This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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. Recep Tayyip Korna We just 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.

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 two of the Gospel of John destroyed 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? He’s 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 thou be the son of God come down from the cross, that’s what they said to him.

If thou 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 at 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 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 name, 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. because of something something changed his mind. Take your Bible look at this over there in the book of Luke.

Hold your 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 there be the king of the Jews saved thyself. Saved 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 his mind. Something must have been said by the Lord that caused him to understand something.

And so the only thing I can find is up here 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. 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 going to die. We’re going to die. And so in verse 41, and we indeed just leave. In the words, we recede the dewy word 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 him. One of them asked him, Pilate, it 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. You had one that was dying in sin, one was dying to sin, and one was dying for sin. All three of them. So Jesus Christ was dying for our sins. The one thief who didn’t believe, he was dying in his sins.

And Christ says, if you die in your sins, you shall perish. So he did. And one was dying to sin, that means that he believed that Jesus was dying to pay for his sins so that he could 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. If you want 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.

See, 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 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, It’s no different from that men on the cross. That’s why I do not and nobody should try to get people to promise I’m not gonna be bad anymore. I turn from all of my sins. You don’t have to do that. Why? You’re a hypocrite. You’ll do it anyway. You don’t have to promise how you’re going to live because that means that God can’t save you unless you live right.

So who’s Savior? You are God. You can’t even help save yourself. God doesn’t want your help. God cannot save anybody who’s trying to save themselves. He can only save those who stop trying to work their way to heaven and trust him as their Savior. That is so simple and so easy to understand. So anyway, go back to the Matthew back to Matthew. And you’ll notice in Matthew and says this in verse 14. 3, He trusted in God. Let him deliver him now.

If he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God.” See, they knew what he claimed to be. They just didn’t believe he was really who he claimed to be. The thieves also, which were crucified with him cast the same in his table. Now in verse 45, down from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land. See their days started to say at six o’clock in the morning. So from six o’clock in the morning six hours would have put it at noon.

And so from noon six hours until nine would be three o’clock in the afternoon. So from 12 to three o’clock it was dark upon the earth. Remember Jesus told him says, now when you put me on the cross my Father will tell you who I am. He says, I in the light of the world.” They said, you’re not the light of the world. He says, when you put them on the cross, my father will tell you who I am.

So while he was on that cross, those three hours the earth went dark. God says, that’s my son. That’s my son. But it was dark for those three hours. And they said, Jesus cried with the loud boys. He lied, he lied, he lied, he said, of the Lamb of Sebastian. Which means to say, my God, my God, why has Thou forsaken me? So when all the sins of all the world were placed upon Christ, God smit His own Son.

Now hold your place right here and turn to the book of Isaiah chapter 53, Isaiah and chapter 53. When you go back to the Old Testament and you see something that was written so many years in advance. It amazes you how accurate it is. Man could not have wrote this. So you have here in Isaiah 53 in verse 1, it’s like reading the newspaper before the events take place. You see, when we get the newspaper, it’s always about what has already happened, right?

Well, the Bible tells you what’s going to take place and writes it in advance. So he starts off in verse 1, he says, who have believed our report. And the home is the arm of the Lord revealed. The arm of the Lord is Christ. See in the previous chapter, you’ll see there in verse 10 of chapter 52, the Lord hath made bear his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

The arm of the Lord, see it says it in such a way the arm of the Lord going to be revealed. Well the arm of the Lord is Christ. He’s come into the world and Lord who shall believe this report and the whom is the arm of the Lord revealed. And then look what he says, for he shall grow up before him as a pender plant. This one that God’s going to send into the world. He’s coming like an acorn.

He’s coming as a tender plant and he’s going to be born into this world. And he’s going to grow up and he’s going to be the man. That’s why the Bible refers to him over and over again as the branch of the Lord. He’s the branch of the Lord. So he says in verse two, for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor combliness. When we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

Now look at the description. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. Here was a perfect individual, wrong nobody, Kensland comes into the world and he just happen to be somebody who could walk on water and forgive sins and heal the death of blind and the dumb and raise people even from the dead and make the land to walk. Provide fish sandwiches for everybody.

