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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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Here in the book of Numbers, in chapter 21, is a story that is used to teach the simplicity of the gospel. I want you to see it in verse five and the people speak against God and against Moses. Wherefore have He brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water and our soul loatheth this light bread. In other words God was feeding them with manna that came down from heaven, giving them bread they didn’t have to work for.

Here’s about two million people that have come out of captivity out of Egypt, cross the Red Sea into the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. But lo and behold, because of twelve men or ten men that went into the land to spy it out, came back with an evil report, now the children of Israel have got to wonder for forty years in the wilderness, all because they would not believe God and so the Lord says you’re gonna die in the wilderness.

Most of them know they’ll never get into the land of promise. Would that be a heartbreaker? Know that they’ll never get into the land that flows with milk and honey. Know that they’re gonna live in a desert, walk for 40 years in a desert and die in a desert. Not much future in that is earth. Not much hope there. Verse 6 and the Lord and fiery serpents among the people. And they bit the people and much people of Israel died.

Therefore the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned and we have spoken against the Lord and against the prey unto the Lord that he will take away the serpents from us and Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent. Set it on a pole and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when he look upon it shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had been any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

And if he didn’t, it died. So simple. The people murmuring, complaining God’s insertments among the people. Snakes. They bit the people, poisonous snakes. The people were dying. So they cried out to Moses. We’ve sinned. God says, make us a serpent out of brass and put it up on a pole and lift it up. And everybody that looks at that, if they’ve been bitten, they will. It didn’t matter how big the snake was at Biddham. It didn’t make any difference on how much damage was done by the snake when he bit them.

If they were bitten, they would die. They didn’t matter if they were old or if they were young. Nothing else mattered. All they had to do was look at the brazen serpent and they would live. They didn’t have to look and keep looking, they just had to look. Look at it and they’d live. Isn’t that a simple illustration? God uses the simplicity of something like that to teach. People thought about the greatest news in all the world. I want you to take your Bible look all the way over to the gospel of John in chapter 3.

You have Matthew, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but in the book of John and chapter 3. Look there in John in chapter 3 when Nicodemus had come to Christ at night. He didn’t have all the answers. Christ told him that he had to be born again and he didn’t understand how. So he goes through and explains to him what it means to be born again. He says you have to have a new birth born of the Spirit. And down there in verse 13 he says, and no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven.

Even the Son of Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the the Son of Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the way of the world. the wilderness using an illustration that we just read just a moment ago as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up but in the Old Testament in the book of Numbers when they lifted up the serpent what did the people have to do in order to be healed?

Just look there was nothing for them to perform. All they had to do is look and they’d live. So simple. Christ says, if the Son of Man be lifted up, He said, I’ll draw all men unto me. All we have to do is look and live. Look to Christ and you can live. You see, all of us have been bitten by the serpent to devil himself. Every one of us are going to die. We’ve got poison in our system.

We’ve got sin in our bodies. And sin has caused a reaction in our bodies. We don’t have clear judgment anymore. We can’t think straight. We have the poison of snake in our bodies. And that’s why we say the mean, ugly things that we do. We have been bitten. Every person born into this world needs deliverance. We’re all going to die. And God says you can live. But this living is not just talking about a little extension of your life here.

He’s talking about where you could have eternal life, not temporary life, not just another five years, not another 10 years, not another 20 years, but eternal life. See what he says there in verse 15, that who so ever believe it than him should not perish but have eternal life. See verse 15 goes with verse 14. Look at it again. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever be leave it in Him should not perish.

By believing in Him, we won’t perish. We won’t go to hell. But have everlasting life, isn’t it simple? So He uses a very simple story in the Old Testament to help explain the gospel to an individual. Knowing that if you believe this, you will never die, never die, never die. All that talking about physical death, you’ll never die as far as being separated from God. Death means separation. You’ll never have spiritual death, where you’ll be spiritually separated from God for all eternity in a literal fire burning hell.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of 2 Kings, chapter five. I want to just get to you very briefly. Five big mistakes, five big blunders that most people make. And most of us in this room have made some of these decisions, big blunders. There’s a lot of people that are still making these big mistakes. I want you to follow me from verse 1. Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master.

honorable because by him the Lord had given deliverance on the Syria. He was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid. And she waited on Naaman’s wife, and she said unto her mistress, Would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in and told his Lord sin, thus and thus said the homemade that is of the land of Israel.

