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

Last week, I told you that I was going to speak on a particular subject today. Does anybody remember from last week what I said it was going to be. Oh, God bless you. That’s what I said. Repent means change your mind and I changed my mind. But I rerepented, changed my mind back. This is a statement someone took out of a book and ran it by me wanting me to explain it. But it was somebody who lives in another state and they wrote me a nice letter letting me know that they have struggled with this term for so long and then they heard a couple of my messages on YouTube but it says this is what they heard and had a problem with this is what they wrote repentance is a godly sorrow for sin repentance is a forsaking of sin real repentance is putting your trust in

Jesus Christ so you will not live like that anymore. Repentance is permanent. It is a lifelong and an eternity long experience. You will never love the devil again once you repent. You will never flirt with the devil as the habit of your life again once you get saved. You will never be happy living in sin. It will never satisfy and the husk of the world will never feel your longing and and hungering in your soul. Repentance is something a lot bigger than a lot of people think.

It is absolutely essential if you go to heaven. And that was written by Lester Rolloff. Anybody ever heard of Lester Rolloff? I have preached in the Rolloff homes many years. He was dead when I preached there though. They used to bring some of the people over in buses to San Antonio from Corpus Christi when I was speaking in the sword conference with Dr. Curtis Hudson. There is a sermon, it just happened to come out in the paper two days ago on the front page of the sword of the Lord.

There’s a picture of Lester Rolloff and a sermon Dr. Law and Dr. Grace. Now I have preached that sermon pretty much but he preached this sermon years ago and they’re reprinted it. If you read it you probably will never see anything wrong with it because it was a great sermon. Really showing you the purpose of the law was to point you to Dr. Grace. And so therefore you had to be saved by Grace, but the law could not save you.

So a man goes to the Dr. Law and finds out that he has a bad heart. So the law says, I can’t do anything for you, but I know someone who can. You go to Dr. Grace. And Dr. Grace will give you a new heart. So Dr. Grace happens to be Christ. And so the man is given a new heart and he would wonder where he got it from. Who gave him his new heart? Well, he realized that Jesus had scars in his hands and his feet, Dr.

Grace, and Jesus gave him his heart. So Jesus, the surgeon, had taken out his whole heart and put in his new heart and it’s a good illustration. It’s a good sermon. Except the problem is, is God doesn’t take out our old wicked heart, sinful nature, and implant a new one in its place. If it was true, then I wouldn’t have the old one anymore, and I wouldn’t do those old things anymore. So in a lot of people’s thinking, that makes sense.

So therefore, if you get saved, Jesus takes out that old heart and gives you a new one, and now you’re supposed to be new. Now, you don’t want to do those old things you used to do. You’re not going to be happy in sin anymore. Most Christians that I know love sin. They love it. That’s why they do it. Because it is fun to do wrong. Otherwise, people wouldn’t do it. So therefore, a person begins to question whether or not, well, maybe I’m not really saved.

Because if this is true, you will never flirt with the devil as the habit of your life again once you get saved. you’ll never be happy living in sin. It sounds good. But the Lord doesn’t take out your whole heart, your whole sinful nature. He simply gives you a new one and now you have a choice. And we’ve explained that before with the teaching on the two natures. Now when it comes to repent, repent does mean change your mind.

And even though repent means change your mind, it can also mean change your mind that may lead to a change of action, but the action is not repentance, but a change of mind can lead to a change of action, but you can change your mind and not have any action as I will try to show you this morning. Matthew and chapter 21, look what he says here, in verse 28, look at verse 28, but what? Thank ye, so that You know repent, metaneo, metaneoil repentance means a change of mind.

Change your mind. So what do you mean? Change your mind. Now you can change your mind about many things. If we’re going to apply it to salvation, we must change our mind about whatever keeps us from being saved. Every man is commanded to repent. The change is mine. So if I want to be saved, then I must change my mind about whatever it is that’s keeping me from being saved.” Now look what he says in verse 28, but what thank you?

That has to do with the mind. A certain man had two sons. Came to the first and said, son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered in it and says, I will not like a typical teenager, but afterwards he repented and did what? So he had a change of mind that led to a change of action. So he changed his mind and he went. Now when you read this he lets you see very easy there were two sons so you know one’s gonna obey and one’s gonna disobey otherwise there’s no difference in the two sons.

Now notice what he says in verse 30 and he came to the second and said likewise he answered him he says I go sir and he went not. Here is a change of mind that did not lead to a change of action because there was no action whatsoever. So you can repent that can lead to a change of action and you can repent and not lead to a change of action. I’m not making up. I’ll get to this read it.

That’s what it says. Now notice, so he asked the question in verse 31, which of the two did the will of his father? They said unto him the first, Jesus said unto them, verily I say unto you that the the publicans and the harlets go into the kingdom of God before you. And here’s why. He says, for John came unto you in the way of righteousness and you believed him not. You did not believe him. But the publicans and the harlets believed him.

