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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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Luke chapter 13. a 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 booktube. You wouldn’t watch that, Hellywood 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 saying. 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 there’s still sin in 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 1, there were present at that season, some that told him of the Galileans whose blood pilot had mingled with their sacrifices.

Jesus answered and said to them, suppose ye, this is tough to do with how they think, that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things. You think this happened to them because, you know, this tower 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 meaning. 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 come nose like Kellogg’s corn flakes 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 three, I tell you, neighbor, except you repent. You should all like what’s there. It was what they were thinking. This It had nothing to do with by leading them into a 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 then 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 bees and the creeping things and the foul of the earth. For it repented 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? give them an 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. But God believes that because I loved you, love responds to love. And He’s like saying, don’t you love me? He said, if any man loved me, serve me. And if you serve me, Him will my Father honor. So it’s in the scriptures that even God repented. I don’t have it down to my notes, but look there in Zechariah chapter 8.

Zechariah and chapter 8. Zechariah chapter 8. And notice this verse with me. Look in verse 14. But notice this. In verse 14, for thus saith the Lord of host, as I thought, see that word, thought that does the way you think. As I thought to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord of Host, and I repented not.” Now, do you believe that if repent always means to turn from your sins, did God have to turn from sin?

Then repent can’t always mean turn from sin. But God was going to do something to the nation of Israel if they persisted in doing the wickedness. I’m going to judge you. And the scripture says, and he didn’t change his mind. There’s other times when God says that he changed his mind and didn’t do what he thought about doing to them because they corrected the problem. Have you ever thought, you do this and I’m going to spank you? And they did it, you spank them.

But have you thought about spanking them and you out of mercy, out of mercy you didn’t do it. You see, you can’t discipline kids if you’re not disciplined. Most time we discipline kids when they get on our nerve. When we had it up there here, when they made us mad. You do that one more time. Johnny, that’s the 10th time I told you that. Well, there shouldn’t have been nine of them. And so we don’t always do what we say we’re going to do.

And we change our mind. We repent. You repent all the time. Remember that guy that you married that he was perfect? When you married him, he was perfect. Then afterwards you what? You repented. You said, what did you do? You changed your mind. Well, anyway, it’s moving out long. I want you look at another verse with me. Look there in the book of Jonah, the book of Jonah. Have you ever heard the story of Jonah? Well the Bible says that he ran from the Lord, he ran to the Lord, he ran with the Lord, and he ran from the Lord.

But Jonah was a running prophet. And when he ran from the Lord he always went down, down, down, because he was running from the Lord. You don’t run from God and go up. You go down. You don’t improve your life when you run from God. As a child of God, it’s the will of God for all of God’s children to serve Him. To honor the heavenly Father. But not everybody does. And everybody, most people have heard of Jonah and the whale, remember?

Somebody says, you believe that story about Jonah being swallowed by the whale. of the Father well, says I sure do. You believe that, yeah. If God had said that Jonah swallowed the well, I’d believe it. He said, well, I don’t believe it. He said, well, when I get to heaven, I’m going to ask him. He says, what if he’s not there? Then you ask him. Here in Jonah, chapter 2, he goes down, down, down. And he prays to the Lord to bring him up, up, up.

And in chapter three, he comes up and God hadn’t changed his message. God hadn’t changed what he wanted him to do. So Jonah begins to run and he preaches into the city. And look at verse five. So the people of Nineveh, believe God. Now, they believe what God had told them. So evidently, he must have told them maybe how to be saved. But because of the judgment that he was doing. of the judgment that was going to come. The king, rent his clothes, dust on him, and prayed, and they had a fast, and he says here in verse 6, for a word came unto the king of none of us, and he arose from the throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered him with a sackcloth and sat in ashes.

He calls it to be proclaimed, published throughout none of our by the decree of the king, and his noble saying, let neither man nor bees heard nor flock taste anything, let them not feed nor drink water, but let man and bees be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hand. Who can tell if God will turn and repent? Maybe God will turn from his sin.

I don’t think that repent here means turn from sin. Now I just came a couple weeks ago from a big conference where there was a multitude of preachers. I believe they love the Lord. That’s not it. And they preach great sermons. But over and over again they preach you got to repent. Turn from your sins to be saved. I look at the literature. The literature says you got to turn from your sins to be saved. Do they even know what they’re saying?

Do turn from your sins to be saved? Is impossible. Impossible. That makes salvation by works. You say repentance cannot be by works. Otherwise, when God commands every man to repent and if that repent, turn from your sins and stop going to bad and start doing all the good, that means salvation depends upon you. repentance is working for your salvation. Look what he says in verse 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fears anger and that we perish not?

God saw their what? Their works. God saw their works that they turn from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not. God changed his mind about judging them and and destroying the city because of what they did. But when they just believe God is one thing. Later on, the king did this and this and this and they proclaimed fast and so forth. And then the people turned from their evil way.

