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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.

I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Romans chapter 3. The title of today’s message, if you want to call it a title, is choice or no choice. Choice or no choice. If you listen to radio preachers and sometimes TV, there’s a lot of them that believe that you know God has already determined who’s going to be saved and God’s done chose the ones he wants. And that’s okay as long as you’re one of those in that group, right?

what if you’re not in that group?” And then those that he, they think that he did choose and they’re in the group, they really don’t know they’re in the group until they died to find out you weren’t in the group after all. Because they may not endure to the end. Maybe they nearly didn’t persevere as much as they thought. Maybe they did go to church, but they went to the wrong one. Maybe they gave money, but they gave too much.

I don’t know anybody like that. You know He might like that. We made a mistake here. I told people that when they offered a plate of guns by, you can take some ice for the heat and then away. They did. No, no. But a lot of people just don’t get it. Did you know that the clearness of the gospel is the key that unlocks all difficult passages in the scriptures? If you’re not clear on the gospel, you have to mutilate all these other seemingly contradictions.

You don’t really understand them. So that’s why it’s so important to know what the gospel is and keep it simple, keep it clear. And let me think they are, but they’re not. And they add a little works to it, a little works. And so, oh yeah, you’re saved by grace, but you’ve got to start living for the Lord. Well, what if I don’t? Well, then that means you really didn’t believe in the Lord. So You see, they still put that, then works in there and that you’re supposed to know, you’re saved now because you really changed your life.

Oh well, it seemed like there’s no end to it. But I want you to notice now, this is something that you had no choice on. Look at your notes there, you’ll notice how I have this. Things we do not choose, there’s some things that you do not choose. But let’s just look at a couple of them. There’s a lot of things you can go down to a list, but we did not choose to be born. Now you say, I didn’t know that.

See how informative coming to church is for you? You did not choose to be born. And there’s a good possibility your mom and daddy didn’t either. They just didn’t abort you. Thought about it probably. Now would you believe that when I was born, my daddy actually thought about that. My momma wouldn’t let him. You see, when I was born, my daddy was, you know, a rebel. My momma was a rebel, they’re born in Georgia. And he married my mom when she was 14.

So he had a liquor still, making counterfeit money and a few other things, you know. He always wanted a boy, but the first two were girls. And so he was on the run from the law quite a bit. And he was up in Pennsylvania. IRS was after him, sheriff was always after him. I went down to the county courthouse there in Oglotorp, and I couldn’t believe the list of stuff of my daddy. He was in Changame for attempted murder and a few other things.

I saw him one night trying to kill a couple guys. They were jumping out doors, windows, it was incredible. But anyway, he went to Pennsylvania. I was born. And when I was born, my daddy said I had long, straight, black hair, all of them up on it, sideburns, hair’s going down my back. It says I look like a little monkey. It says I was the ugliest kid ever seen in his life. My dad never seen Jesse. But it says I was the ugliest kid that he had ever seen in his life.

He was going to put me in a burlap sack and throw me in a river and drown me. Now this is all true. I wouldn’t lie to you for anything in the world, raise my right hand.” So my mom would let him. And the doctor came to the house and says, he looked at me and looked at my desk. It looked just like his daddy, don’t he? And that’s when my daddy, he cussed. He called me a blanket blank yank here.

It caused me a lot of trauma in the early parts of my life there. All I could remember was being behind bars and hitting the bottle. But anyway, they said I was so ugly, the doctor even slapped my mom. But when he gave me the name Yankee, well it was later that when we moved down to Georgia and my mom would call me Yankee boy. So the name Yankee has stuck. So I’ve been stuck with her all these years.

But you did not choose to be born. And look at the next point, we did not choose our parents. If you had a choice, would you have chose somebody else to be your parent? Now, I’m not talking about those that are adopted. Now, I’m talking about those that you have a mother and you have a father. You may not know who either one I’m more, but you had one. But you didn’t ask to be born. You didn’t choose your parents.

The next point is you did not choose the nation in which you were born. It’s a lot of things. You didn’t get a choice in. You did not choose the race. You didn’t choose your color. You didn’t choose your sex. I’ll just throw a little word in here right now. Whatever you were when you were born, that’s what you are. You’re either a boy or you’re a girl. And if you don’t know the difference, you need counseling.

Don’t blame the rest of the society. You have a problem. You’re either male or female. And when if you were born as a little boy, you’re a little boy when you grow up. And same thing with a girl. So no, I don’t believe that all that junk. Well, you know, it’s not your fault. You were born that way. Yeah, you were born male or female.

