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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 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 Bibleignmenistries.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 want you to be turning your Bible to first a few things I wanted to share with you that I hope will be a blessing to you. I got back, I thought I would just check some of my emails. I had sent out one letter, but I did get a one letter back. And this was a letter that I got back, that I would just share it with you. It says, Brother Yangtze, now this is from the pastor of an independent Baptist Church.

love you, but must tell you that the only exciting news from Florida Bible College would be that you have repented of your apostate church state position and was teaching the truth at FBC, that Jesus is to be the sole head of our churches and that you had also repented of your high old style, easy believerism that is devoid of true repentance. Now isn’t that wonderful to come home to. And this is from a pastor of an independent bed. All those people that said they trusted Christ their Savior, he said, that easy believerism.

Well, what would youFigure have? Hard believerism? When the Bible says, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, even those that are not educated, even children, do you think think it was something they should be able to understand, then what preacher has the right to make it hard when God made it easy? He did the hard part. All we have to do is accept it. They’re trying to make more out of the word believe than believe because, see, they got to get people to change their lifestyle, to stop all their bad habits and their sins and so forth.

I know where he’s coming from. I’ve preached in a lot of Baptist churches all over America. And there’s a lot of them that just don’t get it. They believe that you have to turn from your sins and so on to be saved. This is why they can’t just explain the gospel of somebody having trust Christ as Savior because they’ve got to give them the whole buffet. They got to let them know. Now this is the dessert and this is the salads and this is the meat and potatoes and now you have to eat all of this and that’s going to take a while.

Well I want somebody to get saved. I just tell them what they need to do to get saved. I’m not trying to give them a theological discussion in all the aspects of all the bibliology, angiology and soteriology and Christology and ecclesiology. I’m just trying to tell them how to go to heaven. Now there’s a lot of things we should know, a lot of things we should do as a child of God, but to become a child of God, it’s just believe that what he said is the truth.

He said something and can I believe that? He that believeth had their everlasting life. Well, when do you have it? Well, when you believe it? Well, how long does it take to believe something? If you tell a story and when they get through telling the story that made sense, hearing the word they believed. How long does that take? Well, that’s too easy. All right? Well, who has the authority to make it hard? So yes, I have a problem with certain things.

I hope while he’s preaching the day he gets hiccups. During his whole sermon, now I’m saying that out of Christian love, because I was just loved us here that he did it anyway. I got another letter. Remember I mentioned to you just a while ago that I was going to ride this zip line, and so we went an hour and a half down into the jungles. I didn’t know that it was that far. But anyway, we went. And they canceled out another part, so there was only six of us on the whole bus.

And there were about seven cruise liners that had docked there and everybody canceled out. Everybody canceled except six. And me and Betty and Trina was three of them. There’s just something feisty about us. We don’t easily give up. down into the jungle we went. And when we got there they put these harnesses on us and they take us up to the top of this no man’s land. And we had four different zips or five something like that. I’m glad that I know where I’m going when I die.

But we did get some personalized attention because we were the only six and they had that many helpers and so each one of us had our own personal attendant. But anyway, I got a chance to start talking to the guy that was the head of it. And his name was Gavin. Gavin. And he’s from Belize. And so he, we kind of start talking a little bit. So we’re standing there and getting ready to go. And I said, where are you going when you die?

He probably should have been asking me that question. I said, where are you going to go when you die? And he He says, well, well, I, I said, you hesitate. That means you’re not sure. And no, he wasn’t sure. And I said, well, I know I have eternal life. I know that I’m going to heaven when I die. I’m ready to go. So they hooked me up to the thing. He says, how do you know? I said, I’ll tell you after a while when we get through.

He said, well, can’t you tell me now? I says, no, no. This is going to put the fear of God in you, because he was going to go with me everywhere. He hadn’t been in a long time. But anyway, we had a lot of fun. It was all over with. I explained to the gospel, told me, trust the Christ of Savior. And we went into the little shed there and was talking to a couple of people behind the counter.

And he had mentioned somebody’s name, and I thought that name sounded familiar that I think I know that guy. And anyway, he asked the lady behind the counter, do you know blah, blah, blah? She said, yeah, I know him. And so I thought, there might be a connection here. This is an hour and a half down in the jungle. I mean, off the beaten path. We done it. And I says, have you ever heard of Greg Steer and dare to share?

Yes, I have. I says, do you know where you’re going with your diet? And she was hesitant. I said, you hesitate. That means you’re not sure. Cause usually if they know, they know. When you’re not sure you hesitate, time to figure out what’s the best way to answer to get out of this. And so it didn’t take long. And the thing that got her is a little statement that I use every once in a while. And I said, did you know that God loved you so much?

that he would rather die than live without you. And I mean, it just did, that one statement, she just started swelling up with water in her eyes. And I says, he loved you that much, that he was willing to die to pay for your sins so that you could have eternal life. And I went through and I explained to him, and I says, the gospel is the good news, is that he will give you as a free gift everlasting life.

