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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.

The basic meaning of the word salvation is deliverance. It can refer to deliverance from hell. Deliverance from ruin or loss. Deliverance from physical harm. Deliverance from the Philistines. Whatever a man is delivered or saved from is not included in the definition of salvation. You can be saved from a lot. I was saved from a car wreck the other day. I saved this one man’s life. I thought about running him off the road and then I changed my mind. Years ago I had this one guy.

I was going to kill him. So I didn’t. So I saved his life. I’m joking. No, I’m joking. Whatever a man is delivered or saved from is not included in the definition of salvation. It is the same with the word repentance, which means change of mind. It can be used in a lot of ways because you can change your mind about a lot of things. Some of you weren’t going to come the night and you’re repented and you came.

There was other ones that probably said, I’m going to church tonight and they repented. They changed their mind, didn’t go. So you can change your mind about a lot of things. I’ve heard about a lot of girls have been left standing at the altar. He promised to marry me. He changed his mind, evidently. Turn your paper over. It can refer to a change of mind about anything. Whatever a man changes his mind from, or to his not included in the definition of repentance.

Good illustration of repentance is found in Matthew 21. So take your Bible and turn to Matthew and chapter 21. You see, if a man has to turn from his sins in order to be saved, then I should preach that. Every preacher should preach it if that’s the truth. And if a man has to turn from his sins to be saved, I believe I owe them a list of what sins and I should let him know by what date he has to turn from him because I mean this thing can’t drag on forever so is God going to save a man because he promises to turn from his sins or does God save the man when he stops his sinning?

Isn’t that a good question? Or when the man starts sinning again does God take it away from him? If he does can you really know for sure you’re going to heaven when you die? If I have to stop my sins to be saved? At what point have I accomplished this? At what point did God save me? And if I go back to my sin and He takes it away, at what point did He do it? Is there any security there?

You would have no clue where you’re going when you die, because you’re going to heaven would depend upon your performance. it’s not looking too good. Matthew 21, I want you to see this in verse 28, but what think ye? You notice those two little words? Think ye? You’re on the line of them. A certain man had two sons. He came to the person and he said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and he says, I will not.

Don’t that sound like a son you may have? I will not, but look. Afterwards he repented and he went. What you think the word repent meant? If you went just by what it says, he changed his mind. I will not, and then afterwards he repented. And he went. He changed his mind. And he went. Look in verse 30, he came to the second and said likewise, and he answered and says, I go, sir, and he went not. Which of the two did the will of his father?

They said unto him the first. Jesus said unto him, them, very I say to you, now get the lesson, the point that the publicans and the harlots Go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness and ye, what’s those two words? You ought to underline them. Ye, believed him not you did not believe it. You didn’t believe. But the publicans and the harlot’s and you ought to underline that were believed him.

And ye, when you had seen it, repented not afterwards. So even in the illustration, what would the word repent mean? Change your mind. You can’t get it any better than that. God’s word generally will teach God’s Word. He will explain what He means by what He’s saying. And in last part of verse 32 says, Repented not afterwards that you might what? Believe him. So it’s a choice. The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ dying on the cross and paying for our sins.

And that we can be justified, made right to declare right by faith alone without works of any kind. When you believe that God saves you and justifies you and you get to go to heaven on what Christ did for you. Look there in your notes again, the first paragraph, thus believers can and need to repent also. But not about the same thing, the laws need to repent for. You see, there’s scriptures that talks about the Christian need to repent.

In the book of Revelation chapter 2, chapter 3 talks about church repenting. So it’s talking about those that were not doing right and he says you need to repent and bring forth the first works. So there is an inkling of an idea that you talk about repent means to change your mind that leads to a change of action. So if you have a change of mind and it’s talking to the lost man about the gospel, change your mind. And the change of action would be, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting Christ as your Savior is the result of you changing your mind.

That makes sense. When he’s talking in the Old Testament, you’ll find the word repent used and you’ll also find it talking about the things that happen in life. And as a nation, the nation was judged to be rebellious and God was going to use another nation as a rod to whoop his people. Then after he gets to whooping him with this rod, then he usually would break the rod because they were bad too. So God can use bad people to whoop God’s people.

That ain’t no fun at all. And God says for us to learn things from this. So we are to forsake our evil way because of judgment in this life upon us physically that God can take you out of this life and a lot of things can happen to you in this life so as a child of God you can live like you please but you can’t get away with it there’s a price to pay so God even to the believer asked the believer to repent change your mind think differently reconsider and do the first works like loving the Lord like we’re supposed to.