And if me and my wife go to someplace and she gets ready to go into the ladies room and if I see a guy trying to go in there, I’m gonna beat that tar out of him. Or I’d go to jail trying. But I don’t go for all that slop. Anyway, those are my humble opinions. Now, but look at the last point. We did not choose to be sinners. When you were born into this world, it was not your choice.’s but you were born with the sin of sin.

You choose to be a sinner. You choose to do wrong. Even when you know what’s right, you’ll still choose to do wrong. You’re a sinner by nature and also by choice. But if you read the scriptures here in Romans in chapter 3, when he makes a statement in verse 9, he says that they are all understand all. And you see there in verse 12 where he says, they are all gone out of the way. Everybody all look in verse 19 here in the same chapter 3 of Romans.

And the last part of verse 19 says, and all the world may become guilty before God. Evidently there’s something we do have in common. We are all sinners. You may not have asked to be one, but you are one. You are a sinner. And that’s why you sin, because you have a sinful nature. You are born with a sinful nature. And you notice what he said now in verse 22. Look in verse 22, because it’s so important. In verse 22 says, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith, which is by faith of Jesus Christ.

In verse 22, unto all and upon all them that believe in this Yoda underlying, there is no difference. So when you talk about the human race, there’s only one kind of people upon the earth. Number one, only one type of persons upon the earth. No difference, we’re all sinners. But But that’s not the end of the story. So you have to put things in its context, in the context, when you’re talking about who is a center. Everybody is a center.

Now look at the next point I have there, number two. Only two types of people are on the earth. So you got to look at it because, well, what does the scripture referring to when it says there’s only two types? Look there in John chapter 3, the book of John and chapter 3. The Gospel of John chapter 3, and you’ll notice there in verse 18, he that believeth on him is not condemned. But he that believeth not is condemned already because he was not chosen.

Did I read it right? You better read your Bible. There’s preachers who allow you and there are a lot of them out there. When you don’t know and understand simplicity of the gospel and of the two natures, you’re not qualified yet to preach in any church. The reason is because they don’t know the gospel. You say, well, they’re on radio. Everybody knows them. No, they don’t know it. They’re They’re lying to people and confusing people and teaching something that is not true.

God says that He so loved the world. They can’t even believe John 3, 16. They don’t believe it means what it says, that God so loved the world that He gave His Son, that whosoever believe it in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. So Christ, when he died, he died for the world. So that whosoever in the world could be saved and have eternal life. And I noticed something. There’s a difference here. There’s only two kinds of people in the world.

That’s the saints and the aunts. That’s those who have eternal life. Those that don’t have eternal life. Those that are saved, those that are lost. Only two kinds of people. I didn’t break that down. He did. He says, we’re all, number one, when we talked about it, there’s no difference. all sinners. But now he’s talking about there is a choice. Those that believe and those that do not believe. So he says, he that believeeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed.

Now think for a moment the Calvinistic teaching that will say something along this line, okay, here’s all these people. Out of all these people God chose to save some but not the rest. If God chose to save them and by irresistible grace they’re going to be saved. But these over here they can’t be saved because God didn’t choose them. So these people over here that God chose they can be saved. But they’re not saved because of their choice. They’re saved because of God’s choice.

So they really, here’s these people, they’re going to heaven but they they didn’t choose to go. Here’s all these people and they’re lost and they’re going to hell and they didn’t choose that. So really, nobody has a choice. I believe everybody has a choice. Everyone can make a decision. That’s why he says, going to all the world and preach the gospel to just the chosen few. Why don’t he have a little head come on in like a lightbulb light of.

Oh, there’s one. It makes witness in so much easier if he just tells which ones he’s chose, wouldn’t it? Why waste my time talking to people who can’t be saved? Why ask me to be a missionary to go to the foreign field and preach the gospels to somebody and all that sacrifice and all those that money that people pay and they can’t be saved in way because God never even chose them? Why don’t he just have their head light up like a light bulb and say, that’s one.

And then I don’t know who to go to. Wouldn’t it make it so much easier? You see, I don’t believe what they teach. I believe it’s totally wrong. So, if you will, look there in your notes and I want you to see this. Only two times of people on the earth, saints in the ante saved the lost, those that believe and those that don’t believe. Things we can choose. It is a choice. You see, up there being a sinner, I didn’t get to choose that.

Been born in the world. I didn’t ask that. I didn’t choose my parents. I didn’t choose what nationality, I didn’t choose my race, I didn’t choose my sex. Somebody else took care of that for me. But God did give us a choice in where I’m going to spend eternity. And so therefore when I heard the gospel, when my father-in-law sat there with me that night and explained it to me, that was the best news I ever heard in my life.

