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

your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27 and we finished up our son’s school lesson last week with verse 25 and verse 25 says, then answered all the people and said, his blood beyond us and on our children. So now we’re in verse 26, so they have released verabis and they’re going to crucify Jesus. And they cry out crucify Him, crucify Him. You know there’s people that they trying to figure out what they’re going to do with the Lord.

And everything we know about God is through Jesus Christ. The one that created the heavens and the earth comes into the world and look what the creation did to the Creator. It doesn’t seem right. You know, if I was a Creator, I don’t know if I let my creation do that to me. But he must really, must really love the people. And I’ll be speaking on this in the morning service about the gold of everything, you know, for this cause, for this cause, for this cause that they may know God.

Reason, everything happens in our lives so that you may know God. You shall have a problem with this that you may know God. I mean, you name it so that you’ll know God because there’s things God wants you to know and he wants you to learn how to trust him. So he teaches us this. But look what he says in verse 26, then released the Barabbas unto them and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Verse 27, then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered into him the whole band of soldiers and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had planted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and a read in his right hand and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hey, O King of the Jews. And that’s something. Here’s Jesus, creator of heaven and earth in human form.

Never wronged anybody, lived a perfect life, came because he so loved them. He was willing to die to pay for all their sins and look how they treated him. And he had done nothing wrong. They found no cause of any error, no cause of death in him, and yet they did it anyway. And said, let his blood be upon us and upon our children. And he would make this statement here and they planted a crown of thorns to put it on his head.

In verse 30 says, and they spit on him, spit on the Lord. Now if you were God and you had all the power in the world, would you want to send him to the moon? To the moon, remember Ralph Graham, the Tudor Moon Alice Tudor Moon and you think about when somebody says something that we don’t like and hear our feeling how easy it is for us to want to retaliate and this is why the Bible says he opened not his mouth he was led as a lamb to the slaughter and before his years as he was dumb and yet look what they did to him.

They spit on him and they let him put a crown of thorns on his head and I’ve been in Israel and I’ve seen those thorns. They’re big thorns. I mean terrible and they put it on his head and you think that was the end of it. No that wasn’t the end of it because you’ll notice in the very next thing it says here in verse 30, they spit on him and took the read, smote him on the what? On the head, what was on his head?

Crone of thorns. And driving those thorns down into his skin. Don’t you know that he must have been bloody? And this is what they did to him. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him. Now remember, that already discouraged him. That means a caddinine tail. That means that had these leather thongs on it. and it had broken pieces of glass or metal or stone, and they would put it into their back, and then rip it across their back, and then sink it in, and then rip it across.

And they did that 39 times to him. And some people literally died from the scourge. So they had already done that. His back is probably like raw beef and bloody, and then they put a robe on him, and then mocked him. and then noom, and that robe and dries with some of that blood, and then they would rip that off of him. You imagine the pain and suffering that he went through. And it says, they took the robe off from him, put on his own raiment, led him away to crucify him.

Now he hadn’t been crucified yet. This is just what they were doing in some of these trials. And it says in verse 32, And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, him they compelled to bear his cross. And when they were come into a place called Galgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull. Now, this is where we believe this Gordon’s Calvary. Because the Bible says where he was crucified, a garden was nearby.

And the Catholics over there, they have another place where they say it will happen. But majority of people who know the Bible and believe the Bible don’t believe that the Catholics had the right place. We believe that it was where there is literally you can look at it and at the base of it is a bus station and right above it looks just like the face of a skull. And over the one side there is this beautiful garden and there was this Separach over there.

Joseph of Aramath Thea had a stone hewed out with a place for Separach. And that’s what the Bible says took place. But I notice what he says here in verse 33, is to say a place of a skull they gave him vinegar to drink, mingle with gallen when he had tasted the drop he would not drink it. In other words, not just vinegar but bitter herbs in it to make it just really taste terrible. And thus the punishment that he went through, they wouldn’t give him water.

