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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. and reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

One time this preacher was bragging on this person’s up there in the gospel. Just really bragging with what a great husband he was, what a great father he was. The wife’s sitting out there and telling her, let’s go up there and look in that cast and make sure that’s your daddy. But look in verse nine, verse nine.

Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and the disobedient, for the ungodly, for sinners, for unholy, for fame, for murders of mothers and fathers and so forth, and man slayers for a whore mongers, for them that defiled himself with mankind, men’s dealers, liars and purgied persons, and if there be any other thing his contrary to sound doctrine, that’s pretty bad. And then lo and behold, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust, then he goes on down through here and he makes this statement in verse 15, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.

In other words, everybody ought to accept this fact. And he says that Christ Jesus came into the world to save saints. He came to save sinners. He didn’t come to save saints, came to save sinners. Are you a sinner? Then you qualify. And since no one’s perfect, everyone’s a sinner, so Christ came to save sinners. And if you’re a sinner, He came to save you. Didn’t say how bad, because one sin is bad enough. And then He says here in verse 16, how be it?

For this cause I obtain mercy that in me, first Jesus Christ might show forth all long sufferings for a pattern to them which should here after believe on Him to life everlasting. You ought to see how bad I was, he says. And that’s why in the last part of verse 15 he says, I am chief. Came to save sinners of whom I am. Now if he can save the chief, he can save all the Indians, right? And he says, if God can save me, God can save anybody.

And if God can save the the worst and give me eternal life, then what do you worry about? Do you believe God can save you and give you eternal life? Then that means there’s not any person that we don’t have to say, well, I don’t need to witness him because he’s too bad. God can’t save him. I’ve actually talked to women and led him to the Lord. And they’ll say, well, you don’t know my husband. He can’t be saved.

He’s too bad. I said, well, let me talk to She said, I don’t want you to talk to him. I said, why not? I want him to go to hell. He said, nobody would say that. Yes they do. It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but I mean that’s what you do. But now look in Romans in chapter 4. Romans, chapter 4. Notice that the purpose of this good news is that God wants to make you and I righteous.

He wants us to be perfect, good to go, to go to heaven. So here in the Romans in chapter 4, it makes this statement in verse 5, but to Him that work if not, but believe it on Him that justify it the end, God His faith is counted for righteousness. And then He goes all the way back and uses a man by the name of Abraham and explains a a few things. He goes all the way back to when God took Abraham out of the early calvies and took him outside one night and says, look at those stars.

He says, can you count them all? And he says, so shall I seed be. And he explained the Gospel to him because the Bible says in the book of Galatians in chapter 3 verse 8, and the scripture foreseen that God would justify the heathen to faith preached before the Gospel and the Abraham sin in these shall all families of the earth be blessed. So God preached the Gospel to Abraham. Do you think he left anything out? I think he made it clear and made him understand.

And he also believed that, the Bible says, if he took that kid’s life, he believed that God would resurrect him because he knew he was a dead man. the type of God the Father given his only begotten son on the very same Mount Moriah and would raise him again from the dead. So he knew about the death Berlin resurrection of the Messiah. He knew all of that. And so he says here in verse 2 of chapter 4, what is if Abraham were justified by works?

Could he be justified by works? Remember he was justified 430 years before the law was ever given. So he didn’t have to keep the law. It wasn’t even written yet. And here he says, what did he find? He found out that if it was by works, it couldn’t be by grace. That’s what he says in verse 4. Now to him that work is a reward not of grace. If you have to work it can’t be grace. It would be debt.

So that’s why He says, look what Abraham found out. It’s not by your works. Now look there in chapter three of the book of Romans and look in verse 21. Verse 21 says, but now the righteousness which we hear about and find out about through the gospel of Jesus Christ. How yes, we are bad. We’re so bad we can’t save ourselves. But he can’t save us because he paid for our sins. And notice what he says in verse 21, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest been witnessed by the law and the prophets.

In verse 22, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. There’s no difference. So God says, His righteousness is unto all. Look up here, man. I want you to see this. God’s righteousness is unto all, but only upon them that believe. So it’s unto all. And I believe all means all. But it’s upon them that believe. So when you believe that what Christ did was for you. He puts his righteousness to your account and is by faith and faith alone.

Now look in verse 28 of Romans chapter 3 verse 28 therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without works, without beads of the law, without works. Faith alone, faith alone. And you notice verse 24, being justified freely by his what? Grace. Grace and works are not the same. So regardless of how bad a man is, no man can live good enough to save himself. And so that’s why God says it’s unto all. He died for all so that the payment he made can be put to your account whoever believes.

So when you believe it, you have it and it’s faith alone. Now look there in chapter 4 and chapter 4 and notice what he says in verse 16. Chapter 4 verse 16. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end for this purpose. The promise might be sure to all. You see, if you had to earn your salvation, it couldn’t be sure because you’d have to earn it and you ought to know God said it’s not by your work so you can’t earn it.