He could do all of those things. And it says, and we hid as it were our faces from like, we don’t want nothing to do with this man. We don’t want nothing to do with him. How would you like, you ever have the feeling of rejection? Have you ever had people reject you and you didn’t want it to happen. You loved them but they reject you. I remember when I was a little kid I had a girlfriend I liked her but she didn’t know I was alive.

I just thought you know if I like her she posed like me back you know. It didn’t work that way. Years later years later my wife and I we moved to Georgia and I said honey I want to go by and see this girlfriend that I used to have when I was in the second grade. Still remember her name. So Betty went with me and we went to this house and somebody told me this is where she lived. Back in those days she was a little rich kid.

I was a little poor kid. So I just wanted to see her. So we walked up to the door and knocked the door and this lady come to the door and she still looked a little bit like she did when she was a little kid. But now she’s married and got kids and so forth and I introduced her to my wife and I said, Do you remember I was in your second grade with you? She says, no, I don’t remember you.

I said, no, Yankee, Yankee? No. I said, we were king and queen in the classroom, and we went to the thing. OK. I wanted to slap her jaws. I mean, probably for 10 years, I carried a torch for the girl and had her in it and haven’t seen her in all those years. But time goes on and, yeah, we didn’t know who I was. He said, do you know who I am? She gave me a phrase that she don’t really care who I am.

So anyway, we enjoy talking to each other and we left. So I guess you could say the flame had gone out, or the flame that never was. Thanks, some things were funny. But he says that we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God. Look what he says there in that verse three. We hid as it were our faces from it. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he had borne our grief, carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God in him.

We thought he deserves to die when he came. You deserve to die and yet he hadn’t done anything. We did not esteem him as, look, do you know who he is? This is the Lord. This is the Lord. Go back to Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27 in verse 47 when they heard him say, Eli, Eli, they thought, hey, he’s calling Elijah. Let’s see if Elijah shows up. And so verse 48, and straight away one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a read and gave them the drink.

The rest said, let me, let us see see whether Elijah is going to come and save him. Jesus when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost, and Jesus died. Jesus died and paid for the sins of the whole world. And many people don’t really understand what resurrection sin is all about. And yet we get to celebrate it every week because we know he came back from the dead on the first day of the week and we celebrate that.

That’s why we come together in the first day of the week. And the Bible says in the Corinthians in chapter 16, let every man lay by him in store as God is prospered him on the first day of the week. And the disciples after the resurrection, they had the Lord meet with them on the first day of the week. And then a week later, he met with them again on the first day of the week. So the first day of the week, we believe it’s the Lord’s Day.

And so we’re thankful for that. Now in verse I just got 51, I want to show you this. Verse 51, and behold, the veil of the temple was ran into from the top to the bottom. Now get this. They say that this veil was about this thick. Made out of a camel’s hair and so forth like that. It was really tough. They said they could put, you know, horses and then you could not tear this thing apart. And the Bible says that here’s this veil that separates from the holy place and the holy of holies.

And the holy of holies is where you had the Ark of the Covenant. And then you had in the holy place, you had the table of show bread, and the candle state, and so on. And so there’s this veil that the high priest would go in once a year and offer sacrifice for the sins of the people. But you couldn’t go into the presence of God. They said that they would tie a rope around the high priest when it goes in, in case God didn’t accept it, you may have to drag him out, because he didn’t want to go in there.

And you couldn’t touch that arc of the covenant because it would shoot you through. In other words, it’s like radioactive. It would die. And so at times in the Bible, it talks about people who touched him, they died automatically. So it was a close thing. But that’s where the Chicano glory would come and rest over the mercy seat. And it would be, this is the presence of God. This is where God would meet with His people, but not everybody had access to God.

So when Christ died on the cross, it was like He took the sins of the world upon Himself and His body was torn for us. In other words, His body was like the veil in the temple and that veil was rent from top to the bottom. In other words, the way into the presence of God is not made open. And you read that in the book of Ephesians in chapter two, how that this wall of separation has been opened up.

So he makes a statement here in verse 51, and behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom, knowing that man didn’t do it. The earth did quake, the rocks rent, the graves were opened. And this is a part of scripture that most people never see. The graves were open and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared under many.