And yet he offered living water to every individual that came to him. He would give him eternal life. Look what he says in verse 35, and they crucified him and parted his garments, casting lots that They might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments among them. And upon my best you did they cast lots. You see in Psalms 22, this is recorded 1,000 years in advance. David talked about Christ being on the cross and what he said when he was on the cross.

So hold your place right here and just look at this very quickly. Psalms 22, 22 Psalm. And how you could read the 22nd Psalm and not believe this is talking about Christ is beyond me. Psalms 22, and just look in verse 1, where it makes a statement that somebody is going to say, I wonder who this is going to be. See there in verse 1 of chapter 22, Psalms, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You ever heard those words before?

said that. Jesus Christ did. This was written a thousand years before he ever came. And so he says down there, how people are going to treat him. He says in verse 6, but I am a worm, no man, a reproach of men, despised of all the people, despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip and they shake their head. So he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him, let him deliver him, sin he delighted in him and you’ll see that in just a little bit where the high priests and the chief priests he came by and they cast us in his teeth.

They said if he’s who he claimed to be let him come down and we’ll believe him. No they ought to believe him because he’s up there. Because he prophesied this is what he’s going to do. And he says down here, and I want you to see this because it’s so important, looking verse 14, this is while he’s hanging on the cross. This is in the Old Testament, thousand years in advance. I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint.

Now they didn’t break his bones, but his bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melt in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potchus. In other words, wouldn’t you have liked to have known how Jesus thought while he was hanging on the cross and what he was going through? He’s telling us. This is how he thought what he’s going through, how he felt, all the agony, the pain, and then everybody forsook him.

All of his disciples forsook him. And he says this in verse 11, be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there’s none to help, none to help.” Then he says in verse 15, my strength is dried up like a potchred and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. Thou hath brought me into the dust of death, for dogs have compass me, which I believe is a reference to the Gentile, the Roman soldiers, because that’s how the Jewish people looked upon them.

For dogs have compass me, the assembly of the wicked having closed me. They pierced my hands in my feet. Any question about who this might be? They pierced my hands in my feet. I may tell all my bones they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my pasture. They’re gambling for his clothes. And the one was the seamless robe that he had and they were gambling at the foot of the cross.

They didn’t want to tear And so there were four soldiers and there’s what are they doing? Why Jesus is on the cross? Playing games. And you think they’re missing the point of who He is and why He came. And yet so much was revealed in advance and here they are fulfilling the very scriptures. It’s told in advance. And He makes a statement here. But be not thou far from me, O Lord.” And then notice what he says down in verse 22, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation, while I praise thee, and I glorify thee.

And then he makes a statement here. In verse 26, the meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek him, your heart shall live forever. That’s eternal security. That’s eternal life. The reason he’s doing what he’s doing is so that people can live forever. Then he also says here in verse 29, all they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship, all they that go down to the does shall bow before him. None can keep alive his own soul.

In other words, everybody’s going to die, but will you live forever once you die? Do you have eternal life? And then notice what he says in verse 31, they shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this. This is what we’re talking about. You know one thing about being a Christian is we get to celebrate Resurrection Sunday every Sunday. Most people they celebrate it once a year, we celebrate it every week because we come together in the first day of the week and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And so He should be precious to each and every one of us. But to declare His righteousness unto a generation of people that shall be born. When Christ died on that cross 2000 years ago, we weren’t even born yet. And yet He died for us. That 2000 years later, we’re still declaring His righteousness unto the people. See, He died and paid for our sins and if we believe on him he gives us his righteousness. His righteousness is what makes us good enough to go to heaven.

I’m going on his, not mine. So anyway, go back here to the book of Matthew in chapter 27. Matthew in chapter 27. And notice what he says here in verse 36, and setting down they watched him there, setting down. So they’re playing games sitting down just watching them. See what’s gonna happen? And look in verse 37 now, and set up over his head his accusation written. This is Jesus the King of the Jews. Now in the other scripture they had a problem with that.