And the king of Syria said, go to, go and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of ramen. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, now when this letter is coming to thee, behold, I have, there with, sent name in my servant to thee that thou mayeth recover him of his leprosy. And he came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter that he read his clothes and he said, am I God to kill and make alive, that this man does send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy.

Wherefore consider I pray you and see how he seeketh the quarrel against me? And it was so when Elisha the men of God had heard that the king of Israel had written his clothes that he sent to the king saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes, let him come now to me? And he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.

And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, go in Washington, Jordan seven times. And I flesh, I’ll come again to thee, and I shall be clean. But Naaman was rough, and went away and said, Behold, I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord as God, strike his hand over the place and recover the leper. Are not Abena and Farba, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?

May I not washing them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage, and his servant came near and spaken to him, and said, My Father, if the prophet had bid they do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather than when he saith to thee wash and be clean? Then when he down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

Tremendous story, great story, but there were also five big mistakes that were made in this simple little story. Now, Naaman was a leper, but he was a great general, a great warrior, a man of valor, the Bible says, but a leper. That means he was incurable. He had leprosy, and leprosy would eventually take his life. Well, of course, no man wants to die. Everybody wants to live. Everybody’s looking for a cure who wants to die of cancer. If I had a cure for cancer, I bet people would line up in order to get the cure.

Well, I have a cure for the sins of people, for the problem that people have and why they’re going to hell and they can have eternal life and know they’re going to heaven. But one of the biggest things in Mays was, if you’ll look there, it says he offered money for such a thing. And you notice there in verse 5, and the king of Syria said, go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel and he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of Raymond.

What did he expect to do? What did he think he was going to have to do? He was under the impression he’s going to have to buy his healing. He’s going to have to pay for it. He’s going to have to give something for it. One of the biggest blunders that we have among people today is that because when they’re ignorant of the righteousness of God, they go about trying to establish their own righteousness and therefore have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

There’s people who are trying to think they have to pay God something. They’ve got to give God something. Many people think they’ve got to change their life in order for God to save them, and that’s not true. They think they’ve got to stop some of their bad things so that they’ll be good enough for God to save. That’s not true. You don’t have to give money. There’s people today that are going to church trying to buy salvation. There’s church people who join churches and give money trying to earn their salvation.

They’re trying to pay something. That’s one of the biggest blunders that people have. Why? Because it can’t be bought. You can’t earn it. You cannot buy it. It is free what God can do. The next thing I want you to see there in verse 6, he went to the wrong person. Remember the little maid said to the the prophet. See there in verse 3, and she said unto her mistress would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria.

Well the king of Israel is a high and mighty man. So what did they King of Syria want to do? Send him to the king. See there in verse six, and he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is coming to thee, behold, I have there with sent name on my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. She didn’t say send him to the king. She says, He just sent him to the prophet, not the king.

He went to the wrong person. I remember just recently listen to an individual. Talking about God is Allah. I’m sorry. Allah is not God. Jehovah is God. The only true living God is the God of Israel. And his name is Jehovah. There is no other God. And he has a name, and he’s not known by all these other names. The other names is a different God. And many people go to the wrong God. Can you go to the wrong churches?

Can you listen to the wrong person? Tell them you the wrong thing about how to get to heaven. That’s why the lost people today don’t really understand how to get to heaven because so many churches and so many preachers are all saying different things. If all the churches and all the preachers were of God, shouldn’t they all teach the same thing? Yes they should. All preachers should teach the same truth from the same book. If the Bible is not in contradiction and it’s not, why then are are preachers in contradiction of each other.

They should not be. All preachers are not automatically right just because they’re the preacher. That’s why I want you to bring a Bible. That’s why I want you to study the book. Because the preacher isn’t God. The preacher makes mistakes. The preacher says things that are wrong. That’s why you need to go by the book and look at the chapter and the verse and make sure it says what he says it says, otherwise you can find yourself expecting something that a man can’t deliver.