That doesn’t mean that was for salvation. Here he’s talking about turning from that which will bring the judgment of God upon you. You see, a child can do the wrong and you can chase in the child, But that doesn’t have to do that to be saved. He was born, but not by works. When you’re saved, you have eternal life. But God can bring judgment into your life. Does God ever tell the lost man to turn from his sins? Yes.

Because it’s wickedness that people do. God told the nation of Israel. We read a scripture this morning. J just read it in the book of Isaiah, in chapter 55, turn from your wicked ways. There’s a lot of people, I believe in America, needs to turn from their wicked ways, or we’re gonna face the judgment of God upon us. But that doesn’t save you and get you to heaven. You wanna go to heaven? All you gotta do is trust Christ as your savior.

There’s a lot of things people do that’s wrong. And so when he makes the statement here, and God saw their worth, but no man is saved by their works. So God does not sin. God did not have to turn from sin. So if the Bible says God repented, then repentance cannot always mean turn from your sins. True? God has no sin. But God was going to bring judgment upon them. And Jonah went there to preach. They believed the preaching, straightened up, and God did not bring the physical judgment.

Now a hundred years later, God wiped them out. But that’s another story. So take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Acts chapter 2, the book of Acts in chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, and you’ll notice that God makes this statement here in verse 38. Chapter 2, then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

See that word, Repent? So you know they’ve got to change their mind about something. Well, what did they do? Well, look what he says here in verse 24, whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of that death because it was not possible that he should be holding them in. So God raised up Jesus Christ from the dead. But who did he really put the blame on? Even though he did it and God was pleased that he smitten his own son and Jesus says, I laid down my own life and the Holy Spirit says that he quickened him and raised him from the dead.

Look what he says here in verse 23. Him, being delivered by the Determinate Council and for knowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. This is what they did. Now, because that’s what they did, they listened to this whole sermon about David in the Old Testament telling them who Jesus Christ was and what was going to happen to him. So when they heard this, look what he says in verse 36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, know this is in your mind.

This is how you think that all that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts and said, what shall we do? Repent, change your mind and see that the one you crucified was the Lord of glory. The one you crucified, God raised him from the dead. The one you crucified was the son of David. just like it says, and change your mind and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And to be cleansed, the word baptize, cleanse in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So yes, they were told to do this. Now take your Bible and turn to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17. And notice that now that Jesus Christ has been crucified, come back from the dead, chapter 17, verse 30, and the times of this ignorance, God went dead, but now commanded all men everywhere to what? God commanded all men everywhere to repent.

If a man believes that he can save himself by his works, what does he need to do? He needs to repent. Change his mind. He can’t save himself by the If you trust the church, you need to repent. That’s not true. The church can’t save you. Giving money to the church. It doesn’t help. Some things are hard to preach. But it doesn’t help. You must change your mind and trust Christ alone. So what is this action that follows this change of mind?

You trusted Christ. Change your mind and trust Christ. Don’t just change your mind about, Well, I can’t save myself and then go marry on your way. No, you need to trust the Lord. And some will and some will not. Now take your Bible and book there in the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 16, Revelation chapter 16. In chapter 16, you’ll notice God is bringing judgment upon the earth, during the tribulation period. It’s bad news. Verse 10 says, And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast.

And his kingdom was full of darkness, and they knobbed their tongue for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains, and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. This is the deeds that they were doing, the works that they were doing. They were doing wicked things and they would not change your mind regardless of everything that God was bringing upon. All this judgment in it, they would not change their mind. So lost people can do wrong things and God tell them to change your mind and stop it or they’re the price to pay.

That’s what happened to them the flood. Not just because they weren’t saved but because they were said about doing every wicked imagination of their heart. Look there in the book of Revelation chapter 2. Now we’re talking now about some churches. In that time and age, and Jesus is saying some things to them, to those who know the Lord. So you notice what he says here. He says, I know what you have done. See there in verse 2 of chapter 2, as he says it through the church at Ephesus, I know thy works, thy labor, thy patient, and how thou cannot bear them which are evil, and thou have tried them which say they are apostles and are not and hath found them liars.

You did this. You took a stand. I know you did. And then He says in verse 3, and hath born and hath patience. And as for my name’s sake hath labored and hath not fainted. I know that. I know what you did. And verse 4, nevertheless, this is called a sandwich technique. You see wonderful things in the moon, then you hit them. Then you say a little bit nice after that. But notice what He says in verse 4, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou have left thy first love.”

Here’s believers that have left their first love. He was their first love. You say you can get caught up and love the church, you can love the ministry, you can love a lot of things, but you don’t love the Lord like you used to. Is it possible for you who know Christ is Savior, He saved you, gave you eternal life, and for you not to love the Lord like you used to. Do you still love Him? If you don’t love Him like you’re used to and you left your first love, this is what He says.

