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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. And 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.

Chapter 7 lets us know, yes, if you want to serve a Lord, there is going to be a conflict in your life. When you want to yield yourself to the new birth and the will of God, there’s going to be struggles in your Christian life. So that’s why he makes the statement. Look in verse 18 or chapter 7. When he makes the statement, he says, I know that in me that is in my flesh. I love no good thing but how to perform at the will is present.

In other words, I want to do right. The desire is there but how to perform, how to perform. He says, I find not. And so it goes on through here and says, every time I want to do something right the evil is present with me. And so there’s a battle that goes on in your Christian life. But you see God has proven that no man can save himself and then he spends time in letting you know that God in the person of Jesus Christ made a payment on the cross and everyone who believes God will give you his righteousness so that now because you have been made righteous you now can live a righteous life, a godly life, a holy life, but it’s not going to be the easiest thing in the world.

There’s a struggle, a battle that goes on. And he says, if you will serve me, him will my Father honor. So because of the struggle, some people just give up and think it’s not worth it. It will be worth it all. Now, so when you get to chapter eight, see how fast we’re moving through the whole book of Romans? Chapter eight is the first chapter that talks about the Holy Spirit. Because to have victory in your life to do this, impossibility, you’ll need some impossible strength, super strength.

That’s why the Bible says, God gives to you and me the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, that power that raised up Jesus from the dead now dwells within us. And this is what he says. Well look down there in verse nine of chapter eight. He said, but you’re not in the flesh, but in the spirit, that is those who have trusted Christ as Savior, God sees you as his spiritual child. Before you trusted Lord, he saw you as a child of the flesh, a lost man.

Now he sees you as a saved man. And all the saved people have the Holy Spirit living within them. And he says they’re in verse nine, but you’re not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is not of his. So the very moment you believed on Christ, having believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. So he says here in verse 10, and if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin.

But the spirit is life because of righteousness. So what does that mean? Oh, let me just kind of give you a, maybe a little rough illustration. Christ is on the cross. All right, why is he on the cross? Well, he’s gonna die for me. Now, forget the world, he’s just gonna die for me. It’s just me and him. I am a sinner. He would have come into this world just for me. If I was the only person, I believe he would have come just for me.

And he died on the cross just for me. Well, when he died, his death on the cross and his burial and resurrection was all put to my kind as though I did it. He came back from the dead. I came back from the dead. So in God’s eyes, because I was in His Son, what His Son did was for me. So God sees me as someone who has died and paid for all of my sins. I have come back from the dead.

Now because I come back from the dead, I’m the living, newness of life. So I’m supposed to live as though this body with its sinful nature was crucified. It died when Christ died on that cross for me. And when I believed it and he put it to my account. Now the Holy Spirit living inside of my body, I’m supposed to reckon that my body died. And when my body died, it got rid of my old sinful nature because it’s in my body.

It’s in my members. That’s why he says, no, you not that to whom you yield yourself servants to obey his servants, you are to whom you obey whether sin and the death or the obedience on the righteousness. This body is the instrument that God uses. I live inside of this body. But my body died. Now I look at it from a totally different perspective. Here he says in verse 11, but if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead, well in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also now get to quicken your not immortal body, quicken your mortal body.

I don’t believe it’s just at the rapture of the church when my body will put on immortality. That’s when he puts on immortality. But he will make my body alive and I am to live in this body, yes, of flesh, but live as though my old flesh, my old flesh nature, the sinful nature wasn’t resurrected. Therefore I can live a Christian life and we’re not to yield to the flesh. The old sinful nature is just as mean and ugly and powerful and real as it’s always been.

But you and I are supposed to live as though it no longer has any hold on me. I don’t have to fulfill the desires of the flesh. You still have them. But live as though there’s nothing more for you than the will of God for your life. So some interesting things you can go through there and you can read and study it. But in this life as we serve the Lord, God wants to lead and to go through. So you look up there in verse 14, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God, or the growing, maturing sons of God.

So you are a cell of God. You will either be led by the Lord or driven by the devil, or driven by the desires of the flesh. You know, to seek your own will, your own way. So there’s always this battle that goes on in your life. God gave to you and I the Holy Spirit to help us have the strength and the grace that we need to live for Him. And even though you have the desires of the flesh, the love of the Lord has got to be stronger than the strength of the desires of the old nature.

Otherwise you’ll never have victory in your Christian life. Now look what else he said, because we are God’s children, because we still live in this world and because we still live in a mortal body, God says this in verse 17. And if children and we are, then heirs, heirs of God join heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with Him that we may be also glorified together. Now as a child of God, I inherit what my Father has for me.

