now I remember. That’s what we used to look like.

Well, this is where we were. Vacationer is a person who travels 3,000 miles and takes their picture in front of a car. We were here. You’ve all done it. You know that. But here, notice what he says in verse two, that you may be mindful of the word which was spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this verse that there shall come in in the last eight scoffers, walking after their own lust, and saying, where’s the promise of His coming?

You see, He promised these other things and they happened and that should refresh our memory a little bit. God makes promises and God keeps promises. But He says, He said He’s coming back. Well, where is He? They ought to be where we are 2,000 years later, instead of right there. But He said in verse 5, for this day willingly are ignorant of, the Word of God, the heavens were of old, the earth standing out of the water and in the water, were by the world that then was overflowed to water and it perished.

Now the word perish, Apaluma is given to show according to this new teaching. This is just a temporal judgment because it’s just temporary. The people that died, I assure you, it was permanent. was permanent. Dead is dead. It’s like, yes, I know somebody that got saved. Great. But then I heard somebody else say, I know a man that was really saved. And then I heard another man talk about, he was gloriously saved. So you can be saved, really saved, gloriously saved.

I believe if you’re saved, you’re saved. Now, here’s a man who’s dead. Now, this man over here, now he’s really dead. This man over here, he’s gloriously dead. Like an atheist laying in the casket all dressed up and nowhere to go. But this is what was said when it comes to, they would simply mean that repentant Gentiles turn from their sin. Are people to whom God would bring the message of eternal life so that they could simply believe in Jesus and be born again.

So the lost people are to turn from their sins. And if they do, then God is obligated to get the gospel to them. But we’re not saying you’ve got to turn from your sin to be saved. And this is what they said. The most natural way to read this verse is that John’s baptism of repentance was part of a ministry whose aim was to get people to believe in Jesus for eternal life. This verse is not at all saying that one must repent to be born again.

See, they’re saying you don’t have to repent to be born again and yet the Bible says over and over and over again you must repent. God commanded every man everywhere to repent to book of Acts in chapter 17. Now here’s the thing. In this scripture we’re just reading. This is what they do to explain them. The perishing, clearly the perishing mentioned in verse six is not eternal condemnation. Peter is speaking of physical death, not eternal condemnation in verse six.

If the perishing in verse six is physical death, then isn’t it highly possible that it also refers to physical death in verse nine, just three verses later. If verse nine refers to physical death as well, then the point Peter is making is not about heaven and hell, but about life and death. So God is not concerned here with their eternal destination, but I’m not going to be able to do that. the nation, but only that they turn from their sins so they can extend their life.

Now I read it just like you send a boat. So all God was interested in is trying to get them to extend their life. I’ll let you live a little longer if you just stop your sinning. But when God takes her life, isn’t that permanent? It’s not temporary. But you mean they could have got another five years. Maybe they could You’ve got another 10 years, and then you go to hell. You just don’t get to go to hell as early, but you’re still gonna go.

Well, look there in verse 9, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness, but his long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish. Now if he means just, does he’s not willing that any should die physically? We’ve got a problem. don’t make any sense. God’s not willing that anybody should physically die. And that’s why God’s waiting and waiting and waiting for the long-term he waits for where people die. Ain’t it? I mean, if he came 2000 years ago, there wouldn’t have been this many people, lived, that would have died.

I mean, I can figure this out and I’m not that bright. Well, my mama calls me son. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises because they were doubting whether or not is Jesus going to come or not. He promised, well, he promised these other things too and that happened just like he said and he says that the world is going to be destroyed by the flood and it was. Now he says it’s been in reserve and it’s going to be destroyed by fire the next time.

Well that’s true. But why does God wait? He says God is not willing that any should perish. I don’t think the word Parrish is talking about, he doesn’t want anybody to go to hell. You ever heard of John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, the whosoever believe it, then him should not perish. Same word, but have everlasting life. Why can it mean there? It’s okay. But here, well, it’s not talking about that.

And the reason is because, see, it has the word repent in there. And repent means a turn from sin, see, and so they know that can’t be the truth, so you You’ve got to change all meaning of the context. You know what I like to do? Slap-a-jaws. Where did they get the authority to do? Did they mutilate God’s Word? That there’s people that do it. And I feel like I need to make it, this is something, and he caught my eye.

