Bibleline Radio Show – 2015-02-12 – Mark Them Which Cause Divisions Pt.2
Transcription:
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. Be sure to call us 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.
Look at the next statement. Can a man be forced to persevere in the faith, to prove he is saved? that live in by grace? Is grace truly grace if it cannot be rejected? If God is not a respecter of persons, what did God use to determine His choice for salvation? If Calvinism is true. Calvinism and grace are not compatible. Turn your page over. Number three, the dangers of a crossless gospel. You say, what’s that? Well, it’s where you gut the message.
It’s not adding something to it. It’s taking everything of value out of it, leaving you only with the conclusion. If you trust Christ, you’ll have eternal life, but they won’t, you don’t have to know who He is, and you don’t have to know what He did. So you could say, you know, trust Dan Hall for eternal life. Now who would be so foolish? He can’t give you eternal life? Well neither can just any Jesus give you eternal life. That’s why the Bible talks over and over again about who is Jesus, except you believe that I am He, God in the flesh, the Son of God, to be the Christ, the anointed one, the suffering Savior, the one that dies.
And as it says in the book of Peter that the prophets of old search what manner of time that the Holy Spirit which was in them did signify when it testified before hand of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. This Jesus that came was this one and he was the sufferer for my sins and then he’s coming back to rule and reign. So that’s why John was written that you might believe that this Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing this, and that’s why he told Martha and Mary, he says, believe us now this, I am the resurrection and the life.
See he has eternal life. He would die. He’d come back from the dead. But just so that you know that I have the power to do what I’m talking about, Lazarus come forth. And I guess if you hadn’t called him by name, everybody in the whole cemetery would have got her. So look at this. There are many that are now accepting the new condensed version of of the so-called gospel. It’s merely a one-liner. Believe Jesus for eternal life. Now, in the right context, that might not be that bad, because I often when I talk to a lost person, I will say something like, if you could know you could have eternal life, wouldn’t you like to know?
That’s not the gospel. That’s debate. I might even quote to them the first John 5, 13. Did you know the Bible? You could know that you have eternal life. But that’s not the gospel, that’s the bait. Now I need to get them on the hook, pull them in so I can explain some things to them so that they will understand and trust Christ as their Savior. These things have already knew that believe on the name of the Son of God.
What do you believe about the Son of God? It is so important. And there’s people that want to strip it away. Do you know the thing that’s so important to understand is this. that think the way they do today. It’s nothing new. They thought that way years ago. Would Dr. A. Ray Stanford start at the Florida Bible College? There were people that were often a lot of stuff, different names, fuzzy grace, spacey gracey. But what was given to us was the content of the gospel.
What makes this message so powerful is an understanding of who we are, what we’ve done, what God requires, how we’ve failed, and what Christ did for us to solve the problem. And those are found in the seven steps that we do when we give them wallet illustration every time. There is content there. There’s something that says to the lost man, I have sinned. I got a payment to paint. And therefore I need to be perfectly go to heaven. But I can’t earn my way to heaven.
Five Christ died. Number six, only believe. Number seven, go to heaven. So we use those seven things to explain to a person. And this is why I believe that the graduates that left Florida Bible College were some of the greatest show winners in the world. They could go anywhere. And it didn’t matter about all the other schools and colleges and universities and all of those people that got degrees and so forth after their name. And these were just young 22, 23, 24 year old kids.
came out of Florida Bible College and they could go anywhere in America and start a Bible study in their backyard and get a few kids to come and win them to the Lord, just some more and win them to the Lord. And yet you could go to majority of churches and the preacher hasn’t got a clue how to give the gospel clearly. But those who came from Florida Bible College did. They did not have to take a back seat to anyone.
So we had something and we were not ashamed of our ability to present the gospel. We were bold, confident, and we didn’t have to be afraid of anybody knowing how to do it better than what we could. It was not in a sense a proud and a talented of ourselves, we were just that sure that this was the truth. And it worked. We were effective in thousands and thousands of people that trusted Christ of their Savior. Now should we give up the way that we used to do it that worked for something that doesn’t work?
When they say, just trust Jesus for eternal life, Show me five people that have been saved by that. That understood. Knew they were going to heaven and why they were going there and that’s all they did. They didn’t know anything else. Go to some foreign country and have a translator say those words to somebody else and see how many get saved because of that. It won’t work. Why? There’s no gospel there. That’s not the good news. That’s the results of understanding the good news.
