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Bibleline, Bibleline, hear God’s word on Bibleline, hear 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.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Philippians in chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. They’re simple verses, verses we know, but they’re verses we never forget because this shows you who we are. We are saints in the Lord. We have been declared righteous. We are justified just as if I had never sinned. I don’t see anything wrong with that. But here in Philippians in chapter 3, look there in verse 9. And be found in him not having mine own righteousness.

So whenever he says there is none righteous, no not one, then man’s righteousness, according to this, is filled with the rags. So we’ve all come short of God’s perfection and no man can save himself. So he says, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, which means it’s by your works. As a result of what you do, do not be found trusting in your works as a means of salvation. Then he says this, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

So God says that He has His righteousness that He will give to us by faith, faith alone. Now, if that’s true, that means there is a by works righteousness and a by faith righteousness. By faith righteousness is a righteousness that God gives to us when we put our faith in Christ. Make sense. Now go back to the book of Romans in chapter 4. Romans in chapter 4. Now in many places in Scripture it says about not by works of righteousness which we have done.

It’s not a works lest any man should bow. So we know that. But just like he will not impute our sins unto us. He imputed those, put those to Christ’s account. And therefore he died in our place. Now look there in the book of Romans in chapter 4 and notice what he says here in verse 5. But to him that worketh not, but believe it on him that justifyeth the ungodly. So the ungodly needs to be justified. His His faith is counted for righteousness.

In other words, God gives His righteousness to the person that has faith without words. Because if the man is trusting in his words, then he cannot have God’s righteousness put to his account. God only puts his righteousness to the person that has the faith at what Christ did was for him. So when you believe that, then yes, you have imputed righteousness. See there in verse six, even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man, I’ll get this, under whom God imputed righteousness without works.

So we know that man’s works will not work. We talked about this last Wednesday night on what is the work of God. The work of God is Him imputing His righteousness to mankind. God doesn’t want the work of man. God wants the work of God. He wants us to accept what He did instead of Him trying to accept what we’ve done. Our works are no good. So a man cannot save himself and just think of how many people there are that are trusting in there.

Own works for salvation and they’re ignorant of what they’re doing. Some of them cannot see it. They are so blind. But just like Paul says, I brother my heart’s desire and prayer for God is for Israel is that they might be safe for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge for they’ve been ignorant of the righteousness of Christ going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves until the righteousness of God for Christ is not.

the end of the law for righteousness. He’s the end. If you have Christ, you can forget the law. You don’t have to earn it. You don’t have to work. You don’t have to buy it. But if a person is still trying to earn it and trying to buy it, they don’t get it yet. So if you’re still trying to be righteous, that means you’re not righteous. If you’re seeking to be justified, it means you’re not yet justified. If you’re seeking to be saved, it means you are not yet saved.

So I’m not seeking to be saved because I already am. I’m not seeking eternal life because I already have it. I’m not seeking to be justified or declared right. I already have been. It’s been done once and for all. Now he makes this statement here in that verse 6, under whom God impuges righteousness without works. And then look what he says in verse 8, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. What man is that?

The man that by faith believes on the Lord. God will not impute his sins to him. That means even after you are saved, your sins that you commit after your saved cannot be imputed to you, but to Christ. I try to explain some people this way because we know that, well, 1 John 1, 9, we said, well, that’s to the believer. And so 1 John is talking about your walk with the Lord. And so why do I have to ask God’s forgiveness?

You see, if He’s already forgiven me of all my sins. And as it says in the book of Acts in chapter 13, 38 and 39, but this man after, you know, once we believe on him, we have forgiveness in Christ. And so therefore, if I’m justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses, why do I have to do in my life as a Christian confess my sins? Well, I look at two ways.

Now I can sin against Al, and I can sin against Peter Amato. I can sin against all of you. But if I sin against Randy, I don’t have to go to Al about it. I should go to Randy. I say, Randy, I wronged you, and I’m sorry will you forgive me? And say, no, I won’t. He will. So whenever God as creator, God as judge, when I trusted Him as my Savior, He’s the one who justified me. And that’s why He says, it is God who justified you.