But there’s other things that the Bible says join heirs with Christ and there is what we do in serving the Lord. So if I will serve the Lord in what the sun has the sun can also share with me. We are to serve the Lord with all our hearts but in serving the Lord in this life you and I are going to suffer. So that’s why he says in verse 18, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, present time, while we’re still here in the mortal body we’re gonna to hurt, we’re going to suffer.

We are going to be shamed and defrauded and all kind of wrong things. But you and I know it doesn’t matter what anybody does to us. It doesn’t matter what anybody says. We know that when we get to heaven, God’s going to reward us for whatever we went through. And nobody, nobody can rob you of that without your approval. That’s why you serve the Lord and you put him first and God has to bless you. He don’t have a choice.

He’s bound by His Word. And when you get to heaven, it will be worth it all. Believe Him. Serve Him. Now as you go down through here, there’s some things that God mentions about. Yes, because He loves us. His love is shown to us in many different ways. And I want you to see this. Look there in verse 37. When the Lord makes this statement, day, and all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

He loved us. Well what did he do to prove that he loved us? Because this is the motive that God wants to use to motivate us. We love him because he first loved us. Okay now how do I know he loved me? Well in chapter 5 and verse 8 it tells us that he has manifested his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died. That was to show you God does love you. Okay now what did he do beyond that?

Because if God is for me, who can be against me? What has God given to me because he has loved me? He saved me. Alright, that is my salvation. But now look there in verse 28. He said, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Now not everybody loves God. You are not saved because you love God. You are saved because God loves you. So can you go to heaven and not love God?

Yes. I’m going to heaven because he loved me and died for me, paid for my sins. That’s the proof that he really loves me because I don’t have to love him back. I didn’t have to serve him to get it, and I don’t have to serve him to keep it. Otherwise, grace would not be grace. So he makes a statement that he’s doing all of this because there’s something he has called us for, and that is his purpose, not our purpose, his purpose.

So the question is, what is God’s purpose for my life? What does he want me to do? Well, this is what he says. And it gives us an idea here. You see, there’s some things that God has guaranteed because before the foundations of the world, God has predetermined because of his foreknowledge, some things to be done for you and I. What he means is this, foreknowledge is an attribute of God. See, it’s what he knows in predestination, it’s what he does.

So, there’s saying God knows and there’s things that God does. Well, say, he knows everyone who is going to believe and not believe. But, see, it’s not based upon his foreknowledge. That’s just, God may know that you’re going to rob the 7-Eleven store tomorrow. But don’t blame God if you go rob on a 7-Eleven store. God has happened to be God and he knows what everybody is going to do. It doesn’t mean God made you do it. Because God is not the author of sin.

God never leads anybody to do anything that’s wrong or wicked. He can only, the Holy Spirit can only leave you to do right. That which is holy. So the Bible says that God has predetermined that all who would believe. Remember what it says there in the book of Romans in chapter 4? When it says, if we believe. So it’s based upon that principle. God has determined that all that believe his righteousness would be imputed to you. All who would believe would be justified just as if they had never done anything wrong and they would be in the eyes of God as righteous as God Himself.

And because God has justified us past tense. He also according to here, look what he says in verse 29, for whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conform to the image of his son, that he might be the first born among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, then he also called by the gospel, and whom he called, and those that answered, you see you have to hear the word and you’ll find this in chapter 10.

You heard the word, it was preached, you believed, you were sealed by the Holy Spirit, you were He’d given eternal life as a free gift. You have been justified, and then he also says here, whom he justified them. He also glorified, and glorified means he’s already been made perfect in the eyes of God. Remember Romans 3, 23 that says, all have sin and come short of God’s glory. You mean short of God’s perfection. Well in the eyes of God, when you trust in Christ as your Savior, ——–God has already glorified you in the sense that in his eyes, because you’re in Christ, you have been glorified.

As though you’ve already died and rose from the dead and you’re seated in the heaven is in Christ. That is your position that you have in the Lord. Don’t get any better than this. And so then he says here, if all these things are done for us, who could be against us? Look what God has already done for us. You see that can’t be changed because that is your position that you have in Christ and Romans in chapter 5 and verse 2 when he talks about This is our standing in grace You didn’t earn it you didn’t deserve that So in God’s eyes I have been justified by grace I Have been predestined To receive eternal life and his rights as this by grace then deserve it and I have been predestined by God to be glorified.

It means it’s a done deal, it’s finished, and it can’t be undone. So that’s why I know I’m going to heaven whenever I die. God can’t change it. It’s fixed beforehand. Before any man was ever born, God laid down the ground rules and says this is how it’s going to be. Now because all of this is true and I believe it. God says that He loves me and He shows me how much He loves me by doing these things for me that can’t be changed.