The good news is yes, we’re justified by faith, but without the death, birth and resurrection of Christ there is no hope. There is nothing to trust. There’s nothing to believe. What am I supposed to believe about Jesus? Just that He lived, that I’m gonna cut it. So, look at the next statement. Believe Jesus for eternal life. So what’s wrong with that? Those that follow this new gospel also teach that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ are not necessary for one to know, but they will always say, oh yes, that’s the basis.
That’s the foundation. Well, it is, but the lost man needs to know that. See, the more you explain, the easier it is for people to trust the Lord. When I understand, I have led people to the Lord very simply like this. I was talking to somebody the other day and I said, can I ask your question? He says, sure. I says, you got about a minute, a minute and a half, two minutes. He says, sure, go ahead. I says, isn’t it true that you’ve heard almost all your life that Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for all the sins of the world?
I said, yes, I have. Now, think what I just said. Jesus Christ died on the cross, paid for all the sins of the world. Have you ever heard that? Yes I have. I said, now if He paid for all the sins of the world, mind yours, everybody’s. I said, why should we have to go to hell and pay for sin? So now our return there’s a hell. He knows there’s a heaven. He knows there’s a hell. And God said that if we would believe that what He did was for us, He would put that payment He made to our account.
And I’m going to happen because Christ died for my sins. He died, paid for my sins. That means I don’t have to pay for my sins. You know, most preachers don’t want to tell people that you don’t have to pay for your sins. That’s what trusting Christ as your Savior means. I don’t have to die and pay for my sins. Should I pay for my sins? Yeah. Am I guilty? Yes. He paid for mine. And when I really understand that, that is the greatest foundation for believing in eternal security.
All my sins are paid. He gives me eternal life. And if it’s eternal life, How long would it last? Forever. If it lasts forever. And all my sins are paid. Where am I going to go when I die? The heaven? Where does believe Jesus for eternal life? Okay, I believe that. Can you lose it? I don’t know. When do you get it? Well, I don’t know. When you get eternal life? Well, I don’t know. So it don’t answer anything.
It’s empty. And yet there’s many people that are believing it and teaching it and some of the people are people that I went to Bible college with. And that breaks my heart. They know better. But it’s like something new has come on the scene and it’s, hey, this is better. Boy, this is really good. No, it’s not. It’s not good. It’s not better. It’s not the gospel. at the closing comments that I have here. One day we will all give an account unto the Lord.
When we state that God said it, it better be that God said it. You know in the book of Jeremiah, another place that talks about, there are those that say God hath said, and God didn’t say it. They lied. They deceived the people. God judged them because they misled the people. Dr. Ray Stanford used to tell us that a person can twist Hebrew and Greek just like you can in English. The original language can be an asset or a liability.
When you’re right you can be really right. And when you’re wrong you can be really wrong. I don’t have to know one better Greek. I’ve got something better. It’s called the good old King James Version right here’s already been translated. I don’t have to translate it. It’s been translated. And by the time they get through running around, this already says what it’s supposed to say. And I simply believe it. And I don’t have to get messed up by anybody.
Now I’m not not seeing it’s wrong to know languages and stuff like that. Don’t get me wrong. I’m saying it can be a help or a hindrance. Because if you’re wrong and you’re attitude and how you approach the work book. So now they have taken the word repent, not the mean change of mind. Now, it means turn from sin. The same people that used to teach it was a change of mind. Now teach that it means turn from sin.
Is that something God changes mind about what repentance is. No God didn’t change his mind. It doesn’t need to be redefined. It still means exactly what it says. After 49 years, I believe Dr. A. Ray Stanford to be the greatest soul winner I’ve ever met. His position on the clarity of the gospel and the content which we use as seven steps in the presentation helped prepare some of the greatest soul winners in the world. Forte Bobble College graduates did not believe we had to take a back seat to anyone when it came to presenting the gospel.
It didn’t mean we love God more. It didn’t mean that we were better at anything except we had a clearer presentation of the gospel and God honored his word. God honored his message. And if you make the gospel clear and simple, I don’t care who it does it. People can be safe. And by doing that and consistently staying at it, we actually believe that little 14-year-old girls or 15-year-old boys, if they explain that to somebody, people can get saved by hearing it from a little old kid.