So the only way we can be guaranteed to have eternal life and guaranteed that will be saved and guaranteed it has to be free is by grace through faith. So when you read Ephesians 29 for by grace, or you say through faith, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So man is saved by grace and grace alone. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of James, the book of James.

You’d be surprised how many people asked me if I ever read the book of James. They assume that I probably just skipped right over that book and that I didn’t know it was there. But in the book of James, I want you to look there in chapter 2 and remember this. Whatever James says, if it’s inspired of God, if it is holy writ, if it’s in the kennonicity of the Scriptures, it cannot contradict what we just talked about. Impossible.

The Bible doesn’t contradict itself. So James cannot contradict what Paul has written in the book Romans. So here in the book of James in chapter 2, look what he says. He makes a statement there in verse 21, was not Abraham our father justified by works. Oh, says he was justified by works. We just read where he was justified by faith without works. See there’s the contradiction in the Bible. Look down in verse 24, ye see then how that by works a man is justified not by faith alone.

See there? I mean you got to admit the Bible contradicts itself. But does it really? it doesn’t contradict itself. We’re talking about two issues, two different issues. One, and we’re talking about salvation, the other one, service. You see, when you’re saved and want to go to heaven, then God says, the just for the unjust. I’m the unjust. And I am saved from hell by grace alone because of what he did for me. He loved me. He paid for my sin.

penalty. He paid for it and gave me His righteousness. Faith alone in Christ alone, there is no other way. Now we’re talking about something else. You see now we’re talking about when is this referring to? We see there in verse 21, was not Abraham our Father justified by verse when he had offered Isaac his son upon the Yaltram. That was about 13 to 15 years later. That’s afterwards. And that’s talking about his works. So why does it say you’re justified by your works?

You see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith alone. Well remember this James is not talking about how to go to heaven. Romans is. Romans is talking about how to be just with God. Now we’re talking about how to be just with man in the eyes of man, what man sees. But there’s more to it than just that. But here in the book of James and notice there in chapter 1 verse 2, my brethren, so we’re talking to believers.

Count it all joy when you fall in the divers temptations because as a child of God there’s a lot of things you don’t know. God wants to develop character in your life, Christian character in your life. And one of the things that helps you to develop this is tribulation work as patients. In other words so God will not allow you to get what you want when you want it and get what you want the way you want it. And God doesn’t always let you be587 what you want when you want to be.

God will teach you to wait upon the Lord. And this isn’t that hard. So we can’t make some things happen. So God says when you lack wisdom go to God. Search His Word. And God will give to all men liberally and will not chide you or upbrae you or make fun He says, you’re right in front of your mock you, but God says, this is how you get it, because he says, otherwise you’ll be like a ship upon the sea tossed to and for by every wave.

And even when the doctrine that comes along. And he says that a double minded man is unstable in all of his ways, a double minded man. So how do you know you’re focused upon God and you want to serve God because of your… Are you a double-minded man? Are you a yo-yo? You yo-yo. I used to love to do a yo-yo. I used to be pretty good in a walking dog, round the world. You ever show off? I’m glad I’m not like that.

But as you go through and you find out, God says, now, if you love me, see, me going to heaven is because of him loving me. But I don’t have to love God to go to heaven. But God says, if I will love Him, and I may and I may not, some of God’s children love the world, but some of God’s children will love Him. He said, not get loved me. He says, you’re gonna have trials and tribulation, but I want you to be found faithful.

And if you will, God said, I’m gonna reward you. So He says in verse 12, blessed is the man that endured temptation. Now, to be saved, you don’t have to endure anything. You just trust Christ, faith alone. But now as a child of God, God wants more from us. He wants us to live for him. Because he wants us as he left us in this world to have an effect upon other people’s lives. And so he says, and when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of us.

That’s rewards. God’s gonna reward you. Rewards are earned. See, when I get to heaven, if I get a crown or a reward, it’s because I earned it. That wasn’t free. So in life, you’re always making decisions. and every decision is going to affect eternity. And God can bless you here and reward you there, and it’s dependent upon your faithfulness to the Lord. So it is required in the steward that it may be found faithful. But to be saved, I don’t have to be faithful.

God has to be faithful. He won’t cast me out. He won’t lose me. He gives me eternal life. I am in his hand. No man can pluck me out of his hand. See, me being saved is his job, not mine. So my eternal security is based upon the promise, the word of God, and he cannot lie. So I don’t worry about that anymore. Now that I am a child of God, what about my whole Christian life? And so God wants me to do that.

Now look there in chapter one and notice what he says. He’s writing to the Christians. And he says in verse 16, do not err might be levered brethren. It means that there are decisions you’re going to be making and a lot of things are not always easy and you’re going to be tempted, but don’t anybody say, well, God tempted me. God doesn’t tempt any man to sin because God doesn’t sin and God never tempts you to sin. But he says this in verse 22, but be he doers of the word.