He went to see the king and he says to the king, I want you to that thou may have recovered him of liberty and the king got mad. Why did the king get mad? He didn’t have any power. He didn’t have it. The Bible says there’s false teachers and false prophets today. He says there are clouds without water, without water. It means they’re wells, but they’re dry. There’s nothing there. The Bible is a living book, and it is a well that springs up into everlasting life.

You see, you have to hear truth from somebody who can get into the well and bring up the living water so that people can understand it, and it’s clear and on a level that they can perceive. He says in verse 7, it came to pass when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and he says, Am I God? Am I God? You see, if Jesus Christ is the only one that can save, well then the preacher can’t save you.

He’s not God. The preacher cannot forgive your sins. He’s not God. The so-called father today of other religions when they call some man their father. He’s not their father. He can’t save them. He didn’t bring them into the world. He didn’t begot them. He didn’t father them. He’s not their father. God says, no man, your father, upon the earth. Now, you’re not talking about your earthly father that you have. He says, only one father, and that’s God. He said, don’t you call somebody else?

They’re not God. He said, I’m God. And I’m sure you know of people who do such a thing. I want you to look there in verse 9. In verse 9, he had gone to the wrong place. He didn’t get far enough at the door so close and yet so far away. When you think of how close some people get, they can even come to church and listen and hear the Bible. And yet be so close and still never trust Christ’s Savior.

They hear that they’re a sinner. They hear that Christ died, paid for the sin, came back from the dead. They hear all of that. And they know that if they trust Christ’s Savior, they’ll have eternal life and they’re gonna do it someday. And the road to hell is paid with intentions. They’re always in 10 too. Nobody intends to go to hell. They always intend to do right. Just like I know Christians. They know that they have eternal life. They’re gonna go to heaven when they die.

They know that. They know they should serve the Lord. And they’re going to one day. One day I’m gonna get right. One day I’m gonna really start serving God the way I should. One day I’m gonna start giving. One day I’m gonna start being favored. One day I’m gonna start going to Sunday school. I’m gonna start going to Sunday. I’m gonna start going. One day I’m gonna start doing all those things. I know I’m fooling, but not now.

All you have is now. Always do right now. But he says you’re in verse nine. So, Naaman came with his horses and with his chairs and stood at the door of the house of Elijah. And Elijah wouldn’t go see him. Elijah wouldn’t even go to the door. And he was mad about that. You see, I want you to notice in verse 11, he made the statement, I thought that he surely would have come out to me. and stand and call on the name of his God and strike his hand over the place and heal me from my leprosy.

Here’s a man name him. He’s a mighty man in his country, but get this. Elisha didn’t even get up and go to the door. Isn’t that a slap in his face? In other words, you have to humble yourself and realize you’re nothing. You’re nothing. God says come as a child. Come as a child with childlike faith. With nothing in your hands that you can bring, you can’t grow it over look who I am. God, you ought to save me because look who I am.

God says you are a center indeed, deserve to go to hell and that’s the truth. God doesn’t save something because of the look who they are. Everybody gets saved the same way by faith in Jesus Christ. I am saved the same way these Old Testament saints were saved. I’m saved the same way these New Testament saints are saved. I have been saved the same way every man has been saved through the process of time. All of us in this room have all been saved exactly the same way.

We trusted Christ as our Savior and Him alone, or none of us are saved. But we all get saved the same way by grace. No man has ever earned his salvation. No man has ever worked his way to heaven. God never saved any man because of who he is. God has never saved any man because of what he’s done, God’s never saved any man because of his accomplishments in life. God has never saved any man because of those things.

Every man’s been saved the same way because he humbled himself as a sinner to an Almighty God and trusted Christ as a Savior. That’s how simple it really is. But everybody thinks it’s got to be a different way. You see one of his problems that he used the wrong prescription. You see in verse 11 when it makes the statement, but Naaman was wrought at me, he was mad and angry, very upset. And went away and said, Behold, I thought, I used to try to teach people how to give the gospel.