Christ who died for me, the Holy Spirit who interceded Romans chapter 8. Therefore, I’ll showing that with him also freely give us all things. So he forgave me as the judge. I’ve been declared righteous, justified. All sin forgiven. The penalty, penalty of my sin is taken care of. As a Christian and I sin, my sins are now as a child with a father. So You know, I don’t look at God as the Creator. I look at Him as my Father.

And as my Father, as a child of God when I sin against my Father, I confess my sin to my Father. This is not to take care of the penalty of sin. That’s already been declared righteous, done deal, it’s over. But as a child of God, I want to keep things clean between me and my heavenly Father because He’s talking about if we say that we walk in the light and we don’t then he says you’re lying to yourself.

You’re deceiving yourself. So when you do sin and that’s why in chapter two of first John if we sin we have an advocate with a father which means I’ve got me up Perry Mason. He never lost a case. I got the Lord Jesus Christ who was my lawyer who intercedes on my behalf and I can be forgiven as the child of God, what I’ve done as a child, so that I can keep things clean between me and my Heavenly Father.

So, 1 John 1, 9 is to the believer. If we, God’s children, confess our sins because He’s talking about my brethren, I write these things unto you that your joy may be full. This is so that you can have peace. Enjoy in this life. And so when you mess up, you can confess that to your heavenly father and he forgives you as your father. But you see, when you’re a lost man, he’s not your father. He is the judge.

And he says, when it’s appointed and that every man wants to die and after this, what? The judgment. So you’re dealing with him as a judge is the one that can cast you into hell. I’m saved. My heavenly Father can’t cast me into Him. He can never cast me out. He can never lose me. That’s some of the best things that you can ever know. Now take your Bible and turn all the way over to the book of 2 Peter, 2 Peter, 2 Peter and look there in chapter to.

And you’ll notice these words that are used here in these verses, and they mean something. When you understand what it means to be justified, it means that you’re equal with the Father in the sense that He finds no fault in you. You’re just. How can a man be justified with God? Where God finds no fault in me? Well, His son, Jesus Christ, has clothed me with the cloak of righteousness. I got on his robe of righteousness. So when the Father looks at me, he sees the blood of the son, and therefore I’m clear.

God has declared me righteous. And of course, we understand the new birth and it’s perfect and all that. It just all goes together. And it’s some mighty good news. Now look what he says here in 2 Peter chapter 2. Look what he says in verse 6. Now the world came yet upon the flood upon the ungodly. So ungodly means not like God. If a man is living a godly life, it’s living like God. Like God, not like God. And so he says here in verse six, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example under those that after she lived, ungodly.

And delivered, see those words, just lot means that lot was a justified man. He was living in a sinful place with wicked people that’s in his and the Bible calls it righteous soul from day on to day and if it’ll do that to him because of what he saw and what he heard it can do the same thing to you if you watch pornographic material. Things that you ought not watch, pornography, it is wrong and it is wicked. And it can take and vex your righteous soul.

So can Christians hear the wrong things? Watch the wrong things? Yes, they can. And does that mean you’re not saved? No, it doesn’t mean you’re not saved. It just means that you’re gonna vex your righteous soul. In other words, it’s gonna put a heaviness upon you. You know that it’s wrong and you’re not going to be a bless. You’re not going to think as clearly as you ought to because God tells us how to think and we won’t be thinking the right way.

So he makes a statement here in verse seven and delivered just a lot vexed with the filthy behavior of the wicked. And verse eight, for that righteous man. So whenever God was talking with Abraham and Abraham says, Lord if there’s 50 righteous men. It’s not because they were living a righteous life, it was because they have a standing with God that they are righteous. They’ve had imputed righteousness given to them. Every one of us in this room who has trusted Christ as Savior, God has imputed his righteousness to us.

Therefore in God’s eyes, you are a righteous man. though you may not be living a righteous life. You are a justified man, though you may not be living as though you are justified, because in the eyes of people, in the eyes of God, you may not be living according to the position that you have in Christ. You are a child of God, but you may not be living as a child of God. Sometimes instead of always telling a Christian what they ought to do, it is good for them sometimes to understand how God can chasten for disobedience.