If you simply believe that what he did, he did it for you. I said, can you handle this? She smiled, she said, I can handle this. Just like I can handle this. I says, will you believe it? She says, I believe it. It was so neat. It was just so neat. There’s just certain ways and things that you say, and sometimes it catches a person. Well, we got back and I saw I had an email from Gavin. He says, hi, Doc, come with Doc.

How are you doing? It was with great pleasure to meet with you and your family. As well, the knowledge you openly shared with myself and the people, everywhere I go now, that’s a question I asked. Where do you go when you die? And the conversation becomes endless. And he says, well, doc, in the next couple of days, I will be seeking the law rules and regulations regardless of the conversation we had. He’s even talking about maybe wanting to come to college, you know.

Now, he says, that’s all he talks about. Now, I spent just a few minutes explaining the gospel to him, but it’s simple enough that he can share it with somebody else and somebody else and somebody else. So I believe that there’s a lot of preachers that will never have the joy of this, for the simple reason. They got to make the gospel so hard and complicated that they won’t share it. I can share it with anybody at any given time and it makes sense and they trust the Lord.

And I’ve seen their lives change when they simply believe it. I didn’t try to change anybody’s life, but I’ve seen it happen because I know it that the power of the gospel works on people. In this verse I wanted to share with you, look there in verse 4, where it says in 1st thessalonians chapter 2 verse 4, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with that easy believerism, the gospel should be presented in such a way that it’s easy for people to understand.

If they can understand it, they can believe it and trust them. But when you make it hard and complicated, that’s when you’ve got to work on them. You’ve got to make sure that they’re willing to stop all their bad habits and cut out all of their sins and be willing to turn from their sins. They’ve got to really mean business with God. They don’t have to do that. That’s not required. I’m talking about just telling the person what’s required and it’s good news to say, It’s free.

But if you tell them you got to stop all your bad habits, that’s hard. That’s hard for people to stop. Can you stop all of your sins? Have you? No, don’t answer. I’ll thought about becoming a Catholic and opening up a little booth so y’all can confess. It would really enhance my sermon’s preparation. I could he’s more of you for illustrations. But anyway, that the Bible says that we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel even so we speak, not as pleasing men but God which tryeth our hearts.

So God has given to us a message that will work and work it will. Now turning your Bible to the book of Romans in chapter 1, I had this one guy that came by and He was waiting on us. And so it didn’t take long before I asked him, if he knew where he was going to go and he died, he did have a clue. So after I talked to him for a while and he trusted Christ as a Savior, you say, how do you know he trusted Christ?

Because he said he did. There’s some people that don’t ask. They never ask anybody because that would be a work of the flesh. Fiddle fiddle. If I want to know if you trusted Christ as your Savior, I ask you, have you trusted Christ as your Savior? And you could say, yes, well then I didn’t save you. All I did is ask you a question. You said you were saved. So if 10 people said they trusted Christ as Savior, who am I to question whether they did or they did?

Well, they may not have meant it. Well, then let it be on them, not me. I didn’t lie, they did. Oh, you understand me? Yeah. Now, in the book of Romans, look there in chapter one. Romans chapter one, I had this desire that I would, I thought kept them. Man, I just love to get all these workers together, you know, and just put them in a room and just get them all at one time. But sometimes you just can’t make something happen.

We’d even checked and tried to, and James had checked for me. And it just wasn’t possible because they just would not permit the crew to have a visitor speaker come in, talk to them on, because they had a certain place that they had to do it. And it was more of a secured area and stuff. passenger can’t go there. But anyway, I didn’t like to give up, but I couldn’t make it happen. And so I just kind of forgot about it, but I was talking to this one girl.

And the reason I was talking to her, because I was sitting there, you know, looking out there and looking into the water. I’m got my Bible and I’m reading and I’m writing some notes. Anyway, I’m sitting over my Bible and she walks up and she just dents her, young girl. She looked just like that Wonder Woman girl before she takes off her glasses, you know. And she was a little Filipino girl and she was standing there and she was looking at me.

I said, do you know where you’re going today? So I like to cut through the chase and just get to the point. I’m like a Martin to a gourd. And she’s smiling. She says, well, I… Bye bye. You know, I guess I’ll let me, yes, but she couldn’t come up with a clear answer. So I started talking during, she started having some questions. And she kept looking to see if anybody was watching her because she’s on job, on duty.

