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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 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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Take your Bible, follow me. Get your fingers ready. We’re going to look at a few scriptures. Starting in the book of Ephesians in chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 2. You often hear about people saying, well, I’m just doing the work of the Lord, the work of the Lord. Well, just what is the work of the Lord? Here in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 and 9 says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of words lest any man should boast.

Now if it’s not a works and a man can be saved but it’s not a works, then it has to be the work of the Lord. God must do the work. So man cannot do any works in order to save himself. So the Lord does the work. He says also in the book of Matthew in chapter 19 when he’s talking about how hard it is for a rich man to enter into heaven because like going through the eye of a needle and so on.

It’s because it’s so difficult for people who have something else to trust in to trust the Lord only. The disciples asked, well, who then can be saved? And he says, with man, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. Salvation is only possible as if God does the saving. It is not possible any other way. It is impossible. So it is impossible for a person to save themselves. That’s why they need a Savior. But now notice something else in verse 10.

I want you to look in verse 10. For we are His workmanship. If I was saved by grace without any of my works, my salvation was a result of His workmanship. He did that. So if He did that, who should get credit? He should get the credit. He should get the honor and the glory because I did not save myself. I can take no credit for that. He saved me. It was by His power, you’re saved and you are kept saved the same way.

In verse 10 where we were, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. So that means that you and I are supposed to be involved in a work that He did for us and we’re supposed to be involved in the work of the Lord. So you may have trusted Christ as your Savior. Okay, you have eternal life. You’re going to heaven and die. But how do you find what is the work of the Lord? If it’s just going to church, well, people have been doing that all along.

So what changed is that? That didn’t change nothing. You’re still doing the same thing you were doing before. Well, you didn’t drink, smoke and chew, and now you still don’t drink, So was the work of the Lord not drinking, smoking and chewing? Was it giving up some sinful habits? What is the work of the Lord? And yet we know that we should all be involved in the work of the Lord. But what is the work of the Lord? So I have a few things I wanted to cover with you.

And I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Acts, chapter 13, Acts and chapter 13. Just to kind of give you some thoughts that I was thinking about, and by the night setting in a little restaurant and all by my little lunch and drinking some coffee and I had a piece of paper right there. So this is the paper that I had. So I started writing some things down because I think of something. And all of a sudden that thought caused me to think of this and then I think of that.

So I want to know what God wants me to think about the work of the Lord. Because the work of the Lord is me working for the Lord or is the work of the Lord the Lord working through me? Hmm, what is the work of the Lord? Is it what you do for Him or the work of the Lord what the Lord does? So anyway, here in the book of Acts in chapter 13, you’ll notice here in verse 38 where he says, be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man, referring to Jesus Christ, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.

So when you tell a person that when Christ died, He died and paid for all of your sins and all you had to do is believe it, well then you are forgiven of all of your sins. You are forgiven. Preach the forgiveness of sins. You can be forgiven. But He also says here in verse 39, and by Him all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. To be justified by the law of Moses would be you obeying the law, which would mean you had to do the work.

Well, He’s already stated that you’re not saved by your works, but you’re saved by grace. It means if you’re not saved by your works, then whose work are you saved by? His work. So there is a work that he does, and that’s the work that’s important for us to know. Now look in verse 40, because I believe it’s in reference to this freeness of salvation, the forgiveness of sins, being justified by faith. He says in verse 40, be where therefore, at lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets.

In other words, you believing what the Old Testament saints prophesied of, and you’re hard-headed in your stiff neck. And he says in verse 41, behold ye despisers and wonder and perish. For I work a work in your days a work which you shall in no wise believe. So there’s something that He must be doing that there will not believe it. You see it’s so difficult for people to believe that salvation is free. But He says I’m going to do the work and you’re not going to believe the work.

And that’s why He also says in the book of Isaiah 53, Lord, who hath believed our report and it’s a reference when you check with the book of Romans in chapter 10 who have believed the gospel, the good news. The gospel that story is the work of God. Man did not devise the plan of salvation. That was God’s. And Christ came into the world to fulfill this plan that God had. So it is a work that only He could do.

Nobody else could do this because no man can be saved by his work. So the Lord had to do a work. But look what he says, behold ye despises and wonders and parrots for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. And then looked down in verse 43 where he says, now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselyte followed Paul and Barnabas who speak into them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

So, being persuaded, whenever you see and understand, there is a work that God had to do. He sent his son to do a work on the cross. That was to pay for our sin. He did that. He was buried. He came back again from the dead, and he says, work that he did for us. If we simply believe it, we can have eternal life. So if you understand what he’s talking about by the work of God and then you and I are commanded to be involved in the work of God, what work do you think he’s referring to?