Some believed, some did not believe. Jesus is getting on to those who did not believe. Well, if God had given them the faith to believe, would have to have believed, but evidently he didn’t do that. It’s up to the individual. Some believed, some did not believe, but it was their choice. But the publicans and the harlots believed him, and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterwards that ye might believe. So here is repent that ye might believe.

Change your mind that ye might believe. So whatever the word is it keeps a man from being saved, he needs to repent, change his mind, and believe what it takes to be saved. So as we’re moving right along, now take your Bible and turn to the book of John chapter 3, the Gospel of John in chapter 3.

You have to repent of whatever makes you lost. If going to heaven depends upon you giving money and you’re not giving money, then you have to repent so you should repent of that which keeps you from going to heaven. So if you want to go to heaven, you’ve got to give money. No, I don’t see anything wrong with that. Then all you have to do is change your mind and give the money. But if that is what God says to do to go to heaven, then that’s what you would have to repent of and correct the problem.

But you see, there is repentance without a change of action, and there is repentance that does lead to a change of action. So you have to study the context of see exactly what it’s referring to. John chapter 3 and verse 18. Look what he says. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. Now why is a man condemned? According to this verse, because he hath not believed. So if going to heaven is because you believe, then I have to repent of that which is keeping me from going to heaven, which is my unbelief.

So I need to change my mind. But does this change of mind lead to a change of action? is the action that should lead me to heaven if I repent? If I change my mind, I cannot save myself. Is it possible for people to come to the conclusion, I can’t save myself? But they still never trust the Lord. Is there people who say I can’t live the Christian life? I can’t meet up to that standard. And therefore, I give up, I quit, I’m out of here, stop the world, let me off and never trust the Lord.

You can repent and never believe. You can change your mind about a lot of things and never trust the Lord. So therefore repent, change your mind from that which causes you to be lost. I am lost because I have not believed. So if I want to go to heaven, I need to change my mind and do what? And believe. So if I believe because that’s the only thing that’s keeping me from going to heaven. You see, not giving money will not keep me out of heaven.

Not going to church will not keep me out of heaven. Not living a good life will not keep me out of heaven. Not coming to Calvary Community Church. Well, it might not. So the only thing that’s keeping you from going to heaven is you not believing that when Christ died, He paid for all of your sins and you’re accepting that payment He made for you. So when you believe that, He gives you eternal life and you trust Him and you go to heaven whenever you die.

Have you ever gotten on the plane and never saw the pilot, but you trusted the pilot to take you from here to there, but never saw the pilot. I’ve done that on many flights, never saw them. But let’s say I get on the plane, I’m trusting that pilot to fly me from here to Dallas, Texas. The stewardess comes by, says, what would you like? And I reach up there and I take some of her hair And I cut it off.

Am I still going to Dallas? The pilot gets up and he comes back there and he says, what did you do to the shortest? And I reach up here and get a hold of his tie and I cut off his tie. Am I still going to go? What if I take a knife and I cut up the seat? Now, earthly illustrations are good only as they agree with divine truth. He said, well, they’ll kick you off the plane. Yes, but I have a verse that says, I will never cast you out.”

Doesn’t the Bible say that somewhere? He’ll never cast you out. So, I’m on a plane and he can’t cast me out. But I may not enjoy my ride, but I’m on my way. You see, once you trust Christ as your Savior, He’s to take you from here to heaven. So He can’t cast me out on the way. Now listen, you’ve got on the plane and it was free. So you have to maintain a certain lifestyle to stay on the plane.

See, this is where people get messed up. They think they’ve got to live a certain way or he’s going to kick him off the plane. You don’t get to go. You’re out of here, buddy. Well, look at verse 36. Verse 36 says, He that believeth on the sun hath what? Everlasting life, just by believing. that believe if not the Son shall not see life of the wrath of God abided upon Him. He that believe if not. So the reason that a man’s going to hell is because he has not believed.

So repent would have to be if he has to repent he has to repent of that which keeps him from being saved. This does not lead to a change of action in his life but it changes who is trusting in or what he’s trusting in. So if I repent, I change my mind and I trust Christ as my Savior. And therefore I know that I have eternal life and I know that I’m going to heaven whenever I die. Take your Bible look in John chapter 5.

John chapter 5 and look in verse 40. Verse 40. Verse 40 says, and ye will not come to me that you might have life. So the one that has life is the one that I must get life from. The church doesn’t have eternal life. So coming to the church can’t give you eternal life. See a lot of people think if they go to church they got to get to go to heaven someday. The church doesn’t have eternal life, can’t give it to you.

