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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 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.

with great, swelling words, pair speeches, and picing words of man’s wisdom. They add to the gospel and makes the good news of none effect. You can’t trust you and Christ to save you. You can’t have a part in it. I’m sorry. God did this in such a way you get no credit it whatsoever. You see, trusting Christ as your Savior is not a commitment to serve. It is a decision to trust. 53 years ago in that little old living room in Athens, Georgia, when I got saved, I did not commit myself to serving God.

I committed myself to believing God. I believed what He said. If I trust Him, He would save me. What’s the problem? We can’t believe that God would love us that much? No, no, no, God doesn’t love it that much. You have to you have to deserve it. So when you tell a man you’ve got to stop something or start something you say you’ve got to deserve God’s love. You’ve got to deserve to be saved. You’ve got to qualify. You don’t qualify yet.

And then now let’s all stand and sing just as I am. Just as I am them when they just lied to you. So he says here in verse four, my speech, my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and the power. Did you know that if you listen to me, you’re just liable to understand what I’m saying? you know why? Because I try to speak clearly, plainly. And I don’t use great big words for several reasons.

One, I don’t know. And if I did know them, I would not know how to pronounce them. I’m having a good time. So take your Bible and look there in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 14. First Corinthians in chapter 14. First Corinthians 14, look there in verse 9, in verse 9. Verse 9, page 12, 24 says, so likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue, words difficult to be understood, easy to be understood. I was always taught in Bible college, you put the food on the bottom shelf.

God says, feed my sheep, not my giraffes. So you put the food down where they can get at it. So he says here, so likewise you accept the utterbudah tongue, words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken for you shall speak into the air. You’re wasting your time. And a lot of people are very impressive because the people are more impressed if the preacher can talk in such a way that when you get through, you don’t know what he said.

Because then you know he had to be intelligent. And you’re more impressed with his great knowledge and intellect. But what did he say? I don’t know. Boy, was she good? I guess I have to put up a little bit of that. I’ve had people go out the door and they’ve shake my hands and preached that with a great sermon. I said, what did I say? sure was good. Well that’s very impressive. I appreciate that. Now if it was a month later it might be different but you know how that goes.

But now look at this verse. See there in verse 8, one of the reasons, if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? I mean, you know who you got to trip, you’re ready to go, you charge, and you just play. Can’t you see the horses up there going, dum, dah, dah, dum, dum, dum. Charge! You don’t charge with, you know, the blue Danube. You don’t do that. You’ve got to figure out what you’re going to do.

What do you want them to do? They used to play revelry. You may know what revelry is. Is that when you get up or go to bed? What if it’s time you get, they play taps? Are they the same thing? not the same thing. Things that are different and not the same. Ain’t that right? They’re different than not the same. So look there at this verse. Look what he says in verse 19. Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice I might teach others also.

Then 10,000 words in a unknown tongue or a language or so filled with man’s wisdom of words, they don’t have a clue what know what are you talking about. Now I could listen to a lawyer. If you ever seen things that are written for the common man and then written for the lawyer to understand, that’s why you should never elect lawyers to go to Congress. They write the laws in order for you to hire lawyers to figure out what they said.

And this is why so many of the laws they make, you have to wind up in court trying to figure out what did they say? Did you know it’s also part of our constitutional background and some of the, what do they call it? I can’t find the right word for it right now. But it’s simply that if it’s vague, it’s not clear, the law is null and void. You have to have where the common people can understand it. If they can understand it, the law is unconstitutional.

That’s the truth. They ought to apply that to Obamacare. If you can’t understand it, it can’t be a law. Because the common people have to be able to understand what they say. Wouldn’t that eliminate a lot of problems? So when God says something so simple, so clear, and man adds to it, it complicates it. It means that people don’t understand it. It means it causes this powerful message to have no effect because people don’t trust it. People don’t believe it because that’s why some people you talk to have you ever had somebody take the Bible and explain to you how you can know you have eternal life.

Well I’ll believe it when I can live it. You ever hear anybody? I’ll believe it when I can live it. Whoever told them they had to live it. Some preacher standing in the pulpit telling them you’ve got to live it. If you don’t live it you don’t have it. So if I get it, I got to live it. And if I’m not willing to live it, then I am not going to get it. Because I’m going to be a hypocrite because I promise to do something I won’t do.

Well, where did those messages come? That’s not the Bible. That’s man’s logic. That’s man’s wisdom. But it’s not the truth. It’s not the book. And it makes the difference. It’s the difference of heaven and hell. So important. Look, they’re in 2 Corinthians in chapter 3. 2 Corinthians in chapter 3, and I want you to look there in verse 12. Verse 12. Paste 13-32. Verse 12 says, Seeing then that we have such hope we use great plainness of speech. In other words, you need to understand what’s being said.

Did you know that there are some churches? you can go to it. And there’s people that give their money, they’re faithful, they go, and they say and do everything in Latin. And the people haven’t got a clue what they’re saying. But they do it in a language they don’t understand. And then then we get through all that stuff. What a waste of time. If you don’t understand what the man is saying, What are you listening for? What did you go to get?

Do you want to know truth? Or do you want to listen to man’s wisdom? Go to the book. And God’s Word says, make it plain. Keep it simple. Plain words. It’s what Paul says. It’s what Christ said. It’s what they did. You listen to the stories of Jesus when he talked to people. It was in such small words. can understand it. But people don’t want to believe because they got to add with their pride, got to add something to it.

And I’ll just be honest with you. I don’t mind once in a while somebody trying to explain a word by saying, well, no, in the Hebrew this means or in the Greek this means. But if all of your whole message is on the Hebrew and on the Greek, there were Hebrews that spoke the language and rejected Christ. And there were people who spoke Greek and rejected Christ.

Knowing Hebrew and knowing Greek is not the key to biblical understanding. No more than English. You see, can you twist English and you can twist Hebrew and you can twist Greek. You can twist every language. And there’s a lot of people who pride themselves and I can twist them more than you can. No, no, I can twist them more than you can. I don’t listen to O’Reilly much, but one thing he says is the spin stops here. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, stops here.

This is the truth and the spin stops right here. I don’t think that God’s people have to put a spin on what God says. Let God say what he means and just believe that. Whether I understand it or not is not the key. I am just to trust Him that what He says is the truth. And study in the Word of God so that I can say, I believe with all my heart this is what God is saying. And it has to perfectly dovetail.

Another script I wanted you to see, look there in the book of 2 Peter 2, 2 Peter and 2. We’re told to go into all the world and preach the gospel. If we did, don’t you think it ought to be simple enough for those people, every person, to understand? Whether it’s an old person or a young person, and everybody in between. The gospel should be a story simple enough for what people are to believe. Because if you’re saved by faith alone, only by believing, well, if you add something to believing it would have to be a man’s work because that’s the only way you can do it.

Believing is what Christ did. I’m trusting Him, His work. So if I add anything to that, then you’re going to have to be my work. And you can’t add your work should for by grace or you save through faith. And that not of yourself. It is the gift of God not of work. Man can add to it. You add to believing more than what God says than it’s no longer just what God says. You put your little two cents worth into it and there’s a lot of people to do it.

So here in 2 Peter, I want you to look there in chapter two. And look in verse 18, for when they speak, see these words? Great swelling words of nothing, vanity. vanity. In the book of Ecclesiastes when he says all is vexation and vanity, vexation of spirit, vanity and vexation of spirit. It means it’s a lot of nothing. And you cause the truth of God to be nothing by not believing what God’s word says. So if you add to it and people don’t hear the story, they don’t trust the Lord.

And some people say, well, those people in certain area, they’re gospel hardened, gospel hardened. No, the gospel ignorant. Nobody’s explained the truth of the gospel. Well, they really understand the gospel. And that is by grace in grace alone. But look at this verse again. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lust of the flesh through much wantonness, though that were clean, escaped from them who live in air. And in verse 17, it says, they’re like wells without water, to whom is reserved the midst of blackness forever and ever and ever.

See, you can’t trust Christ if you don’t understand what you have to do. You’re trusting Him alone. God says it’s not by works of righteousness which we have done. But according to His mercy, He has saved us. saved as past tense. I have been saved and it wasn’t by any works that I did. So if I wasn’t saved or justified by any works that I did, then how can any works after that undo what was done? I have been saved.

What can unsaved mean? Nothing. I can’t be unsaved. And this is what blows people’s minds, is they can’t believe that you can trust Christ of Savior and then not have to serve a Lord. If anybody listens to me long, you know I try to get everybody I possibly can. If you trust that Christ is your Savior, I want you to serve the Lord. Do you hear what I’m saying? I want you to serve the Lord. And I want you to serve the Lord with all your heart.