Gets interested in you anyway. So I want you to take your Bible look there in the book of Acts in chapter 2. Acts in chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 and you’ll notice there in verse 11 where he’s talking about on the day of Pentecost where there were those that were theirs and speaking in various languages, not unknown tongues, various languages. And so the Jewish men that were there heard them speak in their own language and it says here in verse 11 and the creeds and the Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongue, our language.

And here’s the wonderful works of God. The work that Christ did on the cross was the work that we needed done for us. He did the work. You’re not saved by your work, not of works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. So the work of God, and they understood the wonderful works of God explaining it to them. And then later on they said… Men and brethren, what shall we do? And then they were told to repent.

Change your mind and believe the gospel, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is what they did, and 3,000 people were then saved. Now look here in Romans in chapter 4. Romans and chapter 4. The book of Romans, chapter 4, and look in verse 6. And you notice that the Lord is telling us something here about this work that God has done. does. It is the work where He gives us His righteousness. But it can only be given to us because of the work that Christ did on the cross.

See there in verse 6, even as David also described the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputed righteousness. God imputing righteousness. That’s the work of God. You didn’t do that. He did that. He imputes his righteousness without your work. When he says without works, it means without your works because this is the work of salvation. A man being saved is the work of God. And therefore, if you understand it and it’s clear in your mind, then you know where lost people are coming from and they don’t get it, they don’t understand it.

And there’s so many religions and they’re all about adding works to the gospel. So the truth of the gospel is always understand the difference between salvation by, well, one of these college kids, what’s always the main issue in witnessing? Grace versus work. Grace versus work. Now I wonder where he learned that at. Grace versus work. I might have to give him a name on his class. But anyway, you have imputed righteousness. God’s righteousness imputed you. That’s what he does.

You can’t get it any other way. It is not by your work. Imputed righteousness means put to your account without your working for it, without your deserving it. And it’s very simple and very clear. Now look in Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9 and verse 11. Romans chapter 9 and verse 11. And notice what he says here. For the children being not yet born, neither haven’t done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand.

Not a works, but of him that call it. Now, before the foundations of the world, before God ever made the first man, God already had a plan. And God had already a plan before anybody was created, born, did good, did bad. God had already decided he’s going to save a man by grace and not by his works. So God already had the plan made up. He didn’t decide this after everything was done. He’s sweating it out trying to figure how he’s going to get a man saved.

God already had a plan. Christ was crucified in the mind of God before the foundations of the world. So God already knew everything was going to happen. He knew what Satan was going to do. He knew what Adam was going to do. He knew man would sin. He knew man would fall. He knew man would need to save you and God already had a plan worked down. And so he says before anybody, anybody did any good or bad, God has already chosen to save all of those who believe on Jesus Christ and He has already chosen not to save those who do not believe on Jesus Christ.

I do not believe in a fatalistic, Calvinistic type doctrine of predestination. I believe it is totally wrong. I believe that God so loved the world and that anybody in the world can have eternal life and all they need to do is hear the good news, the gospel and and believe the gospel and they can know that they’re going to heaven when they die. Now take your Bible and turn to book of Hebrews in chapter 6, Hebrews and chapter 6.

These are simple little verses that we cover over and over again, but I just wanted to hit it from the point of view of what is the work of God. The work of God is the work that man cannot do. That’s what God does. And man cannot save himself. So we notice here in chapter 6 and verse 1, there were individuals who had already trusted the Lord, and I believe Hebrews is written to believers, but because they had not matured in the Lord and growing in the Lord, and they still had trouble with the temple that was there in Jerusalem.

And so the Jewish evangelists, they were having some problems because of going back to the temple, doing sacrifices, and being put back under the law. And so there were some problems. And so he says up there in verse 11 of chapter 5, of home we have many things to say and hard to be uttered to explain, seeing you are dull of hearing. For when for the time you ought to be teachers, in the word you trusted the Lord, you’ve been saved long enough that you should have learned something that you can teach somebody, but You’re not strong in the Lord.

You have need that one teach you again would be the first principles of the oracles of God. In other words, you need, you’re just like a bunch of little babies. You’ve got to learn all over again. And he says, I don’t have to get you saved again because you didn’t get lost. And we will go on to maturity if God permits. God permits a child of God to become a man of God and mature in the Lord only if he believes the Word of God.