Now wouldn’t that knock your socks off? Here’s people that have been dead. And there’s a nerve quay. Graves are open and people coming up out of the graves and walking in the streets of Jerusalem. Mom, you died 30 years ago. I would love to have recorded some of the, can you imagine what it must have been like to have been there and saw something like that? But very soon do you hear somebody talk about these two verses, but this is, is that in your Bible?

Or did I make that up? that people came out of the graves after Jesus’ resurrection and walked and appeared on the minion, went into the holy city. You know, I would think, you know, maybe there’s more to this than meets the eye. And verse 54, now when the centurion, the Roman, and they that were with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake and those things which were done, they feared greatly saying, Truly, this was the Son of God. I remember years ago they had this one movie made, and I remember at the end of it, there’s John Wayne standing there and they said, truly, this was the Son of God.

Anybody remember seeing that? John Wayne. So you know it had to be true. He’s the All-American man. And I saw he was in a movie. John Wayne was standing there. He was a Roman soldier and he looks up and he says, truly, this was the Son of God. I think it was a highlight of the whole movie. I forgot the name of the movie. I don’t remember that. Anybody remember? Greatest story ever told? All right, it was a long time ago.

But anyway, it says here, this was the Son of God and many women were there beholding a far off. There’s a song that my son sings sometimes called Behold the Lamb. So these people that are standing around Beholding the Lamb. This is the Lamb that came into the world. Behold, the Lamb of God, which take it the way the sin of the world. This was the Lamb that John the Baptist was talking about, and the Lamb was crucified. And so there you have it.

We’ll talk more next Sunday morning. All right. I want you to look up here. This hand represents you and me and this wall that represents sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us. Now he hates our sin, but he loves us. But for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in hell. But God loves us, wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven we have to be perfect as righteous as God.

And none of us are perfect. We’ve all sinned and come short of God’s perfection because of sin, see we can’t get in. And God says, you cannot save yourself. You’re already condemned. There’s nothing you can do to remove yourself from the condemnation. This end represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh. He came into this world. Why? Because He loves us. He hates our sin, but He loves us. So what did He do to prove that He loved us?

What if He said, well, I love you, but He didn’t do anything about it? Love made Him do something. So He took all of our sins and paid for it. This showed us how much He loved us. We’d have to pay Him back. He paid for our sins, and we’d even ask Him to. There’s no guarantee that we would even believe it. But it made it possible for everybody to have eternal life. And so God says He paid for our sins and came back from the dead.

And if we would believe He did it for us, He would put that payment to our account, and we’d go to heaven on what Christ did for us. If you’ve never trusted Christ, I urge you to trust Him. Let’s pray, shall we? But headbound, nice clothes, no one looking around. Right now in the quietness of this moment, would you just talk to the Lord and say, Lord, I know I’m a sinner and I believe Christ died. I believe He paid for my sins.

And I’m going to trust Him and Him alone is my only hope of going to Heaven. And if you’ll trust Him, God said He would save you, give you eternal life. Would you trust Him? If you will, I’d like to pray for you. for you. It would just slip you in a very quick limb, put it right back down. Am I going to have you forward right where you’re sitting? That made sense to me. But your head is still bowed and eyes closed.

And you have what I spoke on this morning. You that already know the Lord. Some of you have already made up your decision. But you that haven’t, and you’re not sure about what God wants you, would you pray about it? Would you do what somebody ask me to do, Yankee, would you just pray about it? Would you pray to the Lord, Lord, do you want me to come to Bible College? Do you want me to take a night class?

What do you want me to do? What does God want you to do concerning your finances? Are you really supporting the Lord’s work the way you should, that you have no guilt that you’re failing the Lord? I don’t know. I never look at the books. I don’t care who gives what, but I’m talking about one day we’ll have to give an account of the Lord. But this morning you say, yes, I want God to live for my life and I will pray about it.

Would you just let me hand it very quickly and put it right back down and say, well, what at all? Yeah, well, at all. If you’ve already made up your decision, I pray this in the Lord’s favor. Our Father, we thank You so much for all You’ve done for us. Let’s see each one here and we pray Lord that those that are watching by Internet would also see and hear and understand, trust your Savior and let us know by just clicking on the computer.

We commit this day to you. Thank you for all you’ve done. Bless us in Christ and we pray. Amen. 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 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 4081 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.