And sometimes kids are able to make the gospel clear and simple better than a person who has a PhD. We were clear, we were bold, and we were effective. Should we change? I think not. If, and I have it here, if you found someone or some group who has helped you to present the Gospel in greater clarity, by all means do it. But if it changes the Gospel message in any way, it should be rejected. The Gospel message doesn’t change.
Your approach may change with different individuals. When I’m talking to little kids, I do talk a little bit differently than I do with adults. When I’m talking to teenagers, I’ll tell jokes that I wouldn’t tell to adults. Well, that took a long time for me to learn. I usually have adults that would come out to the youth meeting. I’m sitting there talking about 400 or 500 teenagers, and I would tell them things. And adults would come to see what’s going on, and they would cringe.
What did you say? I’m not going to tell you. Because you will cringe. But it’s just simple stuff, you know. But the kids would laugh. Now that I’m more mature, there’s a lot of things that I’ve said and done over the years. I may not do that again. I don’t think. Well, it might. But I want people to know that we don’t have to apologize for our position. We don’t have to be ashamed of our position. Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believe it.
It’s all a man has to do, but it’s not all that a man needs to know. And therefore, some are trying to streamline it and make it so clear and so simple that it has no power at all. And then when you add works to the gospel and load it down, you’ve destroyed the gospel. See the truth of the gospel has to have these two qualities. It has to be free or it’s not the gospel. And it has to last forever or it’s not the gospel.
So whenever you add something on to it that you have to do, then it’s no longer free. One work destroys the power of the gospel. You can’t trust Christ 99% and yourself 1%. Well, I’m gonna be good just in case. You just ruined it. You have to totally trust Him, Him alone, as your only hope can’t put any in you. You don’t trust you, don’t trust the church, you don’t trust anything. I am truly trusting that what Christ did for me was sufficient, that’s all I need.
And because of that, I have great confidence and great boldness in my position. And I don’t care what anybody says or does or thinks, I know I am secure in Christ. I’m going to heaven when I die. We talked a little bit about the other night in the Bible study that they had when Jay was speaking. was talking about those witnesses there in chapter 12, and a great cloud of witnesses, those Old Testament saints that trusted the Lord and believed God and accomplished great things, and what a 11th chapter, heroes of faith.
But I’ll be honest to you, and I mentioned it to them. Sometimes I’m walking around here and going and doing my thing. I can’t see those Old Testament saints, but I can still see sunny blue-eye. That was my registrar at one time and work with me and the Indian camps. And I can still see Ray Stanford because I knew I knew Dick Haines, and Hank Lindstrom, and Dan Adams, and there’s so many that I’ve have known that are now up in heaven.
And I sometimes wonder if I could drop in on them and just listen to what they’re saying about what we’re doing. What do you think they want us to do? Now, I know the Word of God and what it says and what we’re expected, but I can see Hank saying, Yankee, don’t compromise now. He hasn’t gone too far. Take a strong stand and don’t move. And don’t worry about all those people out there that don’t like what you say and do, because there’s a whole bunch of us up here that do.
And there’s more up there that like what you’re doing than those few down here that don’t. Now David in the Old Testament says that he encouraged himself in the Lord. Do you ever find that you have to encourage yourself in the Lord? See, I don’t have a pastor. I’m yours. But I don’t have one except the Lord. And it’s been that way for a long time. But see, I have somebody that I can go to and the Lord is real to me.
The cause that I live for, it’s real to me. This issue is precious to me. I don’t believe that anybody who claims to be a pastor or preacher has the authority to mutilate the man. the most precious message in the world. Who gave them the right? Are they smarter than I am? I can’t believe that. I know the Lord. I know what God’s Word says. Why should I be intimidated by anything or anyone? One of these days it’s gonna all be over and I’m going to be with the Lord in heaven.
And I’m going to wish I had taken a strong stand regardless of what the price is you have to pay. And I believe that this could maybe hurt a little bit with some people because this is not how you win friends and influence people, oh you might influence them. But I hope that I can influence people in a a good way and a right way. Are we on the same page? I sure hope so. This end represent you and me, the wallet represents sin.