This is what he said. He says, the conclusion. Repentance is one of the most misunderstood words in the Bible. But once we grasp what it means, it is a wonderful concept. has made a way for the person who is on the path of death to escape. It is called repentance. Anyone, believer or unbeliever who continues down the path of rebellion against God is inviting premature death. Sooner or later, God will take his life. Yeah? Repentance is a way to escape.

You mean if I stern from my sins, I won’t die? Does it go death? If I just stop all my sin and, or I guess the big stuff. Perhaps repentance is one of the most misunderstood where, well it wasn’t. It wasn’t until they got a hold of it. I’m not trying to even make fun of it, because it’s it’s not, it’s a serious thing. And you are in the, you’re going to be hearing about it, called it’s coming. Coming down the pike, it’s been written in articles and so forth.

Look up here. This hand represents you and me. The wall represents sin. We all have sin on this. God loves us. H.R. sin. But you see, for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God and hell. Since we’ve all sinned, we’re all condemned, we’re all in the same boat. Now to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God. And none of us are perfect, none of us are righteous. And so the Bible says you cannot save yourself from hell.

To tell people, look, why don’t you just stop some of your sin and so you can extend your life a little longer. Okay, but where am I still going to go? Oh, you’re still going to go to hell, but you won’t get there soon. So will it matter if you’ve got another six months out of it, six days out of it? How much time will you get out of it? Nobody knows. Yes, it is important and I’ll preach that at another time because yes, there is some truth, but it applies to the believer and the believer only.

So God says that you can’t save yourself. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because he loves us. He hates what we do wrong, because what we do wrong, he separates us from God. So you can’t have fellowship with Christ until you are saved, born into his family. Fellowship is with God’s people. So Christ took the sin, paid for them to cross, came back from the dead, and said, if we would believe, he did it for us.

He would give us as a free gift everlasting life. See, everybody born in the world believes that salvation is by man, saving themselves by how you live. God says you must repent, change your mind. You cannot save yourself by your good works. You don’t go to church to go to heaven. You don’t give money to go to heaven. You don’t pray to go to heaven. Salvation is free. It’s the gift of God. You simply accept what Christ did for you.

And when you believe that He did it for you, He gives to you as a free gift ever lasting life. You repent and change your mind and trust it Christ as your Savior. God gives you term life, you go to heaven because you’re forgiven of all of your sins. Simple. Not hard, not complicated. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bound, every eye closed, no one looking around. If you’re watching by the internet or hearing the auditorium, I want you to understand God loves the whole world.

When Christ died, He died for everybody. And when he says, whosoever will, he means you. So if you will right now, will you trust Jesus Christ as your savior? Will you trust him to take it to heaven when you die? If you’ve never done it before, I’m not going to have you forward. I’m going to embarrass you. You don’t even have to raise your hand, but I just ask people to do it so that I’ll know if I made sense to them.

And I like to know and I like to have prayer for you. But I’m not going to trick you or pin against the wall afterwards. I just want to know will you trust Christ as your savior? If you’ve already done it, you don’t have to do it again. But in the quietness of this moment, it hit by a nice close. As anyone has also said, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior. I want to know that I’m going to heaven when I die.

I realize I cannot earn it. I can’t work for it. That it’s a gift that is free. And I will trust Christ as my Savior. Would you just slip in it very quickly and put right back down? Yes, God bless you. Anyone else? Just slip it up, put it right back down. Anyone else? Make sure you trust that Christ is your Savior. It’s so important. There is no other way you cannot earn it.

Our Father, we thank You so much for this time together. And bless those that are watching by internet and follow for the individual that indicated by an uplifting hand that they would trust Your Savior. By doing so, they become Your child, Your child, forever. You said in Your Word, You never cast them out, never lose them. Because eternal life is free. It is the gift of God. It’s not of works lest any man should boast. We ask now Your blessings upon the fellowship.

Yes, we will enjoy it. In Christ’s name, amen. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing tool free, 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. 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.