Now there is some things that can be changed while I’m still here in this life. God’s given me choices to make. And my choices affects my life here. And my choices can affect eternity, what I have and what I enjoy. The rewards for all eternity. So those are things that God wants to give to me. So he spends the next three chapters giving us illustrations about the nation of Israel, how he loves his people, and how that he has given so many promises and principles and so forth in the Word of God.

and he brags on these people. But because of their unbelief, they were set aside and not used. You see, they were supposed to be the light to the world, but they failed. You and I are supposed to be the light to the world, but a lot of God’s children will never serve God. They’ll never be a light. They will live like the world, conform to the world, be just like the world, never make any difference. And the Bible talks about in the book of Jude having compassion Making a difference Pulling them out of the fire You see people are going to hell Not because or anything that I say or do or don’t do they’re going to hell already You see well, I’m afraid I’ll chase them away.

No, they’re all they can’t go any further in hell But I might get some and that’s why we do what we do So you have chapter nine and chapter 10 and chapter 11 how that God can still use them if they’ll only believe So he doesn’t matter how many years pass if you don’t serve the God You can always correct the problem as long as you draw breath You have a pulse you have a purpose remember if you have a pulse you have a purpose as long as you’re alive God wants to use you But if you don’t, God may set you aside and put you on a shelf.

And yes, you may live for many years. You can accomplish a lot of things, but you’re going to lose out because there’s so much that God could have used you for. Now look there in chapter 12. This is why in chapter 12, he makes a statement. In view of all those things that God’s done for you that you didn’t work for, you didn’t deserve. But because of his mercy, because of his grace, he said, He said, I beseech you therefore, brother, by the mercies of God that you present.

You’re what? Your body, that mortal body that you have, as a living sacrifice. In other words, it was sacrificed. You died on the cross, but the Holy Spirit rose it back again from the dead, and He has made your body fit to be used. Even though you have an old sinful nature, just don’t consider the sinful nature and the deeds and the needs of the old sinful nature. Don’t feed the flesh. don’t make provision for the flesh. But a lot of people do just that.

And they wonder why they never have any victory in their Christian life. Now get this. He says in verse two, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God. There’s always something that’s better. The will of God is better than anything else in this world. And as you and I live, we should always have in our mind what does God want me to do with my life?

Now, I drew a line from the word transformed here, all the way across my page, to verse 14 of chapter 13, or it has a word, provision. Transformed provision. If you want to have a transformed life, then you can’t make provision for the flesh. Provision for the flesh means making opportunities to drift from God. making opportunities to fall under the power of that old sinful nature to get yourself in trouble. Because it is so strong it is so powerful.

So you can only transform your life by the renewing of your mind. That’s just why you have to study what the Word of God says so that you can do the things that God wants you to do. So in chapter 13 you can see that chapter 14 tells you how you and I are supposed to treat one another. Not everybody has strong faith. Some people are weaker than others. So you’re supposed to consider what the fact that takes upon other people’s lives.

Every man should understand that no man is an island unto himself. Every man is to serve the Lord with all his heart. And if you look there in verse 11, as it is written, as I live, sayeth the Lord every knee shall bow to me every tongue shall confess to God. So then everyone of us shall give account of himself to God. This is in view of what God has done for us. What does my heavenly Father expect from me?

Since He didn’t take me home, He left me here. Or what does he want me to do? I should study to find out what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. What is God’s will for my life? And so as he goes through here and he makes these statements, if you notice in verse 13, he says, let us not therefore judge one another anymore but judge this rather. No man put a stumbling block of an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.

There ought not be anything in my light that would cause people to stumble. That means I have to watch everything I say, everywhere I go, what I do, my attitude. But you see, when you don’t care about other people, then you don’t care about your own personal testimony because you don’t care. But when you do care, everything matters. Everything matters. And it can affect your whole life. So then you come to chapter 15 and it talks so much about how to have the peace of God, to have the God of hope, the God of patience, because when you start serving the Lord, you’re going to need it.

You’re going to need a lot of patience and a lot of hope. And that’s why the Bible says in verse 4, for what server things were written before, were written for our learning that we threw patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now this joyful anticipation that someday we’re going to be with the Lord, but we’re not there yet. So we live our lives now, wanting to make the biggest impact that we possibly can, the greatest influence in the lives of other people that we can.

How do you want God to use you? Or do you want Him to do like Israel and put you on a shelf? The past you buy. When they were supposed to be the one that God wanted to use as a nation to shake the world. And now God’s using His church and says, going to all the world because Israel blew the opportunity that God gave to them. And here we are now. It’s our opportunity and we can be used as greatly as we want to be used.