You can do the works, but do you love the Lord? And therefore God talks about even in chapter 16 about how the people, even though they were being four-minute in the tribulation period, says they repented not because of the plagues that came upon them. Because even lost people have to understand that they can’t live as they please and get away with it either. The wickedness that’s going on right now in America by the homosexuals and the abortion and all those things that are wrong, there’s a price to pay.

God will have to judge this nation because God is a just God. And it doesn’t matter if lost people rebel against God or God’s children rebel against God. They both need to repent, change their mind and correctISTORY. So the Lord tells us to do this. Look up there in that note that I want to show you. A believer in the city of Samaria was told to repent. We know he was a believer because 813 says, then Simon himself believed also.

When Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given to people at that point in time, through laying on of the Prossal’s hands, he tried to buy this power from them. told him thou have neither partner or lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God to see this is talking about a save man. Turning from sin. See, God does want his children to turn from sin because after you trust Christ’s Savior, the Holy Spirit lives within you.

Now you have the power in your life to guard against some of those things and refrain some of those things and yield in yourself to the Lord. I believe that after knowing the Lord for 52 and a half years knowing the Lord and walking with the Lord, I believe that power to walk with God has kept me from on all of us. a lot of sins that I would have been in if it hadn’t been for knowing the Lord.

You should believe that also. Doesn’t knowing the Lord and loving the Lord and want to walk with the Lord put restraints upon your life, isn’t there things that you would have done and would like to do? That maybe because of the Lord you haven’t done. So this is what he’s talking about here. Look there at the next paragraph. Simon thought was a prideful one. He put himself He wanted the preeminence. He needed to change his mind, repent, about this wickedness.

All believers need to repent. We need to change our mind’s concern and sin in our lives. We need to see it as God does. Admit we are wrong, confess it, forsake it, and then God promises He will prosper us. Pride, which is self-centeredness, can creep in very suddenly. It takes many forms. Self-pity. You know self-pity, poor me and all this is means that you are focusing upon yourself. People who have a bad self-image are selfish people. All they think about is themselves.

Me, me, me, me, me. You’re not making me happy. Things aren’t working good for me. And they have their pity parties. I don’t have much of a problem with an image problem. Why are you laughing? You probably don’t either. But when you know the Lord and you love the Lord, you know who you are. I’m important because God says I’m important. I’m not important because you say I am. I am because, look, I’m of great value. God sent his son to buy me.

That’s how much I’m worth. Every morning I look in that mirror and say, you’re somebody. You tiger, you don’t you ever die. Well, maybe I don’t do it every morning, just right once in a while. But it’s so important of how you think and you’re not supposed to lift yourself up so high. I joke a lot and I hope y’all understand that. Get the next statement, a believer may repent about sin, but repentance is not the same thing as sorry for sin.

Now I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed unto repentance. You see, it’s like a thief getting caught by the policeman. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. He’s all, he’s repentant. Isn’t that wonderful? No, he’s sorry he got caught. He’s not sorry for what he’s done. He’s sorry that you caught him. And there’s a lot of people who are sorry because of what happens to them, but they don’t think about it was their decisions that caused all that to happen to them.

And so they don’t change their ways and correct the problem. God wants his children to correct the problem. while we’re on the subject for the next hour and a half. Take your Bible and look there in the book of Revelation in chapter three, Revelation and chapter three. This church had a problem. They weren’t on fire for the Lord and they weren’t really cold toward the Lord. They were what we would call lukewarm, lukewarm. You said, well, God ought to be satisfied with that.

as long as I’m Luke warm. Let me not be hot, but I’m not cold, so I’m just right there in Luke warm. That’d be a good place. That’s just a good happy average. You know, I’m the worst of the best, but I’m the best of the worst. Ah. So he says there in verse 14, and unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, right? This is in Revelation chapter three, verse 14. These things set the amen, the faithful and the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou work cold or hot. So then because thou art luke warm and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Nobody got that, you make me sick. Because, his wife, because, he’s talking to believers, not talking to lost people. This is talking to God’s children, and just because thou sayeth, I am rich and increase with goods and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I counsel thee to buy of me, gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raimans that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and an anoint thy eyes with eyes said, that thou mayest see, And look in verse 19, as many as

I love, I rebuke and chasten. This is the same as Hebrews chapter 12. You see, God is going to rebuke you and God is going to chasten you. And he does it a lot of different ways. When you’re not doing what’s right, God has a ways and means committee. And he’s sending them after you. And you don’t know when nor how. But God ain’t going to tolerate your foolishness. Now you can decide to hate no if this is true and I believe it is Why not live in a state of repentance?