Did you know you can’t grow in the Lord without believing the Word? So God has given us the only thing to make a child of God into a man of God and that’s the Word of God. So just like you believed him when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you got eternal life, became his child. Now you have to believe his Word in order to grow and to become mature. So he says here in verse 1 of chapter 6, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, us go on into maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.

That’s what you did to get saved. You said, what do you mean? Not laying again the foundation. You don’t need another foundation. You already have one. But your foundation of what saved you was not that you earned your way to heaven. He says, not land the foundation of repentance from dead works. You see, a man cannot save himself by his dead works. He is a dead man doing dead works and his works cannot save him. Now that you trust the Christ to save you because you believed in what Christ did on the cross for you, now you have eternal life, now you’re saved, now you’re going to heaven when you die, but you’re a child of God but you’re not maturing in the Lord.

So we are to go on into maturity. And this is why he says up there in verse 6, if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance, and they crucified to themselves, the Son of God, a phrase, and put them to an open chain, it’s impossible, verse 4, to lose your salvation because it would be impossible for you to get saved again. That’s why you never find in the Bible one scripture that says you can be saved and then get lost.

There’s not an illustration of anybody, any individual, anywhere ever being saved and then getting lost. And there’s not an illustration or scripture in the Bible where a man was saved and they got lost and then got saved again. It’s not in the Bible. You can’t find it. Why? Because it doesn’t happen. It’s impossible. It is impossible, therefore, to try to say you can lose your salvation, get saved again, is like Christ would have to die again, be crucified again to pay for the sins.

It caused me to lose my salvation. Now, either He paid for all of my sins, once and for all, He didn’t do me any favors. When Christ died, He paid for all of them. And that’s why I can’t go to hell today. And that’s why I can’t go to hell tomorrow or the next year or the next year. Why? I don’t have any sins to pay for. He paid for all of my sins. I have been forgiven. The penalty of my sins has been forgiven.

So you understand that and you keep believing that. Now look in the book of Revelation in chapter 15. Revelation in chapter 15. Revelation chapter 15. And look in verse 3. And just look at who the Lord is and what He’s going to do. In verse 3, and they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the songs of the Lamb, saying, great and marvelous are thy works. Those two little words you wanna, thy works. Thy works. Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou king of kings.

One of these days it’s gonna all be over and everybody that will be in heaven is gonna be because of the work of God, not because of the work of man. The work of man did not do anything for us, never has and never will. So now that we are saved and we have this eternal life and that we know that we are the workmanship of God. We are His work. Now what? How do I apply this into my Christian life?

Take your Bible and turn to the book of John in chapter 9, the book of John in chapter 9. chapter 9 and look in verse 3. When Jesus was here, He was always talking about Him doing the work of the Father. And you’ll notice what He says here in John chapter 9 verse 3, Jesus answered, neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the, and here’s those words, works of God should be made manifest in Him. I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day.

The night cometh when no man can work. So there is a time in which we won’t have any more opportunities. All of our opportunities to work will be over. So we like to say that, you know, I’m in the work of the Lord. But the work of the Lord, when I break it down and I study the certain scriptures and it seemed like the work of the Lord was all about the gospel. I don’t believe the work of the Lord is me just, you know, building the building.

We may build a building, but why are we building the building? It’s not about us having a bus and we just run a bus, but why do we have a bus? Why do we have a radio ministry? Why do we have the internet ministry? Is it that’s why I could say well There’s lost people they have all those same things don’t lost people have buses Don’t lost people have internet Lost people have radio programs What makes it different than what we have?

You said well, we’re doing it for the Lord if it’s not for souls. It’s not for the Lord The gospel, the work that Christ came to do was to get people saved. That’s why He came. That’s why He died. That was the work that God sent Him to do is to make that payment on the cross for our sins. And He paid the price. He did the work. And this is why He says, this work, I work the work in your day that you will not believe.

So this work about their what they not believe in is the gospel itself. Isn’t it so important? And then he says here in verse 5, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Another scripture just came to my mind, just turn over there to the book of John chapter 4. Look what he says here in verse 34. The disciples had left Jesus, he had gone to Samaria, and they went to town to get something to eat, came back and said, you got anything to eat?

And he said, oh yeah, I had a lot to eat. Anyway, he says up here, verse 32, I have meat to eat that you know not of. Therefore in verse 33, said the disciples went to another, any man brought him something to eat? I’ll eat. Jesus said unto them, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me to finish his work. His work. What was he doing?