Your money, as precious as it is, can’t give you eternal life because it doesn’t have eternal life. It can’t purchase it for you. Where does it go to buy it for you? The church, the preacher, as wonderful as he is, does not have eternal life to give to you. I have eternal life because see, I had to go to Christ to get it. You will not come to me that you might have life. So if I want to have this eternal life, I must come to Christ.

It means that I must come to Him as the one who is the source of eternal life. And if I accept Him as my Savior, He will give me eternal life. That’s why he makes the statement in the book of John chapter 1 verse 12, but as many as received Him, received Him to them gave He the power to become the sons of God. So you become a son of God. Now just so that you know that I didn’t make that up while I go, look in John chapter 6 and verse 37.

All that the the Father gives me, shall come to me and Him that come up to me, whoever gets on his airplane and he’s the pilot, he’ll never cast you out. He’ll never lose you. The doors are locked. You’re going to heaven? Like it or not. Of course, I’m, you like it. But once you trust Christ as your Savior, it is a done deal because I’m trusting Him to do something and He gives his word, he is my Savior.

He’s saving me and taking me to heaven. Now, take your Bible and look in chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27 and look in verse 3. Chapter 27 and verse 3. You’ll notice there a man by the name of Judas. You ever heard of Judas? All right. Judas repented and it led to a change of action. He did something. In verse three, then Judas, which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders.

See, and I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood and they said, what is that to us? See thou to that. He repented. He was filled with remorse. Phil would sorrow. Well, that God had anything to do with it. I’m not interested. I don’t know. It doesn’t say that here. But he repented and that led him to go in and throw the money back and he went out and hanged himself. You see what he says here?

In verse 5, and he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, departed and went out and hanged himself. Now, you can repent, then you can go hang yourself. Is hanging yourself a sin? Yes or no? Yes, a sin. Now, whenever you trust Christ as your Savior, I’ve had people say, well, you can’t still be saved if you commit suicide. Because how can you ask God to forgive you after you’re dead? Commit suicide. Make pretty good sense, doesn’t it?

So there’s people who believe, well, I have a loved one, and they committed suicide, and then they’ll have somebody tell them that they can’t be saved then. Is it a sin? Yeah? Paid. It’s paid. All sin has been paid by Jesus Christ. And when you trust Christ as your Savior, that payment for your sin is put to your account. It’s not done ahead of time. It’s not put to your account until by faith you believe that He did that for you, and then you get to go to heaven because your sins have been paid accounted for.

Now take your Bible and turn to another scripture, Hebrews in chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. And you’ll notice here in Hebrews in chapter 12, as he’s given an illustration, I should say, about those who are disobedient. And God says he’s going to chasten his children. God saves gives you, gives you eternal life, you’re not his child. As a child of God, you have a choice. You can be an obedient child. Or disobedient child. But you’re still this child. If you’re obedient, then God will bless your life here.

Reward you when you get to heaven. If you’re disobedient, then God will chase you here and maybe take you home before your time. And you’ll lose a lot of the rewards you could have had. So your decisions, obedience or disobedience affects all of eternity. Your future is being determined by your obedience to God today, to the Christian that was that of trusted Christ as their Savior. Now look what he says in verse 16, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birth right now.

He was the first born, he had the rights. But because he sold his birth right, there was a price to pay. He did not get the blessings from his father, Isaac, that he wanted. And Isaac wound up blessing Jacob. He wept bitterly pleaded with his dad, just one little blessing. And though he saw it with tears, he changed his mind. He reconsidered, but Isaac could not repent, change his mind and take those blessings away from Jacob and give him to, he thought it could not be done.

There are some decisions that you will make and even though you change your mind, there’s a price to pay. You see, you may very easily take an ax and cut off your hand. I didn’t need it anyway. And later on, you said, well, I was stupid. I need my hand. You can confess that to God, but that doesn’t put your hand back. You’re going to suffer some consequences for the rest of your life because of some decision that you made and repenting of that is not going to change that.

Now, you can confess the sin and have peace of mind and remove guilt from yourself, but not the consequences of your sin. You can’t just whitewash it and make it all go away. It would be so wonderful if we could. But you may have trusted Christ to save years ago, and you made a lot of decisions. Yeah, God can forgive you, but you still may be suffering consequences of decisions you made 20 years ago. And you know that is true.

Look what he says in verse 17, For ye know how that afterwards, when he would have inherited the blessing, he would have gotten the blessing. He was rejected, for he found no place of repentance so he sought it carefully with tears. You see, repent is not the answer to everything, but you can repent about a lot of things. I’m gonna get up and go to the store. Ah, change my mind, and you didn’t go. Some of you probably repented before you came to church today.