Always keep changing the mind about things based upon what God says I Think this God says this I think God says it well. I don’t say it ain’t we give you God says go about what God says look at that verse in Verse 19 as many as I love I rebuke and chasing be zealous therefore and what and repent. This is talking to the saved person, not the lost person. So the word repent means to change your mind, think differently, reconsider.

Look at the results that this way of thinking is going to produce in your life. And so God has given us a few little admonitions along the way. Look there again in the middle of the page, sorrow can lead a man to change his mind. Godly sorrow works repentance. It does not say that Godly sorrow is the same as repentance because a lot of preachers think that you’ve got to get these people see the turn from their sins. So if I’ve got to get you to quit your sin then I’ve got to preach about how wicked you are and how bad you are and try to get you to feel real sorry and tell our tear jerking story so I can make you start crying and break.

I’ve got to break you down. And I give the invitation never I just come to cry. that’s not necessary. Trusting Christ ought to be an intelligent decision that you make. I am a sinner. Christ died from my sins. If I trust Him, He will save me. Now I don’t care if you do it with a smile on your face or a tear in your eye. It’s not the smile and it’s not the tear that saves you. It’s not because you went forward in the church or raised your hand.

You got saved because you trusted Christ as your Savior. And that’s between you and God. Nobody can do it for you. So as we go through some of these things, it’s so important to keep the gospel clear. That is not necessary. But what you believe about the meaning of the Word is going to bring you to a different conclusion in the presentation of your gospel. Look there in Hebrews chapter 6 in verse 1 right here in your notes just right there.

Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection and not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. You see talking to believers about going to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from from dead works. So repenting is you changing your mind about trying to save yourself because your works are dead. You are separated from God and your works cannot bring you to God. You are separated from God.

That’s why when you trust Christ as your Savior you are quick and made alive. You’re dead until that time separated from the Lord. So God says, don’t trust in your dead works for salvation, but your faith in Christ is what saved you, as he says right there in this verse. Look at the next statement. What is it that unbelievers need to change their mind about? To tell a lost man that he must turn from sin in order to be saved is to tell him to do something that is impossible for Him to do.

His sin is within. All He has is an old sin for nature, with no power to overcome it. For when we were without strength, it means when you didn’t have the power to turn from your sin. Christ died for you because you had no strength, because you couldn’t save yourself. That’s why Christ died. In due time Christ died for the ungodly. Well, if you could stop all of your sins and turn from your sins as a lost man in order to get saved, then you could live godly.

And then you wouldn’t be ungodly. And then he wouldn’t have had to die for you. You can see where that goes. That’s why it leads to a man trusting in his own salvation. I stopped my sins. I gave up my smoking and my drinking and my lying and my running around, as though that’s all their sins they had. They forget about lying. They forget about the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. See, they don’t even think about that.

They don’t even think about those ugly pictures they hang on the walls of their mind. Well, you may not hang on the walls of your home or the walls of the church, but they’re hanging in there. So, the next statement. We were without strength. To turn from sin takes power and a lost man does not have that power or strength. When he trusts Christ, he receives that power. Why must he turn from sin to be saved if Christ has already paid the penalty for the sin?

Christ paid for all sin on the cross. True biblical repentance. For salvation is a man rejecting salvation by works and trusting Christ by faith. So when the Bible talks about God hath commanded that all men repent, then every man has to repent. Reject salvation by works. Realize you cannot save yourself. That’s changing your mind. Think differently. You can only be saved by trusting Christ. There is no other way. There is no other name given unto men under heaven, whereby a man must be saved.

Look at the next statement, God’s desire is for all men to change their mind and trust him alone for their salvation so they will not perish. God does not want a person to perish, but that all should come to repentance to change their mind. God does not make people trust Him. God does not make you certain. God allows a lost man to suffer the consequences of his decision, but God also allows the saved man to suffer the consequences of his bad decisions.

All of life is made up of choices. You choose in every day of what it’s going to be. So as a child, you can either be obedient or disobedient, but you’re still as child. Look at the last paragraph and we’ll close. For the sake of the lost man, present repentance clearly, the way God’s word presents it, as the change of mind. To be saved, you no longer put your trust in your works, but in Christ alone to get you to heaven.