But not to be saved, to prove you’re saved, to stay saved, I just want you to do it because you love him, because you don’t have to do it. And if you do love the Lord, you will serve him. But if you don’t love the Lord, you’re not going to serve him. It’s hard to serve somebody you don’t love. I fell in love with the Lord. Me serving God isn’t hard for me. It’s not hard for me to go to church, to read the Bible, to pray it with.

It ain’t hard because I love doing it. If you do what you love, it’s not hard. So yes, salvation, trust in Christ, that was easy. To me, serving the Lord is easy because I love Him. Now, if you try to do all of those things that God wants you to do and you don’t love Him, yeah, it’s all hard. It’s hard.

Another verse I want you to look at, look in Jude chapter one. Just go to your right. If you come to Jude chapter two, you went too far. Jude chapter 1, it’s only one chapter, but I want you to look at verse 16. Would you believe that Enoch in the Old Testament was a prophet? He was a preacher, and yet he lived for about 350 years, and he was and he was not because God took him. and he preached about Jesus Christ before the flood.

Talked about Jesus Christ coming back in power in great glory with 10,000 of the saints. Now it’s not recorded back there, but see I love those people, knew the truth, preached the truth, but not recorded what they preached. Except in a few incidents where God kind of gives us a little insight, but look there very quickly. I want you to see this, look in verse 14. And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000s of his saints.

There you got it. And then he tells you what he’s gonna do. When the Lord comes back, he’s gonna execute judgment because God is not pleased with those people who tell lies on him. Looking for 16, these are murmurs and complainers walking after their own lust and their mouth speaking great swelling words. Now great swelling words, it is impressive to people. People are impressed by that. Look how smart he is. He has to be right. I mean, he knows so much.

He has to be right. I’m not right because I’m such a wonderful speaker. So we know that. I’ll be right if I’m right with the book. This is the authority, not the preacher. And if what I teach is not according to the book, I’m wrong. The book is right. The book is always right. I am not the judge of the book. The book is my judge. The book is your judge. You’re not right because you think so. You’re right if you’re right with the book.

And everything. everything. So it doesn’t matter what people say of what preachers preach. If you want to go to heaven, you need to listen to what God said. And what does God say about how to go to heaven? For God sent his son into the world not to condemn the world but the world through him might be safe. And he did not say through the church or through the preacher or through You do good works through the law, through Him Christ.

And He said, I am the way the truth and the life. No man, no man, come unto the Father except through me. Now is that hard to understand? Can you understand that? The only way you can get to the Father is through Christ. Nobody else. That’s how we said it. There is no other name given among men under heaven, whereby we must be saved. I talked to a kid yesterday and I asked him, I said, um, do you know where you’re going to go and you die?

He hesitated. I said, you hesitate. I said, I mean, you’re not sure. He said, well, I believe in reincarnation. He said, I’ve been studying some Hinduism and Buddhism and, you know, all these isms you got to watch. He says, and I believe Christ was a great teacher too. And I says, no, He wasn’t a great teacher. Jesus is either God or a liar. He’s either God or he’s a liar, a deceiver. I said, but all the other guys you mentioned, I said, they’re all dead.

Jesus did because he came back from the dead. Why would you want to listen to dead people? You don’t know if anything I said was the truth. Christ came back from the dead. He’s the only one. And only through Him can you have eternal life. Which of those other leaders that ever said, if you believe in me, you’ll have eternal life, of one of them. Which of those other ones that said, I’ll forgive you of all of your sins if you believe I may not of one of them?

None of them. Even Mohammed didn’t say that either. You can read your Koran. There’s nothing in there about a sacrifice for sin. There’s no forgiveness for sin. There’s not God’s, I love you. Oh, merciful God. All depends on all of them. That was written by a man, But see, it does make a difference. Stick with the book. Now, in this verse 16, great swelling words where they’re so impressed and they deceive the people. They make merchandise of people. It’s just to satisfy their own ego.

How many can I get to be a following to me? See, I’m not interested in getting people to follow me. I’m interested in getting people to follow a Lord. you follow Christ, follow Him. Follow what He says in this book. Preachers, we come and we go. We’re flesh, we’re gonna live, we do a little bit, and then we die. We’re not here forever. It’s not about us. You see, this truth in God’s Word, God says, contend for the faith, contend for the truth.

And He makes a statement in the book of Galatians in chapter two. Paul says, I did what I did, that the truth of the gospel, that it might remain with you so that you’ll know what the truth is and you can preserve the truth because if you don’t you’re gonna change because it’s a lot of people trying to get you to change your position upon what God’s word really says. See the devil has his ministers and I don’t go by how nice people are and how wonderful they are.

What’s your message? What do you tell people how to go to heaven? If I was gonna have a person come and speak in church in my place. Yep, it doesn’t matter what they believe they’re wonderful people. Would you accept that? I didn’t think you would. Because you want somebody to say, no, this is what I believe. This is where I stand. And so I don’t care how nice they are. I don’t care what they’ve accomplished. They’re not qualified to preach in this church unless you know and understand the simplicity of the gospel.

How simple it really is. Well, how, what old do you have to do to be saved? Well, I’m glad you asked. Let me show you something. You’ve never seen this before. I can’t believe that God we had here last week. What was the name of Freddy Coyle? Let this hand represent you. No, no, no. Let this hand represent you and me. See, some people get it all wrong. This is you and me. This is sin. We all have sin on us.

God loves us, but He hates our sin.” Now, is that hard to understand? God loves us, hates our sin. Now there’s some people that say, no, way, way, way, way, way, not so fast. And they got to explain all kinds of, no, no, no, this isn’t true. God so loved the world. Well, no, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way. Let’s define world.

Now how do we know that’s not referring to, you know, the birds and the trees and the earth. can you see him dying just for that? There’s people that will pick everything apart, trying to find out how many angels can sit on the head of a pin. That goes on anyway. God loves us, but he hates our sin. For us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God, and hell, that’s why we all die. But God loves us, wants us to go to heaven, and to go to heaven you have to be perfect, as righteous as God, none of us are perfect.

None of us are righteous. We’ve all come short of God’s perfection Because of sin, say we can’t get into heaven. That’s why we*=- go but because of sin, that’s why we’re going to die and we’re all going Cheong to die. So this hand represent Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh came into the world because he loves the whole world, everybody in the world and that our sins separates us from the Lord. So Christ took all the sin of all the world and paid for them the cross came back from the dead and says to go to all the world and preach the forgiveness of sins, to all the world.

Anybody can be forgiven if they believe that what he did was for them. The only thing God wants you to do, will you trust him? Would you believe that he did this for you? And he will not make somebody against their will. You can accept it or reject it. And I told one person this, I said, Jesus Christ would rather die than live without you having the chance to go to heaven. Because see, if he doesn’t do this, you have no chance.

There is no option. There is no plan B. There is no way possible for you to go to heaven. It’s nil, zilch. No way. Christ doing this opens up the pot. opens up the possibilities for anybody in the world to whosoever will be lead that he did it for them. He would put that payment to your account. You go to heaven on what Christ did for you. Best news in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed, no one looking around.

If you hear this morning and maybe you have never really understood, maybe just never really trusted Christ as your Savior, would you trust Him right now? See, preach, I don’t understand at all. I’m right there with you. I never did either. All I knew is I was a sinner. And I knew if what I heard was true, I wasn’t going to heaven. But I wanted to go to heaven. But I didn’t know what I had to do.

Someone explained it to me. All I had to do was believe that when Christ died, He died for me. He paid for my sins. So I did that 53 years ago. So in the kindness of this moment, I’m not going to to have you come forward or embarrass you. I’m not going to have you stand up. I don’t want anything from you. I just want to explain it to you so that you can understand and trust the Lord right where you are in your own mind.

See, God knows who you are. He knows what you’ve done. He knows what you’re thinking. And He said, if you’ll believe it, He would save you right now and give you eternal life. And you can know that you’re going to heaven and you don’t have to tell us so. I couldn’t keep from telling people, but you don’t have to tell anybody. I did because I wanted to. And if you trust Christ is your Savior this morning, I’d like to know it.

So I’m going to ask you if you’ll just let me know by raising your hand in just a moment. Raising your hand doesn’t save you. It just lets me know and I’d like to have prayer for you in closing. Is anyone at all before we close a yes preach of that made sense to me? And I I will trust Christ as my Savior this morning right now, and I’d like for you to pray for me. We’ll just slip you in it very quickly, put it right back down anywhere at all.

Now, where at all? I wonder if I could safely assume that all of you in this room, you have trusted Christ as your Savior. I pray so. Father, thank you so much for this time together. Bless each one. Help us, Lord, each one of us, to keep the gospel clear. What makes it muddy is when we add works to the message. When we tell a man that he has to do something beside just believe, Father, we thank you for this privilege, the wonderful message you’ve given us that preached to anybody, anywhere, at any time.

In Christ name we pray. 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 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 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.