And I says, when you give the gospel, always tell them what you thought, or what you found out in, what you did. I thought that a man would go to heaven because he was good enough. I thought a man had to live right in order to go to heaven. I really did. I thought a man had to keep the 10 commandments and obey the golden rule to go to heaven. That’s what I thought. I thought good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell.

Well, that’s what I thought. I thought wrong. I found out that, no, no, that was true. I found out that God saves a man by grace. Without him earning it, without working for it. By grace are you saved through faith. When I found that out, I did it. I trusted the Christ as my savior. Well, he thought something that wasn’t true. He thought it was going to be a different way. And it wasn’t that way. And the Lord says in verse 10, Elijah sent a messenger unto him, saying, go and wash in Jordan seven times.

And you’ll be healed. Go wash in Jordan seven times. That’s not the way Naaman had it pictured. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be done. Well, what did he want to do? He said, why should I go and wash in Jordan? The rivers and Damascus are a lot cleaner than that river. So he was mad about that. Do you believe that he came with the right attitude?

Do you think he was a submissive spirit? Or he seems beyond the argument of side, like he’s looking for trouble. And yet he has leprosy and he’s dying. And yet he can be healed. But you see, God made it so simple. It was so simple what he had to do. But he says, if God had told you to do some great thing, you’d have done that. Some people would rather stand on their heads, spit wood nickels, than to simply just trust you.

That’s all I got to do. That’s all I got to do. That’s all you can do. You mean I don’t have to do anything? No, you don’t have to do anything else. I don’t have to join the church. No, I don’t have to be baptized to go to heaven. No, no, you don’t. I don’t have to change my life to go to heaven. No, no, you don’t. I don’t have to quit my sins to go to heaven. No, no, no, you don’t.

No, you don’t. Well, I always thought, no, you thought wrong. That’s not the way it is. It’s simple. He had the wrong passion because you notice it says he went away in a rage. and went away. He came so close, so close to missing out on a healing that could have taken place and he turned and he went away. And that’s when he says in verse 13, and his servants came near and spake on him and said, My Father, if the prophet, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?

How much rather than when he say after the wash and be cleaned? That’s too easy. It’s got to be harder than that. It’s got to be more complicated than that. Where did preachers get the idea they’re supposed to go into all the world and make it hard for people to understand how to go to heaven? Who gave them that authority to change his message? God made it simple. He made it clear. And nobody has a right to mess with it.

So if we make it simple where people can easily identify, that’s so easy to understand. They say, oh, you preach that easy-believism. What do you preach? Hard-believism? Of course, it’s supposed to be easy. God says even for a child that a child can understand it. Salvation is a gift. It is totally free. Look up here very quickly. This hand represents you and me and this wall of represents sin. We all have sin upon us, but God loves us. And He hates this sin.

And the pay for that is eternal separation from God and hell. Now to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God. And none of us are perfect. We’re all sinners. God says that we cannot save ourselves. That’s why we need to be saved. This hand represents Jesus Christ. God in the flesh, He came into the world because He loves us. He hates our sin because our sin separates us from Him. So he took the sin, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead.

And God said, if we’ll believe that he did that for us, he would put this payment to our account, and we would go to heaven on what Christ did for us. Salvation is a gift. Remember this, Jesus is the person of salvation. He is the place of salvation at the cross. And the blood is the prescription for our salvation. There is no other way. God made it clear, made it very simple. you trust Him as your Savior, you have as a free gift ever lasting life.

Let’s pray, Shallelujah. Well it’s a new month and that means a new offer to those who support Bibleline. And this month we have something really special for you, the brand new book by Greg Steer, the founder of Dare to Share Ministries called Gospelize. What a fabulous book written about the model for evangelism according to theCategory. Greg is a way of teaching some profound truths in simple and easy to understand ways with practical examples that you can use immediately. I could not put the book down and when I finished it, I stopped everyone on the highway and tell them of the free gift of salvation and this life-changing book is yours for a gift to Bibleline in any amount.

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. live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.