So now we’re talking about doing something. Doers of the word and not hears only. Deceiving your own selves. And if any man be a hear of the word and not a doer, he is likened to a man that beholds his natural face in the glass. He sees himself and he forgets all about it and goes about his business. It’s like a person who comes to church on Sunday morning. And you hear the word of God and God’s word says, oh, you ought to do this and I need to stop this.

I need to clean this up. I need to cut this out of my life and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then you all got to preach it. That was a good sermon this morning. and you didn’t listen to one thing I said, you didn’t change one thing in your life. God says you’re deceiving yourselves. Did you really come to church to learn some truth from the word of God so you could change your life? Does God want your life to be changed?

Yes. To get to heaven, no, you’re already going to heaven, but he left you here as his child. And he says, this is what I want you to do because I want you to love me. And if you love the Lord more than anything else in the world. There is anything in this book that should be too hard for you to do for him. And then he says down here in verse 25, he says, but who so looketh into the perfect law of liberty?

The Word of God. Continue it therein. He be and not a forgetful here, but a doer of the work. This man shall be blessed in his deep, doing something. This is the work. This is service. You see salvation is free. Service is what you do for the Lord. James chapter 2 is talking about what you’re going to do for Him. And you can’t say, well I’ve got faith, I’ve got faith. He says, show me your faith without your work.

And I’ll show you my faith by my works. So you read this and you see what God’s talking about. Now look in verse 1 of chapter 2. My brethren, so he’s talking to believers. Go down here in verse 12 and see what he’s telling these believers, it says, so speak ye and so do. So what you say and what you do as those that shall be judged by the perfect law of liberty. You and I, one day, are going to stand before the Lord.

It’s a judgmentary to Christ. And we’re going to have to give an account of what we said and what we did while we’re here on planet Earth after you and I have been saved. Does it matter? You figured out, I can’t live your life for you. You can’t live yours for me. Nobody can live anybody else’s Christian life. Nobody can love God for you.

That’s a decision you have to make. Nobody can dedicate your life to God. Well, that would be great. But he says here in verse 13, because God is going to be upset with you. God is not going to have mercy upon you because you’re going to reap what you sow. When you get to heaven and see what you could have had if you just served him, if you forbade him. But you said, I was just caught up in too many things.

I was too busy. I didn’t know it was that important. But God says, I wrote it right here in my word. I told you, I warned you. You see, you’re not going to stand before God in answer for all of your sins, but Christ paid for that. But what you could have done, the opportunities missed. Yeah, there’s a price to pay. And it could be for all eternity, positions of service that you get to serve with God. The rewards, I don’t want, but rewards once earned are forever.

And then that’s why he says in verse 13, for he shall have judgment without mercy that have showed, in other words, you and what your decisions you make, You’re going to reap what you sow. It warns us about that in the book of Galatians in chapter 6. Then he says in verse 14, what did that profit my brother? So he’s talking to the believers about profit in your life. What profit does it help the other person when you actually don’t do anything for them?

He says, somebody shows up and they don’t have anything to wear the cold. They don’t have anything to eat. And you say, ah, be thou warmed and filled. I mean, do they get profited from that? Oh, you said nice words. But what did you do? Nothing. Who did it profit? Nobody. And God says, you’re going to have to give an account. So when he asked the question, shall faith save him? If we were talking about salvation, yes, but we’re not talking about salvation.

Here we’re talking about service. Can faith save him? No. The answer is no. Can faith save him? Save him from what? The chasting hand of God. You see, you’re gonna have to give an account to the Lord. So a lie. And this is why God says in these verses, you know what he says in verse 18? Ye a man may say. Verse 19, thou believe us. Verse 20, O vain man. In verse 22, see us thou. In verse 24, ye see is talking about what people see in your life.

Do you think God wants us to live a holy, godly life? Yes. And God wants us to be different from the world. And I’ve had people say, that Yankee, he’s just trying to be a holy joke. He just thinks he’s better than everybody. He’s just trying to be a religious hypocrite. He thinks he’s better than everybody else. Yeah, right. You go ahead and say, all that you want to say, God knows my heart, God knows my motive, and God knows yours.

And if you decide to live a godly life, those that live godly shall suffer what? It’s going to happen because if you do write, you are an automatic rebuke to those who won’t do right and there’s a price to pay for it. I always told you can’t take the heat. Stay out of the kitchen. Serving the Lord is a battle. It’s a fight. It’s a war. All the days of your Christian life and serving the Lord can cost you everything.

discipleship cost price to pay. But aren’t you glad salvation, He paid that. But Me serving God are decisions that I have to make. And God says, if I was serving and honor Him, He will bless my life. So people look at the works, what people see. And so that’s why I made the statement of Aaron verse 18, looking verse 18, a man may say, Thou have faith and I have works, show Me thy faith. So He’s talking about show people something.