We all have sin on us. Now, I want you to notice all we have to do to go to heaven is trust Christ as our Savior. That’s the last thing we have to do. But the reason that we trust Christ as Savior is all this that we say before we get there. So just to say that without explanation gives that no meaning and this is what they’re doing. God loves us, H.R. sin. And for us to pay for sin is death and hell.
So there’s a debt to pay. We are in debt. Why? Because God has a righteous law that says the soul that sineth shall die, we have a sin debt to pay. We owe. The wages of sin is that we’ve earned that. And God says that heaven is a perfect place and you can’t go there unless you’re perfect. So there’s none of us that are. And God says, by your works, you’ll never be able to pay for sin. So go into church, which is a good thing, but it won’t pay for sin.
And given money, oh, that’s a good thing, but it will not pay for sin. The wages of sin is death. So we don’t have to turn from sin, we have to die because of sin. We can’t commit our life to Christ because we’re dead separated from God. We need a Savior. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because he loves us. He hates our sin because our sin separates us from God.
So what Christ did was He took all the sin, hatred on the cross, come back from the dead. And see all of this that we’re talking about right now, they want to gut this out of the message as though they don’t need to know this. Yes, they do. So whenever you get through and you say, he said if you would only believe, only believe what the story of what Christ did for you. He died and paid for your sins.
And if you will believe that and accept him as your Savior, he will give you as a free gift everlasting life and you get to go to heaven on what he did. So now you know why you’re going to heaven. You know that you have eternal life and you know it was not because of anything you did. You know it was because of what Christ did and He paid for all of your sins. There’s no sin to condemn you to hell.
I can’t go to hell. It’s impossible. That confidence that I have. The assurance of my salvation is because I understand what he did. Take all of that away. And what does a person have? And this is why so many people question their salvation because they don’t know how come. They should believe that they’re really saved. They don’t know if they’re really saved. Now they’re looking at their life as the proof or the evidence. And now that’s junk. Somebody’s misleading people.
And I would say this, the majority of the people that do this. They are not so winners. They rob the fish from somebody else’s goldfish bow. Because if you can’t win your own, you’re going to have to steal. I want people to win, people to Christ. I think there’s enough fish around here for us to catch. Let’s pray, shall we? Our Father, we thank you again for your blessings. Thank you for all you’ve done for us. I pray, Lord, that this would be a blessing to individuals, not meant to hurt.
not even meant to shame anybody, but Father, because we’re set for the defense of the gospel. And we pray that they would be able to see the issue, to see, to understand that Father, what they are saying and doing is not according to the truth of the gospel. And we pray that you’d help them to put your word first and see if these things are true. We pray for good results. we want to have a lot of kids come from Bible College.
We want to teach them the right way. The truth, how to be good soul winners, how to make a difference. And we pray, Lord, for the right teachers, the right board members, and Father for good results for camp. There’s so much that needs to be done, but we’re limited. We don’t have all the wisdom in the world we need. So we have to trust you and we’ll do what we can but follow we look to you for the results, the blesses and we just commit all this to you.
We do pray especially for those Lord in our midst that are hurting. There’s some that don’t have jobs and some are of head surgery and trying to recuperate and then we know that there’s several that’s got cancer and not doing good. We pray Lord that your hand would be up on them and bless them and comfort them. We ask you to continue to bless those that listened by way of internet and the radio broadcast. We pray, Lord, You will, to be done in our lives for each one here.
And Father, we do pray especially for our country that Father somehow, in spite of everything that seems to go wrong, somehow you may be able to bring for a revival in this country where people want to do right. There’s a lot of good people left. It’s like Abraham says, Lord, if there’s still 10 people. Father, I believe there’s a lot of good people that want the best and are striving to serve you and honor you in everything that they do and that we can see very clearly that all that’s going on is because of sin, whether it’s the borsiness because of sin, And that love of many is waxed old and their sin is because there’s no love anymore.
And Father, we just pray that You’d help us to put You first in everything that we do. Use this church, this body of believers, whether through the internet or the radio or our church, the college, whatever we can do, help us to be found faithful. We know we’re running out of time. We want to do so much. We don’t want to play games. We want to be used. We commit ourselves to you. Bless us in Christ’s name and pray.
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The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. 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, just keep looking up.