God is grieved to hear it preach, just say in the same sermon. I believe salvation is by grace through faith. And then just a few minutes later, he denies that by sin a lost man must turn from his sin and trust in Christ to be saved. And what makes this contradiction even worse is that he tells the church to sing, just as I am. You’ve got a turn from your sin. Now let’s all stand and sing just as I am.

And they can’t see that something’s wrong here. That’s why when you have a clear gospel message, you have to have a presentation of that message or an illustration of that message. So the method that you use must be in harmony with the message. So the method that I use is in harmony with the message we proclaim. Because I don’t want to say it’s free and then I do all kinds of things that adds works to it. Look up here.

This hand represents you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin in us. And this is just the result of it. Why do I do all these bad things? Because I have a bad sinful nature. It’s my nature. I am rebellious by nature. I want my own way. So do you. We’re all the same. God says, there is no difference. All have sinned and comes short of the glory of God, a short of God’s perfection. So the Bible says, to pay for sin is eternal separation from God.

Since all have sinned, all are condemned, and no man can save himself. To go to heaven, you have to be perfect as righteous as God, and none of us are perfect, none of us are righteous. We’re not good enough to go to heaven. No man’s ever lived good enough to go to heaven. So the Bible says we cannot save ourselves. It’s not by what we do. So I don’t have to try to turn from my sins, it ain’t they’re gonna help, because my sinful nature is on the inside of me.

This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh. Came into this world, had no sin, didn’t have to die. But because He loves us, hates our sin because it separates us from Him. Jesus Christ took all the sin of all the world, paid for it on the cross, 2,000 years ago. The payment has been made for everybody in the world. But their sins are not forgiven until they individually believe He paid for my sins, therefore God can forgive me based upon this payment He made.

That’s why he told his disciples, going to preach the forgiveness of sins, evidently he You weren’t forgiven yet. But he will forgive whosoever. And that’s why he also makes the statement in the biblical of Acts in chapter 13. Be it known unto you, men and brother, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. The whereby you could not be justified by the law of Moses. You can by trusting Christ as your Savior. So when I believe when Christ died, He died for my sins.

And if I believe that, He puts that payment to my account. I get to go to to heaven on what he did. He gets all the credit, all the honor, all the glory. I did absolutely nothing. All I did is believe the message. And whosoever, whosoever, believe it in him should not perish. It means you won’t go to hell, but have everlasting life. You add one work to the gospel, it’s no longer the gospel, it’s no longer free. And the reason it can last for eternity is because it was a gift and he paid for all of my sins.

And if He left one of my sins out there ten years down the road, He didn’t pay for one of them down there. I will be okay until I hit that sin.” Then it’s all she wrote. And He didn’t do me any favors. It’s not good news to be saved for a day or to be saved for a week or to be saved for a month or to be saved for a year or to be saved by them until the time I die.

But it is good news to be saved forever. And that’s what the Bible teaches. Let’s pray, shall we? And every head, bond, every eye, close, and no one looking around. If you’re here tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you simply talk to the Lord and say, Lord, I know I’m a sinner, I believe Christ died, paid for my sins. And I’m going to trust Him right now is my only hope of going to heaven. For if you will do that, God said He would save you and give you eternal life.

If you will do so, I’d like to have prayer for you. And I want you to know that I love you, I care about you, I want to be certain that you go to heaven when you die. And I like to pray for you in closing. If you’ve never trust the Lord and you’ll do it right now, would you just slip your hand very quickly and put it right back down? You know what it’s all? If you have already trusted Christ as your Savior, or you that are watching by the internet, remember there’s nothing else that you have to do.

But once you trust Christ as Savior, it is the will of God that God’s children repent of the things that are in your life that are not honoring to God. Father, we thank You so much for all You’ve done for us for this time together. Bless those Lord that are not able to be with us because of various reasons. And Father, we thank you so much for this ministry. And bless the work that goes out over the Internet in Christ’s name.

Due to the generous offer of an anonymous Colorado supporter of Bibleline, we want to make you an offer you cannot refuse. He has purchased 68 copies of the book, The Gospel Driven Man, by Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, to be given to anyone who donates any amount as a thank you for helping to keep Bibleline on this station. He writes, What would be the most important item one could receive that would be appreciated? Which would answer many questions? Which would be easy to read, understandable, and use as God’s word as the source?

What came to mind was your book, The Gospel Driven Man. This book has helped me and my wife considerably. We have given the book out as gifts before and continue to do so. All the basic doctrines you hear me teach on the radio is found in this book. One book per donor, so remember, mail your gift up any amount today and we will send you your copy of the Gospel-driven man. Be sure to include your mail-in address. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline.

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. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold.