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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.

You can go ahead and be turning in your Bible to the Book of Colossians. The book of Colossians in chapter 2, the title of today’s message, Grace for Man, must be the work of God. Grace for Man must be the work of God. If it is by grace and it’s not by our works, then it must be by gods. Doesn’t that make sense? Well, of course it does. But it seems like we’ve got a lot of people to run around and crunch it.

They haven’t got the message straight yet. And I hope that you’ll be able to follow me this morning. But if you will, look there at number one. Number one, the grace of God to man reveals the work of God for man. This creation of the world was the work of God. Remember in the beginning, God did not call you and me into his private chamber so that we could discuss this with God until God how to do it. He did it all by himself.

The plan of salvation was not our idea. He came up with that plan of salvation. He had the plan of salvation before he ever made the man and put him in the garden. So the Bible says that Jesus Christ was crucified before the foundations of the world. So they already had a plan. They knew what they were going to do. And they did not ask our opinion. Don’t that humble you just a tad? I know we think we’re so great and we’re so good in how in the world God is able to get along without us, it’s hard for us to understand.

We know he managed to put this world together without us, and I believe he’s going to be able to do the next heaven and the new earth without us, so he doesn’t need our help. There are things that God has done that is called the work of God, or that God did things by the finger of God. And the heavens declare the mighty work of God. So number two there says, the creation of man was the work of God.

No man helped God in the creation of this world. The plan of salvation was the work of God. No man helped in the plan of salvation. The virgin birth was the work of God. No man helped in that plan. That was God’s idea. Jesus Christ coming into this world, that was God’s doing. And even the placing of that holy thing in the womb of Mary, that was God that did that. did not do that. And the next point I have here, all of Christ’s miracles were the work of God.

The Bible says that what He did, He did it by the power of the Holy Spirit. He said He did not say, I did it by the power of man. Or I couldn’t have done it if it hadn’t been for man there to help me out with it. No, no. This is what God did. It’s the work of God. And so don’t try to confuse the two. When God says the man is saved by grace, It means it’s not by his works.

It means it’s not by man’s work. But a man is saved by works, but not ours. He’s saved by God’s work. So you have to be clear on that also, or I can get in a heap of trouble around here. The next point… His perfect life was the work of God. No man helped God. When Christ was here, Jesus lived a perfect life and he doesn’t owe it to anybody. He’s not in debt to any of us because well, we helped him.

He couldn’t have done it without us. That’s the point. He did do it without us. His perfect life was the work of God. The final product of the perfect sacrifice was the work of God. You and I can’t take any credit that we helped produce the perfect sacrifice. We had some input into this thing. No, the plan was his. The work was his. He did it all. You see, man did not come up with this idea on how to get to heaven.

Hadn’t have been for the Lord telling us we wouldn’t even know there was a heaven and we wouldn’t even know that there was a hell. So there’s things that God has revealed to us by his spirit through the teaching of the world of God that we can know things that no man would have ever known. The next point I have here, Christ bearing our sins was the work of God. No man helped him do that. So I want you to look there in your Bible to the book of Colossians in chapter 2 and look what he says in verse 14.

Talks about the Lord here, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. This was against us. We’ve done wrong. We have sinned. We have transgressed. And the Bible says that which was contrary to us, took it out of the way. He took it. He nailed it to His cross. No man made Christ die for us. No man made Christ pay for our sins on the cross. He did that. He took our sins. He says in the book of John chapter 10, no man takeeth my life from me.

Now either he meant what he said or he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But he says, I have power to lay my life down and I have power to take it again. And he did. You see, this is the work of God. So the work of God that involves salvation, the saving of a man is totally the work of God and not the work of man. Look at the next note that I have there for you. Christ coming back from the dead.

Christ came back from the dead. Do you believe that? He came back from the dead. Did you help him? You didn’t help him. He came back from the dead. says, I have power to take it again. In the book of Peter in chapter 3 verse 18 says, he was quickened by the Holy Spirit and raised. And the Bible also says that God, the Father raised him from the dead. So all three of them involved in the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

And it didn’t mention my name one time or yours. We didn’t help. See, when Christ was on the cross, he was doing a work for the Father so that the Father would be able to justify us, to save us, forgive us of our sins. It all had to be based upon Christ making a payment for our sins. He did that work. You and I are not going to heaven because we think by us going to church and our good little works and our living a good little life and I pray and I’ll give him money, helped.

It doesn’t help one eye odor. It’s like spitting in God’s face to think that we can help save ourselves. Well, I know we need Jesus, but I helped. A lot of people believe that he is necessary, but they just don’t know that he’s enough. He’s all I need. Look at number two there in your notes. The work of Christ was for the salvation of man. We talk about the work of God, the work of God. God did something for man, but I wanted you to see these verses.

So take your Bible and we’re going to go right down this list very quickly. So get your fingers ready and turn in your Bible. You said, well, I already know these verses. Look at them. Somebody sitting beside you don’t know you know it. They might think you’re just trying to be rebellious to the preacher. They might think you’re a maverick. They love it. I think you have got the whole Bible committed to memory. Look what he says here in John in chapter 3.

In verse 2. Says, the same came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God for no man. No man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. And Jesus answered him to him, very, very I send you, except a man be born again. What did you do to help you be born again? Could you perform that birth by yourself? You couldn’t perform that birth. God performs that birth, born of God.

We’ve already been born of man. This birth is a birth born of God, born from above. You couldn’t make that happen. He gives us this new birth and God laid it out simple enough for all we have to do is believe it. Do you believe that the work that God did was for me, that it was for you? He did the work. He only wants us to believe in that work that He did for us. Look in John chapter 5, and look at verse 17.

Verse 17 says, but Jesus answered them, my Father worked it hitherto and I worked. Father worked, the Son worked. But what was the work? You see, we are saved by work, but not our works, but we are saved by the work that God did. So the work that God did was completed by the one that came to do the work. When He says it is finished, it’s completed. He did the work. So for people to try to add to that is a shame.

It’s like slapping God in the face. They don’t understand it, but He makes a statement that He is God and He came to do the work of the Father. Now, here in the book of John in chapter 5, while you’re right there in chapter 5, look in verse 36. In verse 36 says, but I have a greater witness than that of John, for the works which the Father hath given me to finish. See that word finish you ought to unline it.

It means to complete the work that God gave him to do, to complete that work. He says the same works that I do, their witness of me that the Father have sent me. So we know that the Father sent the Son into the world to do the work that the Father wanted done. And the reason is because man can not save himself if he could have, God would not have had to do the work. But he did the work.

So when the Bible makes his statement in the book of Romans in chapter 11, and if by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more of grace. But if it be of work, it cannot be by grace, otherwise work is no more work. But in those two verses, it only lets you see that there is work and there is grace. They’re not the same, but it doesn’t say in those two verses, which one it is?

Which one is a man saved by? Surely there must be a verse somewhere in the Bible that says there’s grace and there’s work but we’re saved by grace and not by works. Anybody ever heard of such a verse? You ever heard of Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 and 9? We’re gonna look at just a little bit. But now notice, he says the same works that I do bear witness to me that the Father have sent me. In other words he must be doing something that the man in the world cannot do.

He has to do something that nobody else can do. No other man could do what he’s doing. No other man lived a perfect life. Nobody else could do that. So to prove who he was, he did things that no other man ever did. And even when they heard him speak this, and no man speaks like this man. Nobody has authority and speak with such authority as this man. And they found no fault in this man. And this man, yeah, he could walk on water.

I told somebody in Minnesota, I said, I can walk on water. I’ll be back in January. They didn’t think it was funny. Most of the lakes are frozen over. You can just walk out on the lake, you know. They do a lot of ice fishing in the fair, so I was going to walk on water. But Jesus could make the blind to see. How many of y’all in here know and have known for years that Tom over there is blind?

How many of y’all know that? I’m sure you have. Now what if all of a sudden I was to say to Tom? Tom, would you like to be able to see? And Tom says, yes, I wouldn’t. I said, be healed. And all of a sudden Tom could see. Now, what would you think about me? Don’t answer. Jesus did that. Jesus did. They knew the man is born blind. Another one crib for 38 years. All the things that he did, no man could do that.