It would always be nice to talk about if you obey the Lord, get this, obey the Lord, get this, obey the Lord, get this. You have it I don’t want to, but then you need to understand what it can cost you because of your disobedience. I think children ought to know, if I don’t obey my mom and the young daddy, they love it to be the tour out of me. Now it’s good. Honey, if you do this, I’ll let you have some ice cream and I’ll let you go out with the kids and play and I’ll let you do this and then okay, but what if they don’t?

What’s the consequences? Can a man be a righteous man declared righteous in the eyes of God be justified just as if he’s never sent in the eyes of God and yet be totally rebellious to the Lord and still be his child, still be just. Still going to heaven, but is he gonna get the chase in the hand of God? Yes. So note to what he says here in verse eight. For that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing.

What he saw wasn’t good, what he heard wasn’t good. So these are two gates, the eye gate and the ear gate that convex your righteous soul. And he makes a statement here. From day to day with her unlawfully, The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of the temptation. So he’s still considered Lot as a godly man in that he was like God in his righteousness and his justification, but perhaps not in his manner of life. When he came out of Sodom and Gomorrah, who came with him?

Did he give them myself? he had business lot and she looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. Maybe one time she looked back and turned into a telephone pole. No, not just joking. But and the two daughters that he had committed incest and you had the Moabites and Amorites. You had all kind of results down the road, but how many were righteous? He says, I would not destroy this place for 10 righteous people. And after all those years that he was there, you would have thought he could have at least had 10 people trust the Lord that would have been declared righteous.

And maybe they could have won more. I don’t know. But now look what he says here. In verse 9, the Lord know how to deliver the Godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust. So the unjust person is going to be punished at the time of judgment. And then there’s those that are just because of their faith in Christ. Now take your Bible and look at the book of Galatians in chapter 3. Galatians in chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3 and look in verse 6.

So if this is what Abraham believed it must be what Lot believed, and it might be what Lot was supposed to tell. And the Bible says concerning Noah, he was a preacher of righteousness. Now do you believe that Noah was a preacher of man’s righteousness or God’s righteousness? I believe he was a preacher of God’s righteousness. But look what he says in verse six, even as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. So a man has no righteousness.

There’s no reason for God to save a man because of how good he is, the good deeds that he does. And verse seven, know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham and the scripture foreseen that God would get this, justify the heathen through——– faith, not his words. So God made a promise to Abraham that he would justify the heathen by his faith in that alone. And that was told to Abraham at the very beginning.

Lot knew this. No one knew this. They all knew this. There’s only one way for a man to have ever been saved and that was by the work of God, not by the work of man. And look at the last part of verse 8. He preached before the gospel under Abraham. Now this is written in the New Testament, telling you what the gospel is. God preached the gospel to Abraham. And then in chapter one of the book of Galatians it says that the gospel that Paul preached did not get it from man, but he got it straight from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you think that there was disunity in heaven that God would give Abraham one gospel and Jesus would give Paul another gospel? Or do you believe they might have had the same gospel? It’s in the same book talking about the gospel. And I believe that it’s the fulfillment of a promise that God made to Abraham that in these shall all families of the earth be blessed. Therefore the Son had to come and to die to pay for the sins of the world so that God, the Father, could keep His promise to Abraham.

there was no way that God can justify the heathen except by faith alone. And that means that they would have to have a righteousness given to them by faith because there is no works righteousness that God could ever accept. So that’s the righteousness that God was given to all who believe. First Corinthians in chapter 9, look at it real quick. First Corinthians, I may have the wrong script on that. First Corinthians, let’s just look there in 1 Corinthians in chapter 1.

First Corinthians chapter 1, I had a couple verses I was going to show you but we’ll just let that go. Here in 1 Corinthians in chapter 1, look what he says here, when you see there in verse 27, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God hath chosen weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. Base things of the world and things which are despised have God chosen, and things which are not to brain to not things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

No pride. Salvation is of the Lord. But God here when He says about chosen, chosen, chosen. You see in verse 26, you see you’re calling brethren. You see brethren in the Lord, God has chosen different ones for service. But La Look what he says here in verse 30, but of him, of him, are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God get this is made unto us wisdom. So he is our wisdom and righteousness. He is our righteousness. Sanctification, he is our sanctification and redemption.