So you go through here and you study all these things. It’s got a lot of good stuff. But in the last chapter, the last chapter, it makes this statement in verse 17, there are some things that other people will teach to try to destroy your will to serve God. And he says, it can come even in a religious way. In verse 17, now he says, I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned.

Mainly what he’s teaching in this book. Now there’s a lot of things taught in a lot of other books, but this refers to this book. And the things that you have learned, in view of what God has done for you, don’t listen to what anybody else says. do what this book says do. That’s contrary to the doctrine which you’ll learn and do what and avoid them so that you can be strong in the Lord and God will use you and you’d be surprised what God has in store for you.

Look there in verse 20 and the God of peace, the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. So even though you know the Lord you have been so blessed and I have been so blessed because of our position in Christ and what God’s done for us. Then he beseech us that we would serve him with all of our hearts and always understand. There is a lion on your trail that seeketh whom he may devour and he’s after you.

And if you want to be found faithful, stay close to the Lord, keep serving him, putting him first, and you’d be surprised what God has for you down the road. Look up here. This is why Paul says, I’m not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone they believe it, and then tells us what he means by that. And I believe there’s an awful lot. And the main thing is, hey, nobody can save themselves.

But Christ died for everybody. So the whosoever would believe could be saved. Kind of goes back to this little illustration. This is you and me. This is sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us, hates our sin. Because you see, our sin separates us from the Lord. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. All sinned, all condemned, the whole world, and no man can save himself. We’re all in the same boat. Everybody has come short of God’s glory.

So to go to heaven, you have to be as perfect as righteous as God and none of us are. So the Bible says, God had a plan before He ever made the first man. And Christ was crucified in the mind of God before the foundations of the world, before God ever made the first man upon this earth. God says, we can’t save ourselves. We can’t bring forth good works. There’s no righteous deeds. So man can’t save himself impossible. 10 represent Jesus Christ, He is the Lord God in the flesh.

So in the process of time, God sent his son into this world and revealed his righteousness. Christ is the righteousness of God. And so the Bible says that he loves us, but he hates our sin because our sin separates us from the Lord. Jesus Christ took all the sin and paid for it. That’s why he says that being justified freely by the redemption that is in Christ. Because of this payment Christ made for our sins, we can be justified freely if we would only believe He did it for us.

So He came back from the dead and said if we would believe it and accept Him as our Savior, He would give us as a free gift everlasting life. And we go to heaven on what Christ did for us. That’s good news. That’s why Paul says, I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is a good message, it is a complete message, it is a perfect message. And nobody can save themselves, but everybody can be saved if they only hear and believe in what Christ did on the cross for them.

And you and I have been so privileged, so blessed in this life to have something worth living for, something that can really mean something to somebody. There isn’t anything in this world as important as somebody here in the gospel. Therefore I can’t think of anything I would rather do than tell people how to have eternal life. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around. If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, or if you’re watching by internet and we know that there’s a lot of people that watch, if you’ve never trusted Christ, would you trust Him now?

I’m not gonna have you forward, not gonna embarrass you, But right where you are in the auditorium were on the internet. Would you believe that when Christ died, would you believe He died for you? Paid for your sins and came back from the dead and promised that if you would believe it, He would put that payment He made to your account and you would have His righteousness imputed to you put to your account. You would be as righteous as God.

If you were as righteous as God, that’d be good enough to go to heaven on. It sure is. Best news in all the world. So if you’ve never trust the Lord and you’ll do it tonight, would you just slip your hand out very quickly and put it right back down? I just want to know what I said made sense to you and said, pre-dent it made sense to me. And I will accept Christ as my Savior. And God said, he’ll never cast you out, never lose you.

Would you trust him, if you will, God will save you and give you eternal life. Anyone before we close? If you have trusted Christ as your Savior in view of what God has done for us, Do not be conformed to this world, be it transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may discover what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Our Father, we thank You so much for this time together. Bless each one, Lord, we just want each person here to just simply do what You want them to do with their life.

In Christ’s name we pray, Amen. I am Pastor Yankee here, and I am so grateful that you are listening today to Bibleline. You are the reason we are broadcasting on this radio station to preach and teach the Word of God with clarity and effectiveness, and believe me, God has used this very powerful ministry to reach many people over the years. But I don’t often have the chance to say thank you and so I want to do that today. Thank you for listening.

Thank you for your prayers and thank you for your financial support. We could not be on the air on this station without your financial gifts. As a matter of fact, the overall response, especially our financial support, has been down this month. And so, if you’re able, would you please consider helping us today? We could use your support now more than ever. Contact information is coming up in just a minute, but please consider supporting Bible line today and again thank you.

You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tefa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. 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. -3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. 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.

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