But he did that so that they would believe that he was who he claimed to be. So he came to do a work, but the work wasn’t done yet. And as you read the scripture, you’ll find that he keeps saying, my hour is not yet come. My hour is not yet. They wanted to take him in advance and kill him. He may, my hour is not yet come. And then he says, the hour is come. The hour is come.

It’s time. And so he came and he did what he posed to do. Look in John 6 29, John 6 29. John 6 and verse 29 says, Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He have said. You are to believe on the one He said. But what am I supposed to believe about the one that He said? Well, the one that came came to do a work. He must be going to do a work that I couldn’t have done.

I couldn’t have done it myself. He died and paid for my sins. And I’ll show you that in just a minute, that that was the work of God. And all we have to do is believe that what he did was for us and he gives us that free gift of everlasting life. But you’ll notice that the one thing about this work of God, we are to believe in the work that he did. We are to believe in the one who did the work.

So Jesus came to do the work and we’re supposed to believe that He did the work of the Father. And the word propitiation means that the Father was satisfied with the work that the Son came to do. And if I am satisfied that He paid for my sins, then I’m not going to try to save myself. I’m not going to try to earn my way to heaven because I’m satisfied with what Christ did on the cross for me. That pleases me.

I’m satisfied. God’s satisfied. Everything’s wonderful. I’m going to heaven because what he did. He gets all the honor all the credit because he did all the work No man has ever lived good enough to save himself or done anything to steal some of that honor and glory from the Lord is though he did something This is why some people have a difficult time trusting the Lord because of a PR ID pride They just want to have a part in it.

They got to do something. And it’s all about the flesh. It makes them feel good because see I go to church and I read my Bible and I pray and I give and I do all these wonderful things. And then they look down their lawn fairs so you’ll can know that other people think they’re like Callows corn flakes. It’s a little bit better. I mean, you all remember that commercial? It’s about 40 years ago. You can tell where I’m from.

I used to watch that thing on TV all the time that it is just a little bit better. Okay. But that’s what a lot of people think. Look there in John chapter 10, John chapter 10, John chapter 10 and verse 37. They had already accused Jesus of claiming to be God. And guess what? He was. So he says in verse 30, if I do not the works of my father, Believe me not, don’t believe it. But I must be doing something that nobody else can do, and therefore you ought to believe.

I am from the Father. And then he says in verse 38, but if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I am. So whatever it is, we are supposed to believe in the work of God. Whatever this work of God is, we’re supposed to believe it. Because this is said over and over and over again to believe in the work that God has done.

Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Acts. The book of Acts just to your right, chapter 13. The book of Acts in chapter 13. And you’ll notice there in verse 41. Notice this verse. Verse 41, Acts chapter 13, verse 41. This is mentioned in the Old Testament because the verse 40 says, beware therefore it lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. The prophets prophesied about this. And this is what it says, Behold ye despisors and wonder and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declared unto you.

What was this work that he did? He did a work and then he tells him up there in verse 38, be it known unto you, therefore men and brethren, that through this man Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and why can people be forgiven? Because of the work that Christ did and in verse 39 and by him all that believe are justified from all things. But remember, according to book of Romans in chapter four, you find that he was raised for our justification.

Nobody could be justified if Christ had not been raised again from the dead. So what was this work that he did? Well, look at it here. From all things from which you could not be justified by the law of law. So the work that Christ did was in order to justify the center. How can a man that is a sinner be made just with God? How can he be equal with God? See, God is just. God does no wrong.

Here we are. We’ve all seen come short of the glory of God. So the Bible says, being justified is when I can look, eyeball to eyeball with God and he finds no fault in me. Now, buddy, we’ve come short. So Christ came into the world in order to justify us so that we could be just with God, equal with God in the sense that there’s no fault in us. As righteous as God, perfect. Christ came to make us perfect, to give us a new birth that has no sinful nature, so that we can live forever.

God did this work. Man did not help in any way. Therefore, it has to be by grace because it was by the work of God that does this. So look what he says here. book of Acts in chapter 13. Here in verse 29, and when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, Christ, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepraka and look in verse 30. God raised him from the dead. He came to do the work that the Father sin to do, and after he gave his life, then God the Father raised him from the dead and get this.

And he was seen many days of them which came up from him, from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you, glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children in that he hath raised up Jesus again. You see, did he raise him twice? No, he was alive, and then he was dead, and he lives again. And he says, in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son.

This day have I begotten to the work of the Father. He raised his Son from the dead, but the work of the Son was to die the death. So there was a plan before God ever made the first man. This is truly the work of God and what God wanted, what God did. Now look at number three. Why salvation cannot be by works? Because in Romans chapter three, we won’t take the time to look at it, it says it is written, there is none righteous, no not one.

If a man is not righteous, how can he bring forth these righteous works? He can’t do it. Romans 3, 23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No man can bring forth good enough works to justify him. Impossible. He’s not capable of doing it. Man is not capable of living a good enough life. He has to be perfect all his life. And nobody’s like that. Set my grandkids. Isaiah 64, six simply makes a statement that all of our righteousness or his filthy rags, we do all fate as a leaf and so on.

This is the way we are. All we like sheep have gone astray. And Isaiah 59 talks about our sins have separated us from God. Our sins have, and man can’t get back to God. There is nothing he can do. It was what God did. So God had to come down here in the form of a man and lived this perfect life. He did this work. And law could not condemn him because he never broke it. And the devil couldn’t tempt him, so he wouldn’t fall.

And he had no sin for nature, and he never yielded to any temptation. But tempted in all points, like it were yet without sin, he was perfect. Look at letter B. Heaven is perfect. There is no good heaven or pretty good heaven. There’s only a perfect. 2 Peter 3, 13 says, nevertheless we according to His promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelt righteousness. God does this. He’s the one that made this place. He says, be not afraid.

You believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father’s house many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to the first place for you, where I am there you may be also. In Revelation 21, 27, where it simply says, and there shall know wise enter into it. Anything that defile of the work of the abomination or make of the lie, but they which are written in the Lamb Book of Life. So he did that.

This new heavens isn’t a new, that’s his work. He did that. You see, we’re just entering into his work, but we do not deserve it. We do not earn it. It’s not by our own merit. Look at the back page, number two, at the top of the page, the righteousness of Christ. He was without sin, then and without sin. No. He never had sin, but he’s coming back one day. The Bible says when he comes back the next time he comes without making a payment for sin because he made it the first time never has to do it again.

So he’s not going to come back in the future to pay for my sins that I’ve done since then. No. When he died the first time he paid for all the sins of all the world once and for all. Look at that verse. Hebrews 4, 15 just look like your notes there. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.

He never sinned. Hebrews 928, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin under salvation. So he’s coming back the next time, but the next time he comes, he’s not coming to make a payment for sin. It’s already done. And Isaiah 59, it talks about the robe of righteousness that God gives to us when we trust him as our Savior. His righteousness, not ours.

Look at letter D, the righteousness of God, imputed means put to one’s account. So that means if I have to be as righteous as God to go to heaven and I’m not. So the work that Christ did was so that He could pay for all of my sins and I’m not allowed to get there with my sin because heaven is a righteous place. Christ did a work on the cross paying for the sins of the whole world so that he could take His righteousness and impute it to you.

He cannot impute this righteousness to your account unless you believe that what He did was for you. The payment has to be accredited first. You must believe it first and He will give to you His righteousness. What another great message from Dr. Arnold. Friends, we hope more than anything else that you know you’re saved by believing Jesus died for your sin and that Bibleline is helping you grow stronger and stronger in the Lord. Would you know how to witness to an atheist?

What do you start with if a person doesn’t even believe there is a God? For this month, all who send in a financial donation in any amount, we will mail to you Dr. Arnold’s DVD teaching lesson on how to witness to an atheist. You’ll gain some great insight on reaching people who may just need someone to explain the truth to them. This DVD series is yours for this month only with your financial donation in any amount. 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 again for supporting Bible Life. 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. Friends, 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.