I just knew that if what he said was true, I’m going to hell. And that’s when it really shocked me, I’m going to hell. And I don’t know when I’m going to die. And I broke down and saw like a baby. I was 18 years old. I’d never done this before. I had never heard and understood this before. That message broke me. Now, it doesn’t do that to everybody. I’d never seen anybody else get saved. I didn’t know what the rules were.

I didn’t know that some people do cry. I didn’t know that. I thought I must be the only one. There’s a lot of people. When they hear the Gospel the first time, it just is the best news in the world. I’ve had people that I’ve talked to and explained and they go, oh, I’m not talking that that last week. Look at the next thing in your notes there. This verse refutes Calvinism’s claim that God chooses to save some but not all.

This verse says he that believe it and he that believe it is not condemned because of the fact that he is not condemned. he believes on Christ. And the other ones is because he hath not believed. So believing is your choice. Whether you believe it or you’re not, why don’t God take the responsibility of it and choose them? That’s why they couldn’t believe. No, God has chosen to die for everyone. God has chosen for the gift to be offered to everyone.

God has chosen to save all of those that believe and therefore it is your choice and it is my choice. Now look at the next point. By choosing to accept Christ, when you accepted Christ as your Savior, you chose to be born into God’s family. That was your choice. God didn’t make you do that. He did not make anybody trust Him as Savior. But you see, See if you believe in irresistible grace, which is of the Calvinistic tulip, the TUPLI, TUPLI, tulip, I don’t forget, I’m not thinking too straight right now, but I’m somewhere in there.

TULIP, that’s what I said. I know there’s an I in there. there to be born. You chose for God to be your father. See, when you trusted Christ as your Savior, God became your father. You were born in the God’s family. So now you have a new nature. You see, you didn’t get to be born into work because you chose to be born and then you’ve got to choose that old son for nature. You didn’t do that. But when you trusted Christ as your Savior, You’ve got a divine nature that came from God.

Look at the next statement, underneath that. You’ve got a family with no nationality, no race, or sex. Galatians 3, 26 says, for year all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. When you trusted Christ as your Savior, you became all of us were children of God because of your faith in Christ. Before that, that’s he God is not your father and you’re not his child until you’re born into his family by faith alone. Look at the next verse here, Galatians 3.28, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there’s neither bond nor free, there’s neither male or female, for you’re all one in Christ Jesus.

So I guess there’s some things you might like about this and some things you may not like about this. But I know this, God says, you’re not called a sinner, called a saint. The very day you trusted Christ as your Savior, you became a saint. And you don’t have to wait for the Catholic Church or the Pope or anybody to have all this done for you. No, no, no, no. I was a saint. The day I trusted Christ as my Savior.

Now I may not have lived like one, and you may not live like one. But the word comes from a Greek word, hagiyazo meaning to be made pure and holy and set apart from where we we get the word sanctifier, sanctuary. We are saints in the Lord, and as He addresses churches in the scripture, He says to the saints which be at Philippa, or the church that be here, and the church that be the saints, it’s the saints. And that’s you.

Now I want you to see this one. Take your Bible and turn to the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians, in chapter two. Now the Lord says, there’s three kinds of people. He also makes a statement, there’s the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God. So you always have to find out what does he mean by in the context that you find it. Well, here’s something, there’s three types of people that are mentioned here. Some people don’t believe that this is a reference to three different types of people, but it is.

You look at it and you see. So you look up here in verse 9 of chapter 2 where he makes this statement, he says, but as it is written, I have not seen, ear have not heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. But then the very next verse says, but God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit, ye the spirit, searcheth all things, ye the deep things of God.

And then he says, but what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is within him? And how can a man know the things of God except by the Spirit of God? So if you had the Holy Spirit of God live inside of you, you could know things about God. Because the things that are deep and lies beyond the wisdom of man can only be understood by the Holy Spirit of God revealing them to man.

So whenever you accepted Christ as your Savior, the Holy Spirit of God that knows everything about God now lives on the inside of you. and your body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit. So you are able now467 to discern things that a man without the Holy Spirit can’t discern. So the Bible describes the natural man. That’s the man who has a sinful nature, but he doesn’t have the divine nature. So there’s the natural man, the lost man. See, look what he says in verse 14.

But the natural man, so that’s one, the natural man receives if not the things of the Spirit of God. And he says, why? For they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know him because they are spiritually discerned. The things of God are spiritually discerned and he doesn’t have the Holy Spirit within him to discern. So there is a lost man and we know that the lost man is the one who has not believed on Christ. There’s a saved man and the saved man is the one that does believe on Christ but the saved man gets the Holy Spirit to indwell him.