They had a big problem with it. They said right up there he says he is the King of the Jews and he says what I’ve written I’ve written and he wrote it in three languages so that everybody would know that Jesus Christ. He is the King of Kings. In verse 38, then were there two thieves crucified with him. One on the right hand and another on the left. So that’s why we know that Jesus was in the middle. And there’s two thieves, one on each side.

And they that passed by revowed him wagon their heads. This is what we just read in Psalms 22, how that they mocked him and how they shook their heads. And Jesus said, Everybody passes by, shoots the lip out at me. Some little smart comment they gotta make. They’re really cool. I’ve said this before, if that had been me and I was on that cross and they said that, I’d have come down and zapped every one of them and then went back up.

But then of course I’m not the Lord either. I’ll teach you that. Or I’d have pulverized them or something, you know. Phew, yeah. And Jesus says He had the power to call all these angels to come in, deliver Him. There’s a good song called, He could have called 10,000 angels. And one of them would have been enough. They could only do to Him what He allowed them to do. And He allowed them to do to Him whatever they wanted to do.

Why don’t you place and look at this? You ought to see this verse. Look in the book of Acts chapter 1. book of Acts chapter one. Make it chapter two. That’s the first mistake I made this morning. Acts chapter two, and look what he says in verse 22, he says, ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man, approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also known.

Him, being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” God permitted it, but you did it. You did the wrong. See, God will permit you to make wrong decisions, but you did it. the God will allow you. But then there’s consequences for your decisions. But he says whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holding the bed.

In other words, death could not hold him there. He says, I have power to lay my life down and I have power to take it up again. That’s what he did. So going back to Matthew chapter 27, you see these are some of the things that the Bible says this is what’s going to happen to him. So he makes a statement here in verse 39, and they that passed by, reviled him, wagging their heads, shaking their heads, and saying, thou that destroys the temple and build it in three days, save thyself.

In other words, they’re mocking him because of what he said. Because Jesus had told them in chapter 2 of the Gospel of John, destroy this temple and I’ll raise it in three days. Well they thought he was talking about the temple that took 46 years to build, you know, when they came back from the Babylonian captivity. But what temple do you think he was talking about? talking about his body. You destroyed this body, my temple, and in three days I’ll raise it back from the dead.

So he makes a statement in verse 40, if there’ll be the Son of God come down from the cross, that’s what they said to him. If there’ll be the Son of God come down from the cross, Well, that was just the problem because he was the Son of God. That’s why he came was to die to pay for the sins of the world. He couldn’t come down from the cross. If he came down from the cross, nobody would have been saved.

So in order to save the world, he could not save himself. But you see the wisdom of man, if you’re who you claim to be, save yourself. Don’t die. Well, he has to die. And so they nailed him to a cross. Looking verse 41, likewise also the chief priests mocking him with describes in the elders, saying he saved others himself. He cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him.

You think so? They wouldn’t have believed it if he came back. And if he came back from the dead, they wouldn’t have believed it. Now, there were some people that did believe. The Nicodemus is one of those Pharisees that believed on the Lord. And so, he says there in verse 44, the thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his head. say both of them said the same thing. Save yourself and save us. Now somewhere in this little episode, one of those thieves changed his mind.

Somewhere because of something, something changed his mind. Take your Bible and look at this over there in the book of Luke. Hold place right there, but look in Luke chapter 23. In the book of Luke it says here in Luke chapter 23 and look in verse 39 verse 39 because now the question was if you’re who you claim to be, well save yourself and save us and just to look at this look up in verse 35 and the people stood beholding, and the rules also with them derided him, saying he saved others, let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God, and the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar, and saying, if thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself, save thyself.”

Then look in verse 39, and one of the male factors are the criminals of thieves, which were hanged, railed on him, saying, if thou be Christ, save thyself and us.” See that and us now is added in there. But the other answering rebuked him. I wonder why one changed their mind. Something must have been said by the Lord that caused him to understand something. So the only thing I can find is up in verse 34. Then said Jesus’ Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, and they part of this raiment and cast lots.