He did all of that for us. verse 29, that no flesh should glory in its present. That’s similar to Ephesians in chapter 2 and verse 9. Not of works that any man should boast, but also in the Christian life. God wants us to be found faithful, trusting Him, and realizing that He is the one who does the work through us so that we brag on the Lord and that no man, did you know that even after you’re saved, God doesn’t want to give man the glory.

Now when you get to heaven, he says, every man shall receive praise, honor, and glory according to what you’ve done. But while you’re here, we’re supposed to be giving him all the honor and the glory and the praise and so forth because ours will come later. That in verse 31, according as it is written, he that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. be that wants to brag, brag on the Lord. Did you realize we didn’t have the power to bring ourselves into the world and we don’t have the power to keep ourselves into the world?

Can you? You can’t determine all of that. God can take, can stop that little heart from beating just like that. And you’re gone. Now you try to stop it. You’d be surprised. Sometimes we are prideful individuals, filled with pride. And sometimes God has to kind of pull the rug after munders and let us see that we’re not as big and mighty as we think we are.

Ooh, those are hard lessons to learn. But God gives us His righteousness so that no flesh can glory in His sight. Salvation is of the Lord. Look up here. This hand represents you and me, the wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. God says that He loves us. But he hates our sin and our sin separates us from God. So God says that we cannot come into his presence. So the sin has to be paid for and the wages of sin is death and no man is able to deliver himself from this condemnation.

There’s nothing that a man can do to eliminate the sin whereby he can get close to God. So God took the initiative. sin, his son Jesus Christ, into the world because he loves us, hates our sin because our sins separate us from God. So Jesus Christ took the sin, has all put upon him and he died, came back from the dead and said that if you and I would simply believe that he did this for us. If I believe he did it for me, he will save me.

If you believe he did it for you, he will save you. Whosoever believeth should not perish, go to hell, but have everlasting life. And when you believe that, God sees all of your sins as paid. You’re justified. And he puts the robe of righteousness upon you. you are declared righteous in the eyes of God, and you and I are going to heaven, not because of any good work that we have done, but because of the good works that he has done.

We are simply trophies of his grace. Let’s pray, shall we? With his bow nice clothes and no one looking around. If you’re here tonight and never have trust in Christ as your Savior, I believe all of you all have, but just in case, if you never really understood and really put your faith and trust in Christ, I pray that you would do so. There’s no tricks to it, no gimmicks. Just believe that what he did, he did it because he loved you.

He paid for all of your sins. They were imputed to him. When you believe he did it for you, he imputes his righteousness to you. Now that’s pretty good. It’s called substitution. He took my place. And if you’ll trust Christ as your Savior, God said He would save and give eternal life. Would you believe it? And if you will trust Him right now, tonight, I’d like to know, and I’d like to have prayer for you. So the heads by night’s close is anyone else that I guess preached with that made sense to me and I will trust Christ as my Savior tonight.

For Him, once you trust Him, He gives you eternal life and you never have to do it again. He can only give you eternal life once. Is there anyone at all? You that are watching by internet, on the internet there’s a little tab that says, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior tonight. Click it on. I’d love to hear from you. I’d love to know. Father, we thank you so much for all that you’ve done for us, forgiven us the free gift of everlasting life, because no man could ever be saved by his works.

We thank you for the Christ name, amen. Well it’s almost Christmas and we’d like to give every listener a Christmas gift. Just for listening, we’d like to send Dr. Arnold CD on understanding difficult passages of the Bible. No donation is required. compiled on CD, Dr. Arnold’s teachings on difficult passages. For example, does James chapter 2 teach that true faith will produce works? Does 2 Corinthians 5 17 mean that a true believer will no longer desire to sin? These and many other verses are explained in their biblical context so that you can have confidence in the agreement of all the Word of God.

Call Call us today toll free at 1-800-576-3771 or you can write us at 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again no donation is necessary, just your address so that we can send to you this important teaching. God bless you and Merry Christmas and thank you for listening to 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.