So now the saved man has an advantage over the lost man. The saved man can know things, the lost men cannot know. The saved men can understand things. He should be able to make wiser decisions with his life than the lost man can. But isn’t it a shame in the world in which we live and the time in which we live that many lost people appear to make wiser decisions than the children of light? Oh, there’s even a parable about them.

They unjust steward. Because see, this is the only world they have and this is all they can plan for because see, they’re not going to heaven. And so what they see and touch and feel and want desire, all those things, their whole life is built around satisfying that one thing themselves. Now the Christian is a little bit different. So the Bible tells us this. So you look there in verse 15 and you can see that there is another type of person in verse 15, but he that is spiritual, judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

What does that mean? Oh, that’s a good question. But the spiritual man has the Holy Spirit. That’s the person who’s trusted Christ is Savior. He has the Holy Spirit. He is able to discern all these things that we’re talking about that God reveals and He can discern them. The lost man cannot. And He can know the mind of God. You see, the word of God is the mind of God on paper. So as you study the mind of God, you know how God thinks.

What God loves, what God hates, what He desires, what He wants you to do. do what he doesn’t want you to do, you can discern those things because you have the Holy Spirit and dwell in you. And so therefore you can develop the mind of Christ. And so you’re able to discern all these things that the lost man can’t discern because he doesn’t have the Holy Spirit in dwelling them. So you look there in the next verse when he says there in the last part of verse 15, Yet He Himself is judged in no man or the lost man, so He can’t discern Him.

We can discern the lost man and we know why He does what He does, but He cannot understand why we do what we do. You are a paradox to the lost man. If you decide to serve the Lord, He will not be able to truly realize why you do what you do, why you sacrifice what you do, and why you go and do and say, and the way you live, if you are a spiritual man, so there is the spiritual man, and then there’s another type of person that’s the carnal man.

So look there in chapter three, and I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spirituals, which is a reference to the previous two verses. He said, I can’t talk to you as somebody who can understand and eat meat. I’ve got to talk to you as somebody like a baby and feed you some milk. So he says here in verse 1, I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ.

So he says, you are babes in Christ. So that means there’s two kinds of Christians. There are those that are babes in Christ and those that are mature in the Lord. So you see, a lot of God’s children are still babes in the Lord. And as you read through 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, you don’t find where Paul questions and doubts. let’s assign you’re not really saved. Oh I had to say that. He didn’t say that. He just says you’re babes in Christ and you’re carnal.

But what does it mean to be a carnal Christian? He gives us the definition himself. So you see there in verse 2, I have fed you with milk and not with meat. For hitherto you were not able to bear it neither yet. Now are you able? In other words you couldn’t then? you can’t now. You’re a babe in Christ. You’re not growing. And so there’s things that you’re not gonna be able to understand. You can’t discern. And so you may have trusted Christ as you say.

You’re going to heaven when you die, but you cannot discern spiritual things. If you don’t understand spiritual truth, you cannot discern the best decisions for your life. A carnal Christian is a fleshly-minded Christian. What does that mean? It means that you have an old sinful nature and you walk and live like a lost man. Can a Christian live like a lost man? Yes. That’s because you’re fleshly minded. You live just like a lost man and very little difference. You just do whatever you want to do.

A little pittance here and a little pittance there, but you never really say, I’m going to mature in the Lord. Never grow up. And if you don’t become spiritually minded, you can never assume spiritual responsibilities. Of, for example, we have a church here. Some people, they may have trusted Christ as Savior, but they never mature in the Lord. So they cannot assume spiritual responsibilities. They’re not faithful to the Lord. And yet they should be, and they can be is that they won’t be.

So you have a choice. Are you a lost man? You never trust the Christ as your Savior. So no, I’m saved. Okay. Then you’re saved. Are you a carnal Christian or a spiritual Christian? Are you mature in the Lord? Are you still like a babe? Fleshly minded. The fleshly minded means you’re walking after the flesh like the lost man does. You have been listening to another great message from Dr. Arnold, and we hope that Bibleline is a blessing to you.

In appreciation for your support of this ministry, we’d like to send to you a gift. During this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send the Bible Promise Book. It is a book that organizes verses of the Bible by topic. For example, if you wanted to know of verses that address humility, or forgiveness, or obedience, You would simply find that topic in the table of contents, go to the chapter listed, and there you would find the verses that address that topic.

It’s a wonderful study guide and resource for your own devotions, as well as for lesson preparation. And we’ll send it to you for a gift in any amount for this month. 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 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.