He was sharing the gospel with who? Thus, American woman, the woman at the whale, he called that the work of God. He was witnessing to somebody. That was the work of God. And whenever he went to the cross to pay for the sin so that a person could be saved simply by believing that’s the work of God. We say we like to be involved in the work of God, but what is the work of God? Is it just we’re in a coat and tie and looking important?

I’m in the work of God. I think it narrows it down a little bit finer than that. And then notice what he says here in verse 34. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me to finish his work. That’s the work. And therefore we do have some work that we’re supposed to do. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of John 14. John, in chapter 14. John 14, he had made the statement that he said, not your heart be troubled, you believe in God believe also in me.

He says, my father’s house for many mansions, we’re not so I would have told you. He said, I go to prefer a place for you that when I come, I will receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also. And then he says there in verse 6, Jesus said unto them, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Now we know what the work of Christ was.

And then he says, as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you. I wonder, I just wonder, we don’t have to down the cross and pay for anybody’s sins, aren’t you glad? But can we tell them what Jesus did for them? Can that be the work of the Lord that God gave to us to do? What did he say? Go into all the world and preach to God. Go into all the world and buy buses, go into all the world and get on the internet, go all the world and we can do all things can work together to accomplish a purpose, but the purpose must always be remembered.

What is God after? He is after the souls of which He died for. And so He says here in chapter 14, He makes a statement down here in verse 9, Jesus said unto Philip, He said, Have I been so long with you and yet thou hast not known me, Philip? He that have seen me have seen the Father and I’ll say as thou, show us the Father. Believe us, thou not that I am he, and the Father and the Father in me.

The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself but the Father that dwelt of him I mean, he do it the worst. He doeth the works. You ought to handle it. He doeth the work. Even Jesus said it is the Father that does the work through Him. You and I are supposed to be in the place as His representatives, as ambassadors for Christ, we’re to do the work of the Lord. But the work of the Lord must be the work that the Lord does through us.

And so He says, in verse 11, believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in the Son of Christ. in me, or else believe me for the very worksake.” Another place that talks about, for the soul’s sake, for the gospel’s sake. And then he says in verse 12, “‘Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also, and greater works than thee shall he do, because I go unto the Father.'”

What work can I do greater than him walking on water. What work can I do that’s greater than fiend to five thousand? What work could I do that would be greater than making the blind to see and the death they hear and the dumb to speak? What work is there that’s greater than raising a man from the dead? What could I do? Priest the gospel. Do you realize that when you preach the gospel, you’re helping a dead man come to life?

That’s better than the resurrection out of the grave. That when you help a man trust Christ to save and you show him the gospel, did you make, you’re making him see and you’re helping him to hear the voice of God and you, you done all those things for him. That’s a greater work than what Christ did physically while he was here, except of course when he died on the cross to pay for our sins. So he says here, also, and greater works than they shall ye do.

Do you believe that God wants us as his children to work for the Lord. We work for the Lord, but as we work for the Lord we also know the Lord works through us. There’s a responsibility that God has and there’s responsibility that we have. Now that you have trust in Christ’s Savior God says you are created unto good works. We are to maintain good works. There are things God wants us to do, but I believe that what we do it should be because it has something to do somehow, some way, for us to reach souls.

Now I know you have to work and you’ve got to take and pay your bills and you’ve got to have food to eat, you’ve got to have clothes to wear, and so there’s an awful lot of things. It’s just eat up an awful lot of our time, but wouldn’t it be a shame to live your whole life and never had any time to do the work of the Lord? Or do you give your funds in order to do the work of the Lord.

Do you pray because this is the work for the Lord, this is the work of God, and you believe that this is what God wants and you do it. Hello, this is Peter Amato, and from all the staff at Bibleline, we want to thank you for tuning in to today’s program. This month, we’d like to send to our listeners and supporters the book, The Declaration of the Gospel. This is yet another book authored by Dr. Arnold, And it addresses the concerns over what is called the crossless gospel.

Is it enough to simply tell someone to believe in Jesus for them to be saved? Does the topic of sin need to be addressed in order for someone to understand what the gospel really is? What are the essential points that a lost man must be told in order for him to be saved and what does believing in Jesus really mean? These are just a few of the topics that are covered in this book. So for the month of May, when you send a gift in any amount, we’re going to give you the book, The Declaration of the Gospel.

Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bible Online. 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. 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.