Verse five, remember therefore from when Stuart fallen repent and do the first works. He was talking about repent and do the works. The work that was first, you love the Lord before. Now you’re doing the work but you don’t have the love. You see, why you do something is so important. So he says, and repent, do the first word or else I will come into the quickly and we’ll remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. And this is to the Christian.

This is not to the how to be saved. This is to the believer. So should believers repent when they’re doing something that they shouldn’t, they weren’t doing something wrong. They said that they weren’t doing that one thing they didn’t love the Lord like they used to. And as you go through here you’ll find out he talks about repent, repent, repent. And almost everyone in the seven churches he talks about repent, repent, repent. You see God wants his children to repent.

Look there in chapter three of the book of Revelation and notice what he says here, there were Christians in the church at Laodicea and this is found in verse 14 down through the end of that chapter and he says in verse 15, I know thy works. In other words, here’s a church made up of people, believers, just like Calvary Community Church. I know thy works that thou art neither cold or hot. I would thou art cold or hot. In other words, make up your mind.

Have you ever seen a fit straddler, compromises, because they don’t, well they take an opinion poll. Well, what’s everybody else doing? Well, if they don’t do it, I can’t do it. Well, if they do, well, I won’t do it. as strong as the last group they talk to or the person they talk to. Or do you have enough conviction of your own to say, I love the Lord and I am going to serve God and it doesn’t matter what anybody else does.

Do right. Do right. Always do right. So he makes a statement here. I wish you we did a hot a cold. I have what I go to the restaurant. I always get me. I’ll take a hot cup of black American senior citizen discount coffee and only give Give me a half a cup abund. They look at me. I said, I would rather you make twice as many trips, but it keeps my coffee hot. I said, I drink so slow it gets cold.

So if I only had a little bit, I’ll drink it and then you can drink some more hot. I went into Wendy’s one day. I went into Wendy’s. I said, I want to hot come a black American senior citizen discount coffee. And she looked at me. I said, how much is a cup of coffee? She says 52 cents. I said, how much is a refill? She said, oh, they’re free. I’ll take a refill. She just stared at me. OK.

So she got to turn. I paid her for it. I think, don’t you try that. You should do as I say, not as I do. And then a verse in the Bible that says something like that. Now here, these people were not doing right. And so he says, I counseled in verse 18, the buy of me gold tried in the fire. The thou mayest be rich. And white raiment that thou mayest be clothed in the chamber of thine nakedness to none of him.

And anoint thy eyes with eyeseth that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and do what? Repent. So repent means change your mind and it can lead to a change of action, but not necessarily all the time. All depends on the context and what it’s talking about. times when you change your mind and you just believe. There’s time you can change time.

your mind and correct a problem. There’s a lot more we could say on this but I think what I’ve said is sufficient. Look up here. This hand represents you and me. The wallet represents all of our sins. We all have sin on us. God loves us but He hates our sin. Now for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in hell. But God loves us. God doesn’t want us to go to heaven. He wants us to go to heaven.

But to go to heaven we have to be perfect. Because righteous is God. Nobody is perfect. We’ve all sinned. We’ve all come short of God’s perfection. So because of sin we can’t get in. So the Bible says we cannot save ourselves. So we can’t do anything to get to heaven because We’re already condemned, found guilty. We got a debt to pay. So we can’t go to heaven, it’s impossible. Nothing we do can get us to heaven because we have a debt to pay and that’s eternal separation from God.

We’re all in the same boat. So unless God does something, there’s nothing we can do. So Jesus Christ, this hand represented Jesus Christ, God in the flesh came into the world because he loves us. He displayed his love toward us And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Not when you were the saint, he did it while you were yet a sinner. So Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die. So he took all the sin of all the world, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead.

He said that if you and I would believe that he did that for us, he would put that payment to your account and we would go to heaven on what he did. You see, if you are an unbeliever And you believe you had to change your mind. True? So I can lead a lot of people to the Lord without ever telling them to repent. But I can tell a person who’s lost, you need to change your mind. You need to believe on Jesus Christ.

You don’t believe it now. Will you believe it? And when you believe that, He gives you as a free gift everlasting life. You go to heaven on what Christ did for you. So change your mind and believe it. So if you’re here today and you think that your good life is going to get you to heaven, change your mind. If you think giving money, singing an inquire, being a deacon, a lasher, whatever. Well, that’s wonderful, but that doesn’t save you.

You need a savior and Jesus Christ is the only savior there is. See, we can’t save ourselves, impossible. That’s why you have to turn from your sin. He paid for it. What he wants you and I to do is believe he did it for us. That made sense to me. So I trusted Christ as my Savior. Years ago. And that’s how I know that I’m going to heaven whenever I go. 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.

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.