And so she would just get watching, you know. And I thought she doesn’t have much time, so I got to keep moving on this thing here. And so I explained a little bit and she was, well what about this? And she had another question, I answered that question. And next thing you know, 20 minutes has passed. And she’s still standing there. And a couple of other guys would come by that were working. And they would look at her and look them.

And they keep on walking. And that’s where that song came in. Keep on walking. And after I talked to her while I says, does it make sense? She said, yes, it does. I said, will you trust Christ right now? She said, yes, I will. So she had a few other questions. And so I was talking to her. And so she was still looking to make sure. And all of a sudden, here come her boss. Her boss came walking right up there, started to walk past and looked over at her.

She looked at him, he looked down at the Bible, and he walked about, I don’t know, 10, 15 feet past, and then he started back. I said, uh-oh, she is in trouble now. And he looked at me, says, I had up a Bible study with a crew every Friday night. I’ve been, he’s dropping. Would you mind speaking to us? He’s the boss. I shook his hand and I said, I’ll get back with you and let you know if we can have a Bible study.

He says, but most times they always say no. They won’t let us do it. And so I said, all right. So I got to thinking, if I can’t go there, why can’t I have a Bible study and they come to hear me? So I said, pass on the word to him and tell him, why can’t we just meet the chapel and we’ll meet there at a certain time. Well, the time they picked when they could all get together was 11.30 Friday night, 11.30.

So anyway, we decided that’s what we’re gonna do, and 11.30, I’m there, but I’m there 15, 20 minutes early, you know, to get ready for the crowd. 11.30, there was nobody. Trena was out there trying to drum up a little business and trying to get the people to come in, but finally too late, I’d two elderly people. They came and then it sat down for a while and I talked to them a little bit. But anyway, they said, this thing was told you only the last 15 minutes, I’ve already been sitting here 15 minutes.

When’s it gonna start? I gotta go. So they had to get them to leave. I said, so this isn’t working out the way I thought it would. And I was just about ready to just, you know, forget it and go because evidently they were and they were able to get the group together. And so at about quarter till I had to wait a long, let’s a little bit long, all of a sudden here came a couple and then a couple more.

And then after, well, there was 18 of them sitting there, beside me, Betty and Trina, 18 of the staff, they had went and got cleaned up and dressed up so that they would look sharp. They were coming to chapel for a Bible study. And so they came in there. And so the one guy he played the couple songs with the guitar, same songs that we play in camp and stuff. So they turned it over to me, and they weren’t really ready for Yankee.

You know how you are when you hear somebody tell a joke and you don’t know whether or not was that a joke. And you don’t know whether the laugh or not the laugh because nobody knew me, so they didn’t know how to respond to me. But it wasn’t until I told him how I got my name Yankee. And I said my daddy says I was the ugliest kid in the world, but my dad had never seen him. He was the one that was the head, the guy.

He got it good. He laughed, and then they all laughed, and then I had them. So anyway, I explained to Gospel and taught some things. I went for about 45 minutes. So it was about 1.30 when we got out of there. And then they had to be up at 4.35 o’clock getting things ready for breakfast. But that was such a sacrifice for them to do it. And I met them the next day for the meals, and they were working and so forth.

And they would come to me from all over if they saw me anywhere. They’d come up and so glad and shaking my hand and such a beam on their face. And one little girl was from Peru. Another one was from Serbia. And a bunch of them were from the Philippines. And they were from all over. And so just that easy. Now, I don’t know how another pastor would do it. Can you see me with, you know, only a few minutes to talk to people, you know, are you willing to give up all of your sins?

Are you willing to commit your life to Christ for the rest of your natural born life? Will you promise? Or is it easier just to tell them, look, you know, God loves you. You know what I did? I wrote something down. I don’t know if I had it here with me or not, but I wrote it down and I don’t see it, but it was along this line. If Christ loved us so much that He was willing to die for us, He died for us without the guarantee we would ever believe on Him.

And I thought about that. I sat there and I’d write and I’d think. He didn’t do it because He knew we would believe. He did it so that we would have a chance to live with Him. You see, even though he paid for the sins of the world, the world isn’t saved, only those that believe it. And so if you believe it, he died to give me a chance. Christ died. Was it worth it? What have you done with his death?

If he died for you, did you believe that he did it for you? He sacrificed his life for you? I want you to take your Bible and look there in Romans in chapter one, where it makes a statement, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that turns from his sins, from everyone that commits his life to Christ. Or did it say to everyone that what that believes?

In other words, there’s a story to tell, and if you’ll believe that story, that means you’re going to trust what you heard. And hearing, they believed. And you’re saved by believing something. I’m not saved by anything that I do. I heard, and I believe, that what Christ did was for me. Now, the people, they do things differently. Not everybody reacts the same way. We had a kid out there in Colorado, name was Donnie Lacey, came from Blee Patton’s work down in San Antonio.