There has to be something that He said that caused this guy that was on the cross that changed his mind. Forgive them Father for they know not what they do. So that they’ve said we know what we’ve done. We know we deserve to die. See down there in verse 40. So the other answering rebuked the other one does not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation. In other words, don’t you fear God at all? Hey, we’re gonna die.

We’re gonna die. And so in verse 41 and we indeed just leave. In the words we received the do a reward of our deeds. We deserve to die. We’re thieves. This is what we’ve done. But this man, he’s talking to the other thief, had done nothing to miss. He hasn’t done anything wrong. Nobody had proven that Jesus had done anything wrong, said anything wrong. He hadn’t lied. He hadn’t blasphemed. He was really who he claimed to be. One of my asking politics says, what is truth?

Jesus is the truth. He is truth. And so the debate was on, they held mockery of a kangaroo court, and then you have all these things happening while he was upon the cross. Now, notice what he says in verse 42, and he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” So here’s Jesus dying on the cross and he’s as his thief on the cross say something to him.

So you have here a very interesting thing. had one that was dying in sin, one was dying two sin, and one was dying four sin, all three of them. So Jesus Christ was dying four hour sins. The one thief who didn’t believe he was dying in his sin, and Christ says, if you die in your sins, you shall perish. So he did. And one was dying two sin, that means that he believed that Jesus was dying to pay for his sins.

So that he can have as a free gift to go to heaven. You remember what he said? Remember me, Lord, so he knew he was Lord. Remember me when thou comeest into thy kingdom. He believed that he had a kingdom. So he believed that he must be a king. And he also had to believe in the resurrection because he says, when thou comeest into thy kingdom means we know you’re not getting off the cross. You’re going to die. But he believed that he would live again.

And it says, remember me when thou comeest into thy kingdom. And if you want to hear a deathbed prayer, you know, this is it. And what did Jesus say to him? Today shall now be with me in paradise. Jesus went to paradise that very day. She paradise at that time was in the heart of the earth. Jesus didn’t go down to hell and suffer and pay for our sins. Jesus paid for our sins on the cross. And he went to the place of paradise and he led captivity captive.

So when he came back from the dead after his resurrection, many people came back from the dead. So Jesus Christ was in paradise that very day. Now think about this thief on the cross. Did he have to promise God that he would go to church from now on? No. I mean, he’s nailed to a cross. Did the thief on the cross have to promise to give money? He made no promises. Did he have to say, I promise that I’m going to turn from my sins and not be bad anymore?

He didn’t have to do that. Did he have to promise how he was going to live? He didn’t have to do that. He didn’t have to promise God to be the Lord and the Master of his life. He didn’t have to promise anything. He couldn’t promise to do anything, stop anything, join anything. He’s nailed to a cross. Did you know that every person in the world that’s ever saved or all saved the same way? By putting your faith in Christ.

That’s all he did. He believed Jesus was who he claimed to be and would do what he promised to do. Did Jesus promise that that man would be with him in paradise? And yet he did not do anything. One man goes to heaven, one man goes to hell. And what did the one thief do that gets to go to paradise? He believed. He believed that Jesus was who he claimed to be and that he would do what he promised he would do.

That’s the same thing we teach today. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh? That he died on the cross, paid for your sins and will give you as a free gift everlasting life? And if you’ll believe that, God said he would save you and you get to go to heaven when you die. no different from that man on the cross. Have you heard about Bibleline Institute, the online Bible College of Bibleline Ministries? There are 11 different Bible College courses to choose from, and for this month we’d like to give you a free enrollment to the class Personal Evangelism taught by Dr.

Arnold. For your gift to Bibleline Ministries in any amount, you’ll have full use of the 10-hour course, which you can access whenever you like, as often as you’d like, it’s online. The classes include video instruction, lecture notes, quizzes, and if you’d like to send a quiz, you can submit it. Again, it’s all online. When you send in your gift, please include your email address and will enroll you in the class personal evangelism. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634.

Again, don’t forget to include your email address or contact information. God bless you and thank you again for supporting By the Line. 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. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.