Show, if I was to tell you I love the Lord and I don’t live like I love the Lord, you will probably think I’m a hypocrite. Wouldn’t you? You come to church and you put on your Christian face and then during the week you live like the devil. You hypocrite. That’s hypocrisy. The way you are at church ought to be the way you are at home. It ought be the way you are with your wife and it all be the way you are with your husband and all be the way you are with your children and all be the way you are on your job.

If you’re going to live a holy life, it means in every area of your life with whomever you meet, all the time, consistency, faithfully, talk is cheap, but practice what you preach. And that’s the most difficult part of all because the Bible says God is watching our lives. faith is on trial. So you see, no man serves God to go to heaven. No man does. We’re going to heaven because of what Christ did by faith alone. But when we’re talking about service is faith plus works.

It’s that I believe what God says and I live it. That’s because I love Him. That’s why He makes a statement down here and I want you to see this before we close. verse 24, ye see then how that by works a man is justified. See in the eyes of people or be in the eyes of God for rewards because otherwise we’re going to be chasing too. Or you become like salt that’s lost its saver and it has no power.

Many of God’s children have no power of influence in the lives of anyone else. Your influence in other people’s lives is revealed about the power you have in their lives. Does God use you to change people’s lives? Do you make a difference? Make a difference. Look up here. This end represents you and me, the wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. Now we know God says we have all sinned and He paints a pretty dark picture. We’re pretty bad.

You read Romans chapter 1, 2, and 3. And you’re not going to have much in there to cheer about. And God’s eyes, none righteous, no not one. All guilty before God. And so God says that He loves us. But He hates what we do wrong. Because the pay for sin is eternal separation from God in Hell. But to go to Heaven, we have to be perfect, because righteous is God. And this is what makes the gospel so good. And this is why I’m not a God.

ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power to save everybody who will believe that God yes loves them and that He paid for their sins and will give them eternal life as a free gift. You and I cannot earn our way to heaven. This hand represents Jesus Christ, He’s the Lord God in the flesh, came into the world because He loves us, hates our sin, because it separates us from us. So Christ took the sin, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead and said if you I would believe he did it for us.

Yes, he paid for our sins, but that payment is not put to your account just because he did it. It’s put to your account, according to Romans chapter 4, when you believe. And if you’ll believe it, you have it. I have a payment for my sins. That’s why I can’t go to hell because I don’t have sins to pay for. He paid for all my sins. I get to go to heaven on what he did for me. And he says, now, as a child of God, since I’ve been justified by faith alone.

God wants me to say, look, I got some things I want you to do for me. And I got some special blessings for you here. And I got some rewards I want to give you when you get to heaven. But I want you to love me. I want you to love me and that you’ll serve me and that you’ll honor me. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bottom, every eye close and no one looking around. If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you trust Him right now?

You say, yes, that made sense to me. I want to be certain I’m going to heaven when I die and I realize it’s by faith alone in what Christ did for me. You may be thinking, you know, I’ve been thinking all my life. I had to do something. I had to live a certain way. I had to earn God’s love. I had to be good to go to heaven. Now I understand. And today I will trust Christ and Him alone as my Savior.

And if you’ll do that, I’d like to know and I like to have prayer for you. But I do it with the heads of our nice clothes so that nobody will be embarrassed. I’m not going to come up to you. I’m not going to pin you against the wall and ask you 100 questions. I just want to know what I said made sense and you said preach that did and I will trust Christ this morning’s my Savior. And friend if you’ll do that, would you just slip your hand very quickly and put a right back down and we’ll just slip it up very quickly, we’ll rub it down.

Just God bless you. Anyone else? Just let me know by an uplift at hand. If you’re watching by internet, right there on the screen, all you need to do is just punch that and let us know that you trust the Christ is your Savior today. We’re love to hear from you. Father, we thank you so much for this time together. Bless each one for being here. And we thank you Lord so much for the power of the gospel, the power to save, to who so ever believe it.

In Christ and we pray. We hope you’ve enjoyed this lesson today from Dr. Arnold and Pray that Bibleline is a blessing in your life. We are so grateful to our listeners and supporters who help us accomplish so many great things for the Lord. During this month to every person making a financial donation in any amount, we’re going to send to you the DVD teaching series on how to witness to Roman Catholics. Many Catholics love the Lord so much, but sadly, they are lost.

Although the Roman Catholic Church uses words like grace and mercy, they rely upon works as the cause of salvation. So many wonderful people are being deceived by the world’s largest religion, and this DVD series could help you win them to the truth. Again, we’re so grateful to those of you who support this ministry. 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 for supporting Bibleline.

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 4011 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. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.