So one day I put a joke on him in chapel. I said, Donnie Lacey came to me one time. He wanted some advice about dating girls. So I told him, I said, just don’t be fresh. Don’t be fresh. Be a gentleman at all times. So I saw the girl the next day and I asked her, I said, well, how did it go on your date? I said, was he fresh? She said, oh, no, no, no, no. I slapped his face three times.

He said, what? I said, he wasn’t afraid. No, she said, no, I thought he was dead. Some Christians are dead. There is no life in them whatsoever. They have nothing to say, nothing to talk about. I’m alive. I’m excited. And I love doing what I do. I love the Lord. God been so good to me. But I’m so glad that God made salvation so simple and so clear and that all we have to do is trust the Lord. Now I want you to take your Bible and turn with me over here to a scripture.

And Matthew chapter 28, Matthew chapter 28. I thought about this one time. Is God only interested in numbers? Now I know there’s a book in the Bible called Numbers. And they don’t have the day of Pentecost, it was 3,000 saved. So God is interested in a number when a number represents a soul, but is God only interested in a number? Because he’s not a respecter or person, so some people say that God has chosen who He’s going to save and the rest of them can’t be saved.

Only one who can be is the one that He chooses to save. that’s a heretical doctrine. I do not believe that one I owe them. But if it’s only a numbers game, he just wants so many people that he’s going to save, then wouldn’t it make a lot more sense for God just to figure out how many people does he want and then put them all in one place if you’re in New York City. How many people does he want to save?

You want 20 million? You want 10 million. Well, there’s enough people in a lot of these cities They just rope off a place and say, these are the ones I’m gonna save, and just save those and just send your missionaries just to that one place. Why waste your time sending all these missionaries all over the world trying to find some little person and a little hot and hot here and a little person over there and over there? Why not just put them in one space if it’s just numbers and just get all of these?

Don’t that make sense? If that’s what God’s doing and he’s just wanting to get a certain number, well, that’s easier to get a certain number than one location. And just save all of those and let your little missionaries go in there and talk to just those in this area here and God will just save all of them. And then we get this work done fast. But that ain’t what he said. Because I don’t think that’s what he means. I believe, really, that when he says, who so ever believeth, it’s open to who so ever believeth.

whoever, anybody. That’s why when we got ready to get off the ship, I was sitting there drinking a cup of coffee and going over a few thoughts that I wanted to share with you today. And Betty said, Yankee, that couple over there, you need to talk to them. I said, honey, I got some things I’m thinking right now. She said, they’re not going anywhere and you need to talk to them. Okay. So she got up and she left. And I’m still sitting there and I’m And I’m thinking, next thing you know, here she comes again.

She’s yanking the head waiter. The head waiter’s over there and you need to talk to him before you get off the boat. Now, I’ve only got about 10 minutes before I got to go and I’m trying to, you know, and yes, there. So I walked over to those couple and I says, can I ask you something? And I pulled out one of my heaven tracks. I literally pulled it out and I says, can I give you one of these?

They let me says, you already did. I said, I did. You gave us one of the first day we was on the boat. Did I ask you if you know where you’re going? Yeah, we know Christ is our Savior. We know we’re going to heaven. I said, this is a lot of time. I said, thank you. God bless you. She said, hey, we really appreciate you even talking to us twice. Okay, I got one more to go. I walked around the thing there and Betty says, that’s him.

And she left. So I walked up to this guy and he’s then you’re talking to another guy. He’s all dressed in a solid white outfit, you know, with some little gold bars on him. So this is not the average little, you know. Anyway, I walked right up to him. I ain’t got a lot of time. I walked up to him and I said, sir, can I ask you a question? He said, sure. I said, where are you going to go when you die?

And all of a sudden, he was in a state of shock. He said, I’m going in the ground. I was like, I ain’t got time for all of this. I said, have you ever died before? He smiled and said, no, I haven’t. I said, then you don’t know that’s true, do you? He wasn’t expecting that either. I said, I’ve only got a minute and you know it. And I got to go and get rid of it off the boat.

I said, can I explain something to you? And he says, sure. I said, I want you to understand this. Jesus Christ loves you so much. He was willing to die, then live without you. And it just totally changed his countenance. And he listened to everything that I said. And when I got through, I said, sir, does that make sense? He says, it sure does. I said, well, you right now, will you trust Christ? Is your Savior? He said, yes, I will.

If a man tells me he trusts in Christ’s estate here, why shouldn’t I believe him? 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 two 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 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.