I’m not gonna go. You looked at the clock, all this bed feels so good. It’s too far to drive. He’ll be boring anyway. But you’ve went ahead and you changed your mind and you came anyway. Aren’t you glad you did? You can repent and do something good and you can repent and do something bad. Because it’s a change of mind that can lead to a change of action in a lot of areas in your life. You may be doing something in your life that’s wrong, you need to repent and correct the problem, change the action and not do that.

You’ll read in the Bible where that’s mentioned many, many times. But when it comes to salvation, It’s always repent of that which keeps you from being saved. And your sins is not what keeps you from being saved, it’s not believing on Jesus Christ. So if you’ll believe on Jesus Christ, God will save you, give eternal life and you get to go to heaven whenever you die. The Bible says God have commanded all men everywhere to repent. If you’re not living the way God wants you to live, does God want you to repent?

Change your mind about the way you’re living and live a good life, a godly life, holy life, which is your reasonable servant. God does want that. And there’s things that you can do in your life and it will not affect your salvation. Salvation is a done deal once and for all. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Luke chapter 13. The book of Luke in chapter 13. When you read some of these scriptures, and I’ve listened to, I guess you could say evangelist, they travel the country and they do a good job of convincing everybody that you’re not really saved because if you were really saved you wouldn’t watch the boob tube.

You wouldn’t watch that Hollywood stuff on TV if you were really saved because you won’t enjoy sin and if you enjoyed that’s a sign you’re not saved. You drink, that’s a sign you’re not saved. You smoke, that’s a sign you’re not right with God. You’re not saved. You went to a dance, who? You went to a bar? And so there’s these spiritual people that are out there with their magnifying glass. You know the ones that are fruit inspectors, and they’re inspecting your life.

Because if you have to turn from your sins to be saved, that means you gotta stop your sins. So it’s only natural if you do, then you ought to have your life examined to see whether or not did you do it? Or is there still sin in your life? And if you’re still sinning your life, you’re not genuine. You’re a phony. You’re a hypocrite and has nothing to do with the gospel. So here in the book of Luke, notice now, change of mind is so important to understand when you talk about the word repent.

You see there in verse one, there were present at that season, some that told him of the Galileans whose blood pilot had mingled with the sacrifices. Jesus answered and said to them, suppose ye, this has to do with how they think that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things. You think this happens. happened to them because this power fell and this happened and their blood was mingled because they were greater sinners than somebody else.

He says, that’s not true. There’s always somebody who knows why something happened to you. They always know, you know the deeper I mean, I know why that happened to them. And they’re so spiritual because it didn’t happen to me. And they look down their phariseal connotes like Kellogg’s cornflakes and they think they’re a little bit better. You’ve seen them, but of course nobody’s here like that. Now notice what he says. In verse 3, I tell you, neighbor, except you repent.

You should all like what’s fair. It was what they were thinking. This had nothing to do about leaning in and doing change of action. It was just they were thinking wrong and they needed to repent. Change your mind. That’s not true. Have you ever thought something about somebody and it’s not true, but you treat them as though it was. And you can shun somebody and say things against somebody and it not be true. Look at verse 4, or those 18 upon whom the Tower in Silom film slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem.

Verse 5, I tell you, no, it’s not true, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Change your mind, it’s not true. They were believing something, thinking something, supposing something, and it wasn’t true. And So whenever you see this word repent, it usually referred back to how somebody was thinking, how they were thinking. Now I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Genesis in chapter 6, the book of Genesis in chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6, and you notice there in verse 5, and God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth.

Now this is at the time of the flood. And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth. God repented. It repented the Lord that he had made man of the earth. And it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord says, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. Both man and beast and the creeping things and the foul of the earth.

for every penith me that I have made him. It grieved God because of what people did. See, God gives you chances. Do you believe that even though God makes it legitimate offer, if you serve me, I will bless you. And I paid for your sins while you were yet sinners because it displayed the love of God. And then in top of that, don’t you think it grieves the heart of God for his children whom he has saved, given eternal life, guaranteed a place in heaven for you not to love him because of what he’s done for you, for you not to live for him.

Don’t you think that hurts and grieves the heart of God? But he loves you anyway, didn’t he? And he still let it be possible, still saved you without you promising anything to him. Hello, thank you for tuning in to today’s program. We hope that Bibleline is truly a blessing in your life. During this month to every person making a financial donation in any amount, we’re going to send to you the DVD series, The Poison of Bitterness. In this series on bitterness, Dr.

Arnold will explain how we poison ourselves, those around us and especially our spouses with bitterness. Everyone can relate to the bitterness because it’s a human reaction to being hurt. But bitterness is a poison that can ruin your life and this DVD series is yours this month with a donation of any amount. This is one of the most powerful teachings on the Christian life that Dr. Arnold has ever taught, so contact us today for this valuable lesson series. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address.

God bless you